Direction: Lulu Wang
Country: USA
How good can a lie be? According to the debut director Lulu Wang, who deftly wrote the script of the bi-cultural comedy-drama The Farewell, a justified lie can produce beneficial effects, at least, in what health is concerned. The film was partly based on the life of Wang’s grandmother.
Billi (Awkwafina) is an independent New Yorker whose parents, Jian (Diana Lin) and Wang (Tzi Ma), left China 25 years ago to establish themselves in the US. She gets visibly upset when informed that her Guggenheim fellowship application was denied, but this was nothing as devastating as when she is told that her paternal grandmother, Nai Nai (Zhao Shuzhen), who lives in Changchun, China, is dying from advanced lung cancer. With the pretext of attending a cousin’s wedding, she and her family travel to China for a last family gathering. Upon serious discussions and doubts, where the differences between the East and the West are amply debated, they collectively decide to hide the truth from the matriarch, in a way of protecting her from the overwhelming distress of knowing she’s terminally ill and has just a few weeks to live.
The family dynamics include pleasant moments and frictions, while the marks of immigration and its hardships are exposed with authenticity. Straddling two cultures, Billi is forced to counterpoint her Chinese roots, more focused on family and society, and her real American identity, which leans on individualism.
Just moments after watching this drama, I got the sensation that the film hasn’t had the emotional resonance I was hoping for. But I was wrong. When I think of it today, I see it as a sensitive, witty, and intelligently written immigrant song that develops with an engrossing plot and phenomenal performances.
With the ability to touch us in many ways, The Farewell plays closer to the heart. It’s a very rewarding film assembled with a disarming touch of brilliance.
