Wedding Palace

While the story is a bit weak, the film does a good job of contrasting Korean-Americans who steadfastly adhere to the traditions of their homeland with South Koreans who have renounced old customs.

Yoo's broadly drawn characters are less ha-ha funny than endearingly over-the-top, their exaggerated mannerisms rooted in fondness as much as mockery.

Wedding Palace boasts some neat moments.

The genre elements of the romantic comedy Wedding Palace attempt a transpacific transit, but get lost in translation.

Too many stretches of Wedding Palace are so garishly lit and broadly overplayed that they seem more cartoonish than the actual animated sequences that pepper the live-action production. That’s a pity, since this indie romantic comedy is not without its minor charms during its infrequent quiet moments.

Wedding Palace is being billed as the first Asian-American romantic comedy and the first U.S.-Korea independent co-production. Too bad, then, that this shrill, unfunny effort from director/co-writer Christine Yoo features such broad clichés and stereotypical characters that it doesn’t exactly reflect well on the Korean-American community.

Bills itself as the first-ever Asian-American romantic comedy. But it's so chock full of the usual clichés and conventions of the genre, it could have been any movie over the past 20 years that you've seen and then promptly forgotten that starred Julia Roberts. Or Kate Hudson. Or Jennifer Aniston. Or Renee Zellweger.