May Movies Part 3: The Wedding Banquet & A Nice Indian Boy

Want a great way to either celebrate the end of AAPI Month or the beginning of Pride Month? Watch two cute movies about queer Asians getting married!

The Wedding Banquet: Written by James Schamus and Andrew Ahn (who also directed), based on the 1993 Ang Lee movie of the same name, this is a movie about two gay couples who are close friends and are about to become a lot closer. Lee and Angela (Lily Gladstone and Kelly Marie Tran) are trying to have a baby via IVF and facing biological and financial challenges. Meanwhile, Chris and Min (Bowen Yang and Han Gi-chan) have been together for years but still haven't made a solid commitment. Min is from a rich, traditional Korean family, and while he has been in the US all this time on a student visa, it's about to expire, so his conservative grandfather is threatening to cut him off from his trust fund unless he joins the family business. Min initially proposes to Chris, but for reasons, everyone decides it would be a better idea for him to marry Angela instead. It's convoluted, but it all makes sense. Kinda.

Youn Yuh-jung plays Min's grandmother and delivers a standout performance as an older Korean woman who has always known her grandson is gay and will now try to help him out of his predicament. A lot of hijinks and misunderstandings ensue, but you can rest assured that at the end of the day, this is a sweet tale about found family and how queer friends can come together to support each other. It's a charming movie with a great cast, and while it's fairly predictable, it's a nice, gentle watch, particularly if you have been watching nothing but gory action movies for the past month.

A Nice Indian Boy: Directed by Roshan Sethi and written by Eric Randall and Madhuri Shekar, who adapted it from Shekar's play, this is a cute little love story about what happens when a lonely Indian-American man named Naveen (Karan Soni) falls in love with a white man named Jay (Jonathan Groff) and has to introduce him to his parents. Jay was a foster kid who was adopted by an older Indian couple, so he is well-versed in Indian culture, but he is still white, which comes as a shock to Naveen's parents (played by the delightful Zarna Garg and Harish Patel), who were expecting Naveen to bring home "a nice Indian boy" after he told them that he met Jay at the Hindu temple. Oops.

There's not much plot here, but it's a heartfelt romance that delves into culture clashes, family dynamics, and Bollywood. It also astutely comments on the differences in Asian families between mothers and fathers - Naveen's dad is very uncomfortable discussing his son's sexuality, while his mom watches queer shows on TV in an effort to keep up with her son's life. I was surprised that Naveen was even out to his parents to begin with, but it's a half-hearted coming out, where he just told them he was gay, and then never discussed his life with them after that. That really tracks for most immigrant children. There's also a great parallel with his sister Arundhati (the lovely Sunita Mani), who was a good Indian daughter who had an arranged marriage and is now annoyed at all the acceptance and leeway her brother is getting from their parents. This movie is nothing revolutionary, but it will certainly bring a smile to your face, and sometimes, that's all you need.