The Farewell — Review
Synopsis: A Chinese family discovers their grandmother has only a short while left to live and decides to keep her in the dark, scheduling a wedding to gather before she dies.
Cast: Awkwafina, Tzi Ma, Diana Lin, Zhao Shuzhen, Lu Hong, Jiang Yongbo, Chen Han, Aoi Mizuhara
Director: Lulu Wang
Writer: Lulu Wang
From a young age, most of us have it drilled into us that lying is wrong. We should never deceive others and should always tell the truth. Hell, “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour” is one of the Ten Commandments. So it’s interesting that one of the best films of the year explores the morality of a lie and how to cope with sustaining a “good lie”.
Marketed as a movie based on an actual lie, The Farewell tells the story of Billi (Awkwafina), a young woman who moved from China to America with her parents from a young age. Early on, she learns that not only has her grandmother, who she calls Nai Nai (Zhao Shuzhen), been diagnosed with a terminal disease, but that the family has decided not to tell Nai Nai of her condition. She travels to China to attend her cousin’s wedding — an excuse to get everyone together for one last chance to visit Nai Nai.
It’s a funny coincidence that I happened to see The Farewell exactly one year after I saw Crazy Rich Asians in the cinema. It’s difficult not to see the surface-level similarities: a film about an Asian American going back to Asia and struggling with the traditionalism of the culture (and Awkwafina). But that is pretty much where the similarities stop. While Crazy Rich Asians almost served as a tourism ad for Singapore with its wealthy cast, The Farewell tells a story of an average Chinese family, one that is not nearly as glamorous. That’s not to say that The Farewell is not well shot, because it is. While Changchun isn’t overtly beautiful, there are a number of striking shots.
Lulu Wang must be applauded for the film’s perfect tonal balance. The film never gets too dour — something that could have easily happened given it’s about death and how people deal with it. It also never tries to be too funny or play everything for laughs; it hits a perfect balance. The script gives the practice of not telling relatives their terminal condition a fair go, not writing it off as an old-fashioned practice with no place in the modern world, but as a moral choice and a practical application of collectivism.
The Farewell is Awkwafina’s first big chance to showcase her dramatic acting muscles and she truly knocks it out of the park. Whether speaking in English or Mandarin, she delivers an absorbing performance as someone coping with guilt and internal conflict. She’s at her best opposite Zhao Shuzhen, the film’s MVP. Nai Nai’s warmth, humour, and charm make it hard to watch her family lie to her.
Tzi Ma is strong as Billi’s father, a man slowly falling into old habits of overdrinking and smoking as a coping mechanism to deal with the impending loss of his mother. Diana Lin plays Billi’s mother as more of a rock who doesn’t express her emotions, perfectly counterbalancing Billi, who struggles to keep hers in check.
I also thoroughly enjoyed Chen Han as Hao Hao and Aoi Mizuhara as Aiko, the young couple essentially roped into getting married for Nai Nai’s sake despite only dating for a short period. Hao Hao is incredibly shy while Aiko is Japanese and doesn’t speak Mandarin, so it’s amusing to watch them wide-eyed, not entirely sure what is going on.
I think you’ll be hard pressed to find a more moving, charming and heartfelt film this year about lying and death — or just in general. This film takes an element very specific to a culture and fuses it with universal themes, making it accessible to anyone and everyone. It’s a perfect example of what we get when we give diverse filmmakers the opportunity to tell their stories.
