Youn Yuh-Jung And Han Gi-Chan Redefine Family In ‘The Wedding Banquet’

It’s a question actor Han Gi-chan has answered more than once during interviews for the feel-good rom-com The Wedding Banquet. What was it like working with screen icon and Oscar winner Youn Yuh-jung? And on his very first film? When he first saw her name on the cast list, he admits, he was sure it wasn’t real.

“But it really happened to be her on the filming set,” said Han with a smile. “And, oh, I could learn so much from her. For example, her facial expressions exactly tell a story, even when she doesn’t speak a line. Through them we can tell there’s a story inside her.”

Although Youn has won multiple international awards during her 60-year acting career, she looks away when anyone refers to her as a legend. However, she looks up and laughs when Han shares an anecdote about one of their early encounters. When the actors first met up with director Andrew Ahn and the film’s cinematographer, she wasted no time in testing Han’s acting skills.

“The instant the door opened she told me at that moment let’s read lines,” said Han. “Without saying who I am, nice to meet you and blah, blah, blah. I was actually freaking out, but pretended not to. I don’t know if you really noticed, but I was shaking.”

Youn smiled at his story.

“I was planning to just test him, to see if he’s ready or not,” she said. “So as soon as he gets into the room I said, okay, let’s go through the lines. And he was ready. So I’m grateful and I was very proud of him because he didn’t stutter or whatever. Where should I start, he said, or something like that? He just threw out the line for me, so I was sure. Well, he’s ready.”

In the film Han plays Min, a talented Korean fabric artist, and Youn plays his grandmother. Min has attended school in the U.S. for a few years and his grandmother wants him to get serious about joining the family company. What Min is reluctant to tell his grandmother is that he’s in love with Chris, played by Bowen Yang, and wants to marry him. Given his grandfather’s negative views on homosexuality, Min has not yet discussed being gay with his grandmother. He’s worried that his grandfather might cut him off. He decides instead to arrange a sham marriage with a gay female friend, Angela, played by Kelly Marie Tran. In exchange for Angela’s participation he will pay for a round of IVF for her girlfriend, Lee, played by Lily Gladstone. However, Min’s grandmother insists on meeting his bride-to-be and suggests they hold a traditional ceremony. Initially, Youn wasn’t sure she wanted to do the film.

“After Minari, I just promised myself, okay, I’m not going to do any more independent movies,” said Youn. “I’m an old lady. I need to be spoiled, not do harsh work like this. Well, I got the script from Andrew’s friend and then I told him no.”

However, her oldest son, who also knows the director, eventually convinced her.

“He said why don’t you do it. If you say no to him, I know him, he will cry,” said Youn with a laugh. “Please do it. Okay, okay. I’ll do it. So that’s why I did that. It was a family decision.”

The Wedding Banquet is a remake of the 1993 film by Ang Lee, but a lot has changed since then. Same sex marriage is legal for a start, so Ahn worked with one of the original writers, James Schamus, to update the story. Once Youn agreed to be in the film they fleshed out her character.

‘Actually I was supposed to be Min’s mother, but I found out that he’s 26 or something,” said Youn. “So I told him, no, I cannot be his mother. I should be his grandmother. Then he was worried about how long ago the parents passed away, things like that. I said, never mind that, I think it will give you more layers. And then a grandma’s love is different from your parents’ love. I experienced it. So, I shared my personal story with him and then we almost built this character together between Andrew and me.”

Youn briefly lived in the U.S, during the late 70s, so she not only speaks English, but manages to be quite funny in a subtly ironic way. Han on the other hand is surprisingly fluent even though he never lived in an English-speaking country.

“I was shocked when he first arrived in Vancouver and he spoke fluent English,” said Youn. “So I said, were you studying in Canada or America? And he said, no, this is my first time visiting a Western country.”

Han learned English from children’s TV shows and books.

“Since it’s my first time acting in English, I thought it would be difficult but it actually turned out to be very comfortable because I’m really used to the language,” said Han. “When I was young, I was growing up between Sesame Street and the Magic School Bus which American children were growing up with. So I really love those books. Also, fantasy stories like Magic Tree House. I love those stories and I was really into those when I was young. That’s why even though I was born and raised in Korea, I had a real desire to portray a character in English.”

“He should be grateful for his mother’s education,” said Youn. “His mother was very different. Korean moms are strong. His mother insisted he should watch American television and then speak English.”

“My mom will be very proud because of her saying that my mom’s great,” said Han, gesturing toward Youn. “My mom will freak out and love me.”

It might be Han’s first film in English, but it’s not his first time playing a gay character. A decade ago gay characters were rare in Korean dramas and portraying a gay character might have limited an actor’s career. However, recent productions have featured more queer characters, more nuanced queer characters, and the popularity of Boys Love dramas continues to grow. Han appeared in the BL drama Where Your Eyes Linger.

“I always love to challenge myself,” said Han. “In Korea my company was really like, you shouldn’t do another queer film, you’ve already done three, and you can’t do it anymore. But I really just think about the characters, not the genres. If the character really inspires me and I want to portray him I just go with it. I don’t care, if it’s really queer or not, I just look at the characters.”

Youn agrees with his choice. “It’s a good experience,” she said. “I think as an actor, but I’m worried about your girlfriend.”

The Wedding Banquet is a sweet and funny romcom with authentic characters that engage viewers, particularly the emotionally generous Min and his concerned grandmother. It was also fun to make.

“Everything was such a fun experience for me,” said Han.” I still can’t believe I was in it. It’s really surreal to me now and when I go back to Korea, it feels like waking up from a dream, from which I never want to be woken up.”

He and Youn laughed about one of his fun on-set memories. It was the director’s use of the word lovely during filming.

“He used the word lovely a lot,” said Han. “And I thought that was kind of comfortable for me. But she was almost like, oh?”

‘He kept saying, lovely, it’s lovely, but let’s try one more take or something like that,” said Youn. “So really, he meant let’s do better with that ‘lovely.’ Because the American expression is not familiar to me, I said if it’s lovely, why would I do it again?”

“That was a really funny moment for me to watch,” said Han. “Wondering how it might go. You know what? Later on Andrew never said lovely again.”

Youn wasn’t planning on doing another indie film, but noted that it’s not a good idea to say never. She’s seriously thinking about retiring, but it also might never happen.

“I don’t have as much energy as these young guys,” said Youn. “So I was thinking about retiring soon, but I don’t know. I’ve been in the acting business, this industry, for 60 years. So this is my life, acting is part of my life. So if I just don’t do it it’s different than retiring from the office. So maybe I’ll just do it as long as I have energy or I can breathe.”

That’s good news for viewers because the actress continues to deliver excellent performances in a career that already includes films such as Woman of Fire, The Housemaid, The Taste of Money, The Bacchus Lady, and Canola. She is also known for her roles in k-dramas such as Be Strong, Geum-soon!, My Husband Got a Family, and Dear My Friends and for appearing in the Apple TV series Pachinko.

“She’s an icon in Korea as an actor,” said Han, who also appeared in the dramas Dare To Love Me and Again My Life. “So I think it’s important to bring her passion to the young generation and we should accept it too.”

The Wedding Banquet is in theaters this week.