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Actually, in "The Farewell" (The Farewell) you will find all the facilities for a stir: A serious illness, a big family party and the encounter of different generations, lifestyles and traditions. This is all too often the mixed situation from which the building cinema or kitsch is created. It is all the more impressive how far author and director Lulu Wang sets herself apart with her film, which is partly autobiographically colored. Because "The Farewell" touches without being intrusive or manipulative, and entertains without resorting to loud silliness or cultural stereotypes.
Along the beaten path of both culture-clash comedy and melodrama, Wang's film goes its own way, and it starts in New York. Billi Wang (rapper and comedian Awkwafina in her first serious role) lives there, a budding and underfunded author in her early thirties. As a small child, Billi came to the United States from China with her father Haiyan (Tzi Ma) and her mother Lu Jian (Diana Lin). While the parents have devotedly built up a solid existence as a medium-sized company, Billi shifts from one month's rent to the next as part of the academic millennial precariat.
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"The Farewell": The greatest of all secretsBilli often gets encouragement by phone from her grandmother Nai Nai (Zhao Shuzhen), who lives in Changchun. What Billi misses during the frequent phone calls, however, is finally revealed to her by her parents: Nai Nai is terminally ill with cancer. Even more than the finding, Billi is shocked by the fact that neither her parents, nor the relatives, and not even the attending doctors intend to inform the grandmother about her health. Instead, the scattered family believes that everything is fine and looks for an excuse to visit Nai Nai again in China.
With the hastily scheduled wedding of a Billi cousin, an innocent occasion for the family reunion is found. The indignant Billi alone is said to remain in New York, as all relatives fear that, contrary to the usual rules of conduct, she will reveal the truth to Nai Nai. But Billi travels to China, of course, and thus engages in an unusual group experience. Because in the elaborate charade for the dazzlingly laid-out Nai Nai, Billi has to question her own certainties as well as those of her family, who reunited after a long time.
"The Farewell"
USA / China 2018
Written and directed by Lulu Wang
Actors: Awkwafina, Zhao Shuzhen, Ma Tzi, Diana Lin, Li Xiang
Production: Big Beach Films, Depth of Field et al.
Distribution: DCM
Length: 100 minutes
FSK: no age limit
Start: December 19, 2019
In China, the film was launched under a title that literally translates from the Mandarin "Don't tell her". It is as beautiful as it is subtle irony that the very intention to keep something terrible hidden from a loved one, in return, lets Billi and her neighbors reveal so much of their own fears and worries. However, this does not happen in tearful confessions, but in small everyday moments that are masterfully captured in their supposed casualness, which make Wang's script outstanding.
In this way, even big questions about cultural identity and contradictory worldviews are credibly brought up to an interpersonal level, for example if Billi's uncle Haibin, based on his family dealings with Nai Nai, differentiates between the eastern principle of a (latently encroaching) collective responsibility for the individual and the western idea of self-determined (but also left alone) individual explained.
"The Farewell" does not demonstratively stand on one side in these questions, but rather lets the characters explore the space between the respective truths. They do it so convincingly and entertainingly that film and leading actress Awkwafina were justly nominated for Golden Globes (and many would also have liked to see Wang nominated for direction and screenplay) - because this transnational family portrait not only overcomes geographical and linguistic limits: Wang's film opens a new perspective on life in contemporary China and the experiences of Chinese emigrant families from a very personal perspective.
In the video: The trailer for "The Farewell"
DCM
"The Farewell" was already the surprise hit of the summer in the USA and made Wang and Awkwafina stars. This is one of the reasons why the film should be seen less as a wistful farewell than as a welcome departure.
