New Release! The Farewell (2019)

Billi (middle) and her family. To a person, the nearly all-
Chinese cast is brilliant.

Director: Lulu Wang

An excellent dramedy that takes a look at something that nearly every family has had to deal with but is almost never given time on the silver screen.

Comedian Awkwafina plays Billi, a Chinese-American whose family immigrated to New York City when she was a  young girl but who still have many relatives back in China. When Billi learns that her grandmother, "Nai Nai," has been diagnosed with terminal lung cancer, she is deeply saddened but infinitely more shocked by her family's decision not to inform Nai Nai about her fatal condition - something that is rather common in East Asian cultures. Billi chases her parents over to China in order to see her Nai Nai one last time, but must wrestle with the choice of whether to maintain the charade that her family is keeping in place or to let the cat out of the bag and tell her beloved Nai Nai that she has a very limited time to live.

The Farewell is an outstanding example of a movie that blends comedy and drama while it subtly reveals something very genuine about the human condition and how different cultures have adapted to it. On its surface, the premise seems very obvious: a granddaughter loves her grandma and is sad to know that she is dying. Fairly standard, run-of-the-mill drama stuff, right? Maybe, but there is so much that The Farewell does right with this basic notion that it has an impact that can almost blindside you.

Firstly, the relationship between Billi and Nai Nai just becomes more and more endearing as the movie progresses. From the opening moments, it's clear that they're both quite amicable and that they have a meaningful bond with each other. But as the movie goes along and we get to see them interact with each other, this bond becomes ever more clearly organic, charming, and touching. As we see Nai Nai interact with Billie and the rest of her family, we can see why she is so beloved. There is an easy humor about her that combines the best characteristics of a traditional grandparent and a charming, quirky friend. This makes is far easier to understand why Billie struggles so hard to go along with her family's wishes not to tell Nai Nai of her impending death.

Nai Nai and Billi. It doesn't take long to see why the relation-
ship means so much to each of them, despite their being
separated by half the world for over two decades.

When a movie isn't relying on big-budget set pieces, spectacular CGI, or elaborate costumes or choreography, it needs to find its strength in story and acting. The acting in The Farewell is as good as it gets. Yes, there is a nice amount of humor and levity throughout, but this movie is still primarily a drama, and the cast - nearly all Chinese - is amazing. Like most in the U.S., I was only familiar with Awkwafina and only familiar with her as a comedian. Well, her turn as Billi proves that she's a more than capable dramatic actor as well. Those who play her family, especially Shuzhen Zhao as Nai Nai and Tzi Ma as Billi's father, are all outstanding. They bring their characters and Wang's script to all of its fleshed-out, three-dimensional life with the subtleties and ranges of their performances. It was no surprise when I later learned from an interview with Wang that the actors were surprisingly costly to hire, contrary to her previous belief. They were worth it, though.

There were so many ways that this movie could have gone broader, going for cheaper, simpler, one- or two-dimensional characters in order to get cheap laughs. Writer and director Lulu Wang avoids every one of such pitfalls that matters, giving us a warm-but-challenging tale that does a rare thing for movies these days - it uses its drama to reveal a new perspective on a nearly universal situation. At least, it's new to us in the West. This is what the very best independent films can do - go out on a bit of a limb, take a risk, and bring new stories to audiences who haven't seen their like before.