The Farewell

Lulu Wang's The Farewell is truly a fresh flavor from the menu Hollywood usually dishes out. It's rare, or maybe never have we see many Chinese-American films prior.

With beautiful and steady camerawork, naturalistic performances and dialogues plus slow yet calm storytelling, the writer-director helms this motion picture maturely. The Farewell is basically about an extended family coming together to see their grandmother without letting her know the fact that she's dying soon. Using a marriage as an excuse, the family members including our protagonist Billi (Awkwafina) encounter the hardship of not telling the truth as days go by. And it must be mentioned that Lulu Wang has perfectly captured the spirit and festivity of a family gathering, including the sour taste it leaves once it all ends.

However, primary issue with the writing lies in how direct and linear the goal is. The only conflict the characters have in the narrative is the dilemma they face on whether to tell the truth or not, which clearly isn't enough material to stretch for nearly 2 hours. Discussions about the effects of migration and the differences between countries are roped in, but rarely do these correlate well with the main problem the family is facing. It's obvious that Lulu Wang wants to display thoughts and experiences that are personal to her - the seed of ideas are definitely there but isn't articulated effectively. The screenplay simply meanders around Billi's time in China, lacking many captivating scenes or events. Also surprisingly, the tone and mood heavily inclines toward the darker side most of the time for a comedy-drama genre, but this isn't to say there aren't any subtle humor that totally works when it attends.

Yes, the conversations and time spent between Nai Nai (Zhao Shuzhen) and Billi are interesting, especially the morning exercise. The family gathering is heartwarming indeed as you could see how everyone is holding back on how much this tragedy is affecting them, and from these we do understand that they are close. Again, we understand, but rarely feel it, except maybe for the one instance where the older brother's speech triggered tears out of our eyes. This brings back the point to what we've mentioned earlier - the seed of ideas are definitely there but isn't articulated effectively. However, the short clip before the credits roll revealing the real Nai Nai is still alive 6 years post her Stage 4 Lung Cancer diagnosis is an enormous sweet surprise!