The Farewell
- An emotionally stirring, funny, original family dramedy that provides the West with a rare authentic look into modern Chinese culture.
Full Disclosure: I wasn’t quite sure what to expect going into this one. I saw that it was getting rave preliminary reviews, but I didn’t look at them, lest my own take be tainted. I just knew that it was a dramedy about a Chinese family released by indie powerhouse A24 starring a water bottle.
Review
The Farewell is one of those rare films that doesn’t rely on heavy marketing, an elaborate ad campaign, or big studio backing to achieve success. Since its general release almost a month ago, it has slowly but surely gained traction all across the land, being released in more and more theaters as word of this phenomenon spreads. Indie movies like this are usually given two to three weeks max to perform in theaters before they’re summarily swept aside for the latest tentpole blockbuster to take its place. The Farewell has managed to buck this trend and hold steady.
A small budget indie dramedy always has an uphill climb in today’s cinematic climate. People want superheroes, explosions, and Disney remakes, not original stories that explore the human condition. Add in the fact that The Farewell consists of dialogue almost exclusively spoken in Mandarin, and that makes the climb that much harder. People don’t go to the movies to read subtitles. It distracts from their popcorn eating. While the odds were stacked against this film from the beginning, it continues to thrive.
Awkwafina: Much more than just a misspelled water bottling company.
Admittedly, I knew next to nothing about rapper/actress Awkwafina before this film. I’m a little ashamed to say I dismissed her out of hand because I thought her stage name was ridiculous. Personally, I would’ve gone with Dasanee or maybe Smahrt Wuater, but to each his own. As it turns out, she happens to be an insanely talented woman who has an extremely bright future ahead of her. Her performance as Billi in The Farewell was excellent. She carries the majority of the emotional weight of the film on her back, and carries it well.
Billi is a Chinese-American college student based in New York who is much more assimilated to the States than her native land. She speaks better English than she does Mandarin, and struggles with straddling the two cultures of East versus West. Awkwafina portrays this struggle with subtlety and grace throughout the film. The Chinese are a notoriously stoic culture historically, and women are expected to be passive and meek. Billi, however, is a modern American woman who speaks her mind and wears her heart on her sleeve. The main conflict of the story is Billi’s internal struggle to find balance between the two cultures she finds herself stuck between.
The relationship between Billi and her Nai Nai (grandma) forms the emotional heart of The Farewell.
Billi’s closest tie to China is her relationship with her Nai Nai (Mandarin for paternal grandmother). Nai Nai lives back in China, but they speak on the phone almost every day. Their relationship is more like two best friends than the traditional grandmother/granddaughter dynamic. Nai Nai, despite her advanced age, is full of life, love, and laughs. Unfortunately, shortly into the film, we discover that Nai Nai has been diagnosed with terminal lung cancer, and that she only has a few months to live, if that. The kicker is that Nai Nai is the only one in the entire extended family that doesn’t know she’s dying. In China, diagnoses are frequently kept from the patients in order to spare them the suffering of knowing the end is near. In America, that would be illegal. In China, it’s tradition. This comes as a massive culture shock to Billi, who believes that Nai Nai deserves to know the truth. The family has made their decision though, and it’s not Billi’s place to go against the family.
And what a joyous family it is!
In order to cover up Nai Nai’s illness, yet still have one last family gathering with her, a wedding for Billi’s cousin is haphazardly thrown together and set to take place in the family’s hometown of Changchun, China. Given Billi’s emotional nature and inability to hide her feelings, her mother and father want her to stay behind in America so she won’t cause problems or arouse Nai Nai’s suspicion. She disobeys her parents wishes and pays her own way from New York to China. What follows is a story of family, humanity, and culture.
The Farewell poses several profound existential questions that pit West versus East and tradition versus modernity. As far as I know, these kinds of things have never been explored in film; at least not in this fashion. While it seems absurd and downright immoral to Americans that one’s imminent death would be kept from them, this film makes you think twice about that notion.
It’s explained that, from the traditional Chinese viewpoint, the burden of the emotional suffering should be carried by the family, not the person who will do the actual, physical suffering. If the fate is inevitable, what’s the point in troubling the afflicted any further? Is it selfish to reveal their fate to them and relieve yourself of the lie? Is it altruistic to wait until their final moments to tell them that they’re at death’s doorstep? It’s a clash between the collectivism of the East and the individualism of the West. While I think I’d like to know if I’m dying, these are questions worth asking and notions worth exploring. It’s a deeply philosophical debate that you don’t really see in movies anymore, and it was a refreshing experience.
Spoilers Ahead
Billi’s farewell to her Nai Nai was as emotionally powerful as anything you’ll see on a screen this year.
Watching Billi wrestle with whether to give in to her Western sensibilities and tell Nai Nai the truth, or embrace her heritage and keep the lie, was an enthralling emotional struggle to watch play out throughout the film. Her final decision to go with the family’s wishes was never telegraphed. It was as suspenseful as it was touching. That’s hard to pull off, but writer/director Lulu Wang does it brilliantly. This is her story, and her intimacy with the material comes through on the screen. This is a work of professional passion. The fact that it had an ostensibly happy ending (Wang’s real-life Nai Nai is still alive, six years after her diagnosis) was an unexpected twist. Just like the film itself, Nai Nai has all the odds against her, yet continues to thrive. It was a fascinating, (and as far as this white American male could tell) authentic look at the modern Chinese family as they deal with something we all have to face eventually: the deaths of those closest to us.
5 Quick Hits
A24 does it again! It’s gotten to the point that I’ll see anything that this studio puts out, regardless of director or cast. That’s the only studio on the planet I can say that about. It’s mind-boggling that they can find, create, or distribute so many independent gems on such a consistent basis. They are the undisputed pinnacle of independent filmmaking.
Tzi Ma has been underrated as an actor for as far back as I can remember. The first film I remember seeing him in was Rush Hour. Even in that popcorn buddy cop flick, he lent emotional weight to his character as a father who’s daughter is being held ransom. He’s built up a prolific filmography over the years, and it’s a shame he’s not more of a household name stateside.
This film drags a lot in the third act, as indie family dramas are wont to do. Lulu Wang is a superb director, but we frequently stay in scenes a few seconds longer than we should.
The Farewell might just be a dark horse for a Best Picture nomination come awards season. Since it’s American made, it won’t be eligible for Best International Feature Film, otherwise it’d be a shoo-in.
While the direction and writing is really good in The Farewell, the true strength of the film is in its acting. The cast was brilliant top-to-bottom. It’s great to see such a talented group of mostly foreign actors come together to produce a product like this. A lot of blockbusters these days have a token Chinese person thrown in as an afterthought to draw in that sweet sweet foreign market, so it was a refreshing change of pace to see a predominantly Chinese cast portray an authentic representation of their culture.
