The Farewell

The Farewell is a sweet and poignant film about the culture clash within a family, and is a showcase for the talent of Awkwafina, a stand-up comedian by trade who shows a wonderful acting talent.

She plays Billi, a thirty-year-old woman who left China when she was six. She is, of course, thoroughly Americanized, but is still devoted to her grandmother back in the old country, whom she calls Nei Nei. When she learns that the old woman has stage IV lung cancer, she wants to join her family in seeing her, but is told that Nei Nei will not be told about her condition. Instead a cousin is going to hurriedly get married to frame an excuse why they are all coming back to China.

Much of the film is a debate about the family's decision, which is apparently common in China. As Billi's father points out, it would be illegal in the U.S. There reasoning is why ruin the last months of a woman's life, while the American impulse to have all information would override this concern.

Billi wants to tell her, but keeps mum out of respect for the family, although often she looks glum. Nei Nei (played by Chinese actress Zhao Shuzhen, in a richly comic performance) glories in organizing the wedding. The groom looks like he's been taken hostage, and his bride is a game Japanese girl who doesn't speak Chinese or English.

The film was written and directed by Lulu Wang, and this is a true story. It provides an interesting close-up on Americans who are divided between two worlds. Billi's parents emigrated to America, and her uncle and his family to Japan, but while Billi's father (played by Tzi Ma) identifies as American, the uncle maintains his China-ness, and points out that this argument they are having points out the fundamental difference between East and West--the West values the individual, the East the family (actually, I think this is the difference between old and new worlds, as some European cultures also put family first).

Awkwafina is a revelation, and is getting a lot of Oscar buzz, and I hope she's nominated, as Asian actors have been criminally overlooked by the Academy. I hope she and someone from Parasite, a South Korean film, get nominated, so the Academy is bit more representational of the world at large.