The Wedding Banquet: Old and borrowed, yet refreshingly new
At just eight years of age, the Korean-American filmmaker first encountered The Wedding Banquet when his mother rented it - a formative experience that would go on to shape both his personal identity and artistic vision. More than 30 years later, his desire to update the narrative to reflect contemporary LGBTQ+ experiences became a calling he could not ignore. And so, once again, the power of cinema triumphs.
Relocating the story from Manhattan to Seattle, the 2025 film follows Min (Han Gi-chan), a closeted Korean artist facing deportation, who proposes a green-card marriage to his lesbian friend Angela (Kelly Marie Tran) in exchange for funding her partner Lee's (Lily Gladstone) IVF treatments. Their carefully laid scheme starts to fall apart when Min's headstrong grandmother, Ja-Young (a scene-stealing Youn Yuh-jung), unexpectedly shows up from Korea, determined to throw a hooley.
Screenwriter James Schamus, who co-wrote the original with Ang Lee, offered his full endorsement of Ahn's reimagining, and the result is nothing short of cinematic harmony. Blending subtle gags and quiet melancholy, the remake offers a fresh, affecting perspective on the story, peppered with loving homages to the original including an updated twist on the infamous banquet scene, now tailored for the Gen Z'ers.
Kelly Marie Tran and Lily Gladstone deliver nuanced, deeply human portrayals of a long-term lesbian couple, capturing both the quiet intimacies and unspoken tensions of their relationship.
Youn Yuh-jung, the Oscar-winning actress from Minari, earns her place at the top table with her portrayal of the reserved grandmother, imbuing what could have been a one-dimensional character with complexity, wit, and heart.
Han Gi-chan and Bowen Yang effortlessly serve up emotionally resonant performances, seamlessly balancing poignancy with lighter moments, while navigating the complexities of a modern queer relationship caught between cultural expectations and personal conflict.
No wedding is complete without an awesome soundtrack, and Jay Wadley's score renowned for his work on I'm Thinking of Ending Things and Swan Song masterfully intertwines traditional Korean motifs with contemporary orchestrations.
Much like the lull that follows a wedding dinner, the final thirty minutes struggle to balance levity with drama, as comedic moments clash with more somber tones. But, by this point, viewers will have journeyed so far down the aisle that all is forgiven.
The Wedding Banquet (2025) ties the knot, delivering a heartfelt celebration of love and culture that certainly warrants a toast.
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Irish Examiner
6 hours ago
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Actor Gary Busey pleads guilty to sexual offence at horror convention
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The Irish Sun
10 hours ago
- The Irish Sun
Flesh hung like ribbons from bones…ghostly figures collapsed, never to rise – inside horrors of WW2 atomic bomb
IT was the day that changed the world for ever – when the first atomic bomb brought Armageddon to Japan. Oscar-winning 2023 film Oppenheimer tells how the world's most destructive weapon was created. But it does not show the A-bomb being used in action. Advertisement 9 The explosion of the first atom bomb, Little Boy, devastates Hiroshima - instantly killing up to 100,000 people Credit: Getty 9 The bomb that hit Hiroshima, nicknamed Little Boy, was 10ft long and 28inches in diameter and had the explosive force of 20,000 tonnes of TNT Credit: Getty - Contributor 9 Enola Gay on the day of its attack on Hiroshima Credit: Getty Next week marks 80 years since scientist Incredibly, the weapon that could destroy all life has since brought eight decades of peace, through fear of mutual destruction. Here, minute by minute, we detail the story movie viewers did not see – of how US President Harry Truman approved the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, before Japan's Emperor Hirohito surrendered six days later. MONDAY AUG 6, 1945 1.30am (Japan), 2.30am local time: Nine days after US President Harry Truman had warned Japan to surrender or face 'prompt and utter destruction', a US Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber emerges from a top-secret compound at the world's busiest airbase. Advertisement READ MORE WORLD NEWS Lieut-Col Paul Tibbets, 29, is at the controls of the plane, named Enola Gay after his 57-year-old mother, on the Pacific island of Tinian, 1,500 miles from the Japanese mainland. In the hold is only one warhead — a bomb so deadly that it could not be armed in advance in case the plane crashed on the runway, wiping the US base off the face of the Earth . The device, nicknamed Little Boy, is 10ft long and 28inches in diameter and has the Physicist Harold Agnew, who would be flying alongside to monitor the explosion, confessed later: 'That bomb was completely unsafe. If they'd crashed, anything could have happened.' Advertisement Most read in The Sun Exclusive 1.40am: Photographers and film crews surround the Enola Gay, which is lit up by spotlights as her ten-man crew pose for photos. Theodore 'Dutch' Van Kirk, who was on his 59th mission, recalled: 'There were all these people — photographers, newspapermen — everywhere. It looked like a Hollywood premiere.' 1.45am: Heavily overloaded with the five-tonne bomb on board, Enola Gay rumbles down the 1.6mile runway and takes off with 200ft to spare. Inside the eerie abandoned Los Alamos lab where Oppenheimer created the weapon that could wipe out the world Behind are two more planes with nicknames — The Great Artiste, carrying scientific instruments to record the blast, and Necessary Evil, with a camera crew on board to film the explosion and damage. Ahead lies a six-hour flight in a moonless sky . 2.20am: Also on board Enola Gay is US Navy captain William 'Deke' Parsons, 43, who had witnessed the horror of Advertisement Parsons, along with electronics specialist Morris Jeppson, 23, wriggle into the crammed bomb bay to carry out the 11-step process of arming Little Boy. Working by flashlight for 15 minutes, they insert a fuse and four bags of cordite gunpowder that will detonate the bomb, which contains 64kg of highly enriched uranium. 4.15am: Van Kirk would recall: 'That morning, the sunrise was the most beautiful I'd ever seen.' 6.25am: Jeppson returns to the bay to make final adjustments. Little Boy is now fully armed. Advertisement 7.09am: Straight Flush, one of three US weather reconnaissance bombers sent to check out three possible cities to attack, is seen over On the ground, Hiroshima's citizens have heard a rumour that the Americans were saving something for their city because, for the last two months, US planes had been dropping harmless orange bombs, the same size as Little Boy. Oppenheimer had warned that the bomb's shockwave could crush his plane like a giant hand swatting an ant. 7.30am: Over the intercom, Tibbets announces: ' Co-pilot Captain Robert Lewis, 27, writes in his report: 'There will be a short intermission while we bomb our target .' Advertisement 8.10am: Flying at 285mph, Enola Gay reaches 31,000ft. Her crew, now wearing flak jackets and welder's goggles, search for their aiming point, the T-shaped Aioi Bridge in Hiroshima city centre. Akihiro Takahashi, 14, is in the playground of a high school, watching the bomber overhead. 8.15am +16seconds: An alarm sounds as Bombardier Major Thomas Ferebee releases Little Boy, which nosedives towards the earth. Engines screaming, Tibbets turns Enola Gay into a steep diving turn of exactly 159 degrees. Oppenheimer had warned that the bomb's shockwave could crush his plane like a giant hand swatting an ant. Advertisement 8.16am +2seconds: Little Boy explodes at 1,890ft above the ground, creating a fireball of 10,000F — the same as the surface of the sun. The explosion rips through Hiroshima's Communications Hospital. Of 150 doctors in the city, 65 are already dead and most of the rest are wounded. Some 1,654 of 1,780 nurses are also killed or too hurt to work. At the Red Cross Hospital, the city's biggest, only six doctors out of 30 are fit to function. One of them is surgeon Dr Terufumi Sasaki, who is trying to deal with at least 10,000 wounded who descend on the hospital, which has just 600 beds. Advertisement Van Kirk recalls: 'Everybody was waiting for that bomb to go off because there was a real possibility it was going to be a dud.' Despite wearing goggles, the explosion 'was like a photographer's flash going off in your face'. Tail gunner, George 'Bob' Caron screams: 'Here it comes!' Moments later, the shockwave hits them, followed by a huge radioactive cloud that can be seen from 400 miles away. 9 Advertisement 8.17am: As Enola Gay levels off, Tibbets tells his crew: 'Fellows, you have just dropped the The B-29's crew look for Hiroshima. Van Kirk says later: 'You couldn't see it. It was covered in smoke, dust, debris. 'And coming out of it was that mushroom cloud.' Lewis writes in his log: 'Just how many did we kill? My God, what have we done?' Advertisement More than Another 40,000 would succumb to their injuries, while thousands more would suffer death by radiation poisoning. In the devastated city centre, 8,000 children aged 12 and 13, helping clear firebreaks to limit damage from air raids, are vapourised as the fireball engulfs the wooden buildings. Eiko Taoka, 21, is on a tram clutching her year-old son as she hears a screaming noise and the sky goes black. Fragments of glass suddenly appear in the baby's head. He looks up at his mother and smiles. Advertisement That smile will haunt Eiko for the rest of her life. Her little boy will live for three more weeks. Akihiro Takahashi is blown across the playground, his skin on fire. He staggers to the Ota River to cool his burns, jumping into the water just as the huge wall of flame engulfs the city. 10am: Faced with such devastation, Lewis believes the Japanese will have surrendered by the time Enola Gay lands back at Tinian. He signs off his log: 'Everyone got a few catnaps.' Advertisement Akihiro climbs out of the Ota River and finds a school friend, Tokujiro Hatta, who has burnt feet and his muscles are exposed beneath peeled skin. They head slowly home with Tokujiro crawling on his knees and elbows and leaning on Akihiro as he walks on his heels. Thousands of naked, badly burnt people are also shuffling out of the city. Setsuko Nakamura, 13, would recall: 'Some had eyeballs hanging out of their sockets. Strips of flesh hung like ribbons from their bones. Advertisement 'Often, these ghostly figures would collapse in heaps, never to rise again. With a few surviving classmates, I joined the procession, carefully stepping over the dead and dying.' 1.58pm: Enola Gay lands back on Tinian 12 hours and 13 minutes after take-off. In Hiroshima Akihiro spots his great-aunt and uncle walking towards them. He said it was like 'seeing the Buddha in the depths of hell'. Akihiro would survive after months in hospital, but his friend Tokujiro died. In 1980, Akihiro met Enola Gay's pilot Paul Tibbets in Washington DC. 3.05pm: Tibbets is first out of Enola Gay. Waiting for him are 100 men, including General Carl Spaatz, commander of US Strategic Air Forces in the Pacific, who pins the Distinguished Service Cross on Tibbets's chest. Advertisement 9 Lieut-Col Paul Tibbets, 29, is at the controls of the plane, named Enola Gay after his 57-year-old mother Credit: Getty 9 With no sign of surrender, the US prepared to drop 'Fat Man' — a plutonium bomb 40% more powerful than Little Boy Credit: Getty 9 A victim of 'Fat Man', the Nagasaki bomb, is burned beyond recognition 4.20pm: Enola Gay's crew undergo radiation tests plus examinations to see if their eyes have been damaged. All pass. Advertisement 10pm: A party is held on Tinian, while Captain Parsons, Enola Gay's weapons expert, signs documents confirming Little Boy was deployed. Meanwhile, at the Red Cross Hospital in Hiroshima, worn out and wearing glasses taken from a wounded nurse after his specs were lost in the explosion, Dr Sasaki wanders the corridors, binding up the worst wounds. WHEN the Americans do not hear any sign of surrender from Japan, they decide a second, bigger, atomic bomb is needed. This explosive, 'Fat Man', is 40 per cent more powerful than Little Boy. With no electricity, he works by the light of fires still burning outside and candles held by the ten remaining nurses. Patients are dying in their hundreds. The stench of death is overwhelming. Advertisement 11.55am Eastern War Time: President Truman is on USS Augusta, heading home from the Potsdam Conference in Germany where, with British PM Winston Churchill and Japan of the consequences of failure to surrender. He is handed an urgent War Department message: 'Hiroshima was bombed at 7.15pm Washington time August 5 . . . results clear cut, successful in all respects.' Truman shouts: 'This is the greatest thing in history!' The crew cheer and bang their lunch tables. One sailor says: 'Mr President, I guess that means I'll get home sooner now.' TUESDAY, AUGUST 7 WHEN the Americans do not hear any sign of surrender from Japan, they decide a second, bigger, atomic bomb is needed. Advertisement This explosive, 'Fat Man', is 40 per cent more powerful than Little Boy, with a core made of plutonium rather than uranium. THURSDAY, AUGUST 9 2.47am (Japan time): US Air Force B-29 bomber Bockscar, piloted by Major Charles Sweeney, who had been on the Hiroshima mission, sets off from Tinian. The target is the city of Kokura in Japan's west — with Nagasaki as a back-up in case of bad weather . 8.44am: Sweeney's crew arrives above Kokura and finds the city covered in fog. They attempt three bomb runs, but cancel each one at the last moment because they cannot see anything below. Advertisement 10.32am: After 'animated discussions', the crew decides to fly on to the secondary target, Nagasaki, 95 miles south. Nagasaki was only added to the list because US Secretary of War, Henry Stimson, had happy memories of staying 19 years earlier in Kyoto, the original No1 target. Nagasaki was added instead after Stimson insisted: 'I don't want Kyoto bombed.' 10.58am: Arriving at Nagasaki, Bockscar only has enough fuel for one pass over the bustling city, which is also covered in fog. 11am +50seconds: Bombardier Captain Kermit Beahan yells: 'I see a hole!' But the gap in the cloud is above an area several miles away from the point they had planned to drop the bomb. Advertisement 11.01am +13seconds: Beahan shouts: 'Bombs away!' and releases the most powerful atomic bomb ever used in warfare. 11.02am: Fat Man detonates 1,650ft above the harbour city. Sweeney later says this bomb seems 'more intense, more angry' than the one he watched fall on Hiroshima. 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The 25-year-old, from Edmonton, North London , is the first British person to be killed in an atomic bombing. 11.06am: Bockscar's crew decides to head to the US air base at Okinawa because they do not have enough fuel to reach Tinian. Advertisement 11.30am: Japan's Supreme War Council is in the middle of a meeting in Tokyo to discuss a possible conditional surrender when a messenger arrives with Noon: Bockscar begins its descent into Okinawa, with less than one minute of fuel left. Sweeney takes the mic and shouts: 'I'm coming straight in!' He lands and another crew member later recalls: 'A bunch of very jittery people debarked.' Advertisement 4.30pm: Bockscar takes off again and heads for Tinian. The crew switches on Armed Forces Radio hoping to hear of a Japanese surrender, but are disappointed. 9.30pm (Japan time), 10.30pm Tinian time: Touchdown at Tinian, but there is no fanfare and photos for the arrival, unlike the scenes after the Hiroshima mission. However, Tibbets, from the Enola Gay crew, comes out to meet them. Sweeney asks: 'Now what about some beer?' Advertisement Tibbets says: 'Chuck, I'm afraid I have some bad news. The beer ran out.' FRIDAY, AUGUST 10 2am (Japan time): J apanese Emperor Hirohito tells an emergency meeting of Japanese war leaders in Tokyo: 'I cannot bear to see my innocent people suffer any longer.' He says his 'sacred decision' is to surrender, on the condition that he is allowed to remain as head of state. The news is cabled to the US, which rejects the terms and demands unconditional surrender. Advertisement WEDS, AUGUST 15 Noon (Japan time): Japanese radio broadcasts a pre-recorded speech by Emperor Hirohito, announcing unconditional surrender — the first broadcast by any Japanese emperor. In the UK, this will for ever be known as VJ — Victory over Japan — Day. SUNDAY, SEPT 2 9.04am (Japan time): World War Two formally ends when Japanese officials sign the surrender treaty aboard USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay. Additional reporting: Eleanor Sprawson 9 US President Harry Truman approved the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 Credit: Getty Advertisement 9 Six days later on August 15 Japan's Emperor Hirohito announced his country's unconditional surrender Credit: PA:Press Association
Irish Examiner
13 hours ago
- Irish Examiner
Children's books review: Fresh tales well worth racing off to the bookstore to grab
Rowan Tree Stables: Horse Show Surprise by Nina Carberry, illustrated by Nuno Alexandre Vieira (Gill Books, €13) What makes a good story isn't a celebrity name on the cover, but the words within. As it happens though, the words within the latest children's books from two of Ireland's best-known female ex-jockeys are well worth a flutter. Does big name recognition help ensure that these books are chosen by young readers in shops, libraries, or online? It is certainly no handicap in the case of novice writers Nina Carberry and Rachael Blackmore, though the flip side is that the works of fiction bearing their famous names may come under greater critical scrutiny that those of other authors. Certainly in the case of Carberry, who has transformed her career from Irish Grand National and Cheltenham-winning jockey via Dancing with the Stars and Ireland's Fittest Family to MEP for the Midlands North West constituency, the bar is set high in terms of expectation, and her co-authored series of children's books continues to deliver engaging pony tales with an Irish twist. Friendship is as central to the Rowan Tree Stables stories as the ponies themselves, but in this latest instalment, the bonds between pals Grace and Aaron are tested when Aaron is ruled out of Dublin Horse Show. Grace has qualified for Ireland's biggest horse riding event of the year but appendicitis means Aaron fails to get through. Can he overcome his disappointment at not competing himself and travel to Dublin as groom for his best friend on the big day? While Aaron weighs feelings of loyalty and dejection, Grace faces further hurdles on her journey to the RDS, with an injury scare and an emergency at the stables throwing her plans off course. There's tacking up and mucking out, hoof picking and horsey snobbery galore to satisfy pony lovers aged eight plus, with Grace's riding exploits pitched perfectly between the realistic and the aspirational, making her a credible female role model. Granny National by Rachael Blackmore with Rachel Pierce and illustrated by Tom Snape (Puffin, €15) Rachael Blackmore's debut children's novel, following hot on the heels of her recent retirement from a stellar racing career that saw her become the first woman to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup and the Grand National, sensibly states on its cover that the work is a collaborative effort. The childhood memories that form the backdrop to the cleverly-titled Granny National, however, are all Blackmore's — drawn from her upbringing in Co Tipperary. There's a warm familiarity about the farmyard scenes — the chickens scattering as humans approach; a dilapidated, abandoned car overcome by shrubbery; and stables which house unidentifiable parts of every type of machinery, but rarely the horses for which the buildings were constructed. There's little warmth, however, about one of the characters in Blackmore's story, which stars a cast of cousins — including one named Rachael — who are staying at their grandparents' farm. Their austere grandad, a killjoy seemingly devoid of affection and human kindness, haunts the children's otherwise fun-filled holiday like a beastly Roald Dahl baddie, always finding fault and cause for discontent. Tom Snape's illustrations add another Dahlian tint to this madcap tale of horse-racing mayhem, in which Blackmore has fun with a Grand National chocolate sweepstake in which Red Rum competes against Tiger Roll and Minella Times, the horse on which Blackmore won at Aintree in 2021. The children's granny, as the title suggests, also gets in on the racing action, blazing a trail not only for female jockeys but for those following their dreams in older age. Pivotal to the whole melee of equine exuberance, however, is the fictional Rachael's New York cousin David. His arrival, ignorant of almost every aspect of Irish rural life, provides the opportunity for Blackmore to introduce young readers to the finer points of farming and racing, as well as country cuisine, as David swaps his notions of smashed avocado on sourdough for spuds and butter. The One and Only You by Shane Hegarty and Ben Mantle (Hachette, €13.99) 'In this whole wide world of people, and animals, and plants, and flowers, and oceans, and lakes, and so, so many other things, too many to count… there is only one you.' Shane Hegarty's picture book is a celebration of individuality with an intergalactic perspective, as a young child discovers how, despite the vastness of this universe and others beyond, each person is completely unique. Generations of ancestors may be reflected through physical similarities — your mother's nose, your father's eyes, or your great-granny's auntie's smile — but put them all together and 'they make you and no one else'. Considering your place among centuries of your own family lineage, let alone in the context of the enormity of humanity and all other life forms, may be a mind-boggling concept for the book's age four-plus readership. But Darkmouth author Hegarty puts the focus back on the individual, assuring young readers that they are far from alone in a world in which family and friends embrace their uniqueness. 17 Martin Street: A graphic novel by Marilyn Taylor, adapted by Alan Nolan, and illustrated by Jason Browne (O'Brien Press, €14.99) When Hetty Golden's family move to Martin St near Dublin's Portobello Bridge during the Second World War, the reception they receive from their new neighbours is mixed. Ben extends the hand of friendship to Hetty, but his father's response to the arrival of a Jewish family is hostile. 'There isn't enough work for us all here,' he says. 'They should all go back where they came from.' Though during 'The Emergency', many are similarly suspicious of strangers, Ben's mother counsels him to consider the persecution suffered by the Jews and to remember that 'we're all people', regardless of differing religions. Ben is given work as the Goldens' Shabbos Goy, doing odd jobs forbidden to Jews on the Sabbath, and when it becomes known that there is a young Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany hiding in the city, he and Hetty become involved in aiding her safety. Alan Nolan and Jason Browne give a graphic novel makeover to Marilyn Taylor's original book, which was in turn inspired by the real life story related to Taylor by a German Jewish woman who had arrived in Ireland at the age of 17, following the Nazis' rise to power. With the eyes of the world now turned to Palestine, the timing of the graphic novel's release is interesting; indeed it makes reference to the young refugee's brother finding safety there in a kibbutz. Yet the story's message of human kindness overcoming difference is more relevant now than ever, and in dedicating his work to all those who find themselves in a new country, Browne adds: 'Being an immigrant is not a burden but a gift that enriches a country.'
