As much as The Farewell is about confronting loss, it's also distinctly about place. Throughout the movie, she struggles to navigate between her conscience and her family's whims once she finds out that her beloved grandmother - or Nai . I have to admit I read that and I was like, Go mom, laughs Clea Newman Soderlund, speaking about her fathers posthumous memoir, Dakota Johnson on Family, Sexual AgencyAnd the Psychotic Making of, The 42 Best Romantic Comedies of All Time, We take stock of the best rom-coms everfrom, Scene Stealer: The True Lies of Elisabeth Finch, Part 1, Paul Newman Says Wife Joanne Woodward Turned Him Into a Sexual Creature in Posthumous Memoir. Her 2014 directorial debut, Posthumous, explores what happens when a struggling artist (Jack Huston), who learns that his work is more valuable after his "death," concocts a shady scheme to reap the rewards of his "posthumous" success. "It's hard to say," says Wang, "because I know other people who've made similar decisions and they have a lot of regret or they still feel like the person deserved to know" (People). The tiny creatures first appear in an early scene when one mysteriously breaks into Billi's Bushwick apartment. She says she had many disheartening encounters with American and Chinese financiers who wanted to include a "prominent white character into the narrative, and punch up the nuanced drama to turn it into a broad comedy. Its a very American show.), The episode of This American Lifedrew interest from film producers, and eventually Wangdid find the moneyto makeThe Farewell. There are other people who look like me as a whole.' Wang claims her grandmother eventually found out from discussing the movie with her little sister, who plays herself in the movie. The breakout hit of this years Sundance festival after a bidding war, it was picked up for a reported $7 million by A24 the movie has left jaded press corps in tears and generated serious awards chatter for its star. By signing up, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy & to receive electronic communications from Vice Media Group, which may include marketing promotions, advertisements and sponsored content. While researching The Farewell true story, we learned that writer/director Lulu Wang shot on location in her grandmother's neighborhood in her family's hometown of Changchun, China. "[25] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 89 out of 100 based on 47 critic reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". And she kept asking us, Why do you want me in your movie? With Shuzhen Zhao, Awkwafina, X Mayo, Hong Lu. I do think that when you hear Chinese family drama-comedy, you immediately get a sense of what that is supposed to be, she says. Because "The Farewell" has yet to come out in China Wang said the Chinese distributor is eyeing a spring release, spurred by the film's success in the U.S. her grandmother still hasn . One night, her uncle, Haibin, contends that the lie allows the family to bear the emotional burden of the diagnosis, rather than Nai Nai herselfa practice of collectivism that Haibin acknowledges differs from the individualistic values common in Western culture. Matt Singer Published: July 19, 2019. The whole atmosphere of the trip, the wild way we were keeping this story up I wasnt sure how I was going to turn it into a film. Instead, it was from marching across China when she was in the army. Vanity Fair may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. And her friend saw a review of it and was so proud of her, one of her longest friends, and sent it to her. She was so full of joy. Wang's crew would even stop in her grandmother's apartment for bathroom breaks while scouting locations around the neighborhood. April 2, 2020. Sitting on the floor, Billi shares the isolation she felt when her parents left the rest of their family to move to America. But we haven't talked about it, so I'll see what happens when I see her. Her grandmother finally told him the truth in the hospital three days before he died. Her grandmother was diagnosed with Stage IV cancer in 2013. When Nai Nai visited the set, everyone still had to continue the lie; Wang told theTimes that Nai Nai thought that the movie was loosely based on our family, with everybody coming back to China for a wedding., Wangfinished the movie and premiered it at the Sundance Film Festival to enormous acclaim. I didnt feel as alone. Right after I found out I had gotten in to Sundance, she notes, I was with my same friend at the same restaurant. She . So I feel like in a way, I now have an adult relationship with China, with the city.". But regardless of when it happens, The Farewell will eventually open in China, and the family might finally have to drop the ruse. "You heard the gasp.". "She gave me gifts and treated me like family and was so energetic and so full of life that you could not tell she has any kind of illness, period.". That was the contrast we needed., The whole purpose of the lie was to bring joy. Lulu learned five years ago that her grandmother, her father's mother or, in Chinese, her Nai Nai had stage-four lung cancer; the doctor said she had three months left to live. ' Wang admits, referring to her stars famous, foulmouthed YouTube rap. According to Wang no one understood the story she was pitching about her internal conflict over lying to her grandmother, with whom she is still very close. Thats kind of also what Billis character is [going through]. Shes like, Well just tell her that movies are fiction and none of it actually happened. When the movie went into production last year, not only did Wang cast her real aunt (who instigated the lie), she shot it two blocks from her grandmothers neighbourhood in Changchun and, let her visit the set. Both of the encounters stick out in her mind, Wang says, because those were the only ones where each of the producers respectively said, We want to help you tell your story the way you want to tell it.. Filmmaker, alumna Lulu Wang '05 will discuss "The Farewell" at virtual event March 25. She says that "life is not about what things one does, but more so about how one goes about doing them". [7][6], Wang said that the film was based on her grandmother's illness, stating that "I always felt the divide in my relationship to my family versus my relationship to my classmates and to my colleagues and to the world that I inhabit. "Six years after her diagnosis, Nai Nai is still with us," reads a caption at the end of the movie. The grandmother is at the hospital for a test but doesn't tell the girl so not to worry her. Warning: Mild spoilers for The Farewell are ahead. I was really driven by how conflicted I was between, you know, the value system and what I felt was very wronglying to my grandmabut also the love that I also felt, Wang said. He asked, You just did this amazing thing, so why are you upset? And I just said, I dont know if Im ever going to feel like this making films now. There was such a purity to it and I felt such power as a storyteller that I thought, maybe I should quit the film business and just work for these guys. Then the story aired, and everything changed. No one really saw my perspective. '", As we sit on a couch in Park City, Utah, a few days after the film's first screening, Wang's voice begins to crack as she explains how her life changed when her parents emigrated. Rather than revealing the news directly to Wang's 80-year-old grandmother, doctors instead told her grandmother's sister (Wang's Great-Aunt Hong Lu) the news, who passed it along to the family. Not just limiting as a filmmaker like limiting as a human being., When Wang first started pitching what would become The Farewell to producers, it was that type of film what the director calls My Big Fat Chinese Family Wedding that they expected to sign on for. Based on Wang's own experiences,The Farewelltells the story of a Chinese family who decides not to tell their grandmother that she has Stage 4 lung cancer, and the Chinese-American granddaughter (Golden Globe winner Awkwafina) who struggles with this decision. Related And so that was the moment for me that ignited the scene and what the climax of the movie was. A wedding for Billi's cousin from Japan, Hao Hao, has been planned in China as an excuse to unite the family to spend what is expected to be one last time with Nai Nai. She couldnt do that, so we decided to have her play herself. This is articulated heartbreakingly in a scene where Billi breaks down after telling her mom she wants to stay in China and take care of her grandmother. Somehow, it is. Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile. Now The Farewellis opening in theaters around the country and Nai Nai is still, happily, aliveand well, now in her mid-80s. It was 2016, and Lulu Wang was done with filmmaking. Let's get back to my interview with Lulu Wang. Credit: AP "My goal is to leave people talking about the film, or talking about their own lives and their own family, or calling their grandma . "They wanted it to be my big, fat Chinese wedding," says Wang of her Sundance smash The Farewell, starring Awkwafina. Nai Nai does have a limp in real life, but it wasn't from being shot, which Lulu admits is fiction. But even asThe Farewell took America by storm, it stayed quiet enough on the Eastern front that Lulu Wang's real grandmother, upon whom the film is based, never found out the truth of her cancer diagnosis. In real life, Lulu Wang's cousin had recently married a Japanese woman. ", Writer/Director Lulu Wang says that the character Billi (played by Crazy Rich Asians' Awkwafina) is only semi-autobiographical. The Farewell (2019), apparently based on a real story, is a light-weight comedy that mainly explores the difference customs and values of China and the USA. A title card reveals that six years after her diagnosis, the woman Nai Nai's character was based on is still alive and still unaware of her sickness. She wrote and directed the new film "The Farewell," which is based on her experience after her Chinese grandmother was diagnosed with stage 4 lung . The Farewell: Directed by Lulu Wang. Soon, Nora Lum, a.k.a. To further complicate an already complicated situation: Wang eventually decided to shoot her film about Nai Nai's illness in Changchun, the city where Nai Nai currently lives. When Lulu Wang initially recounted the tale of her family's unusual struggle with a cancer diagnosis, . And thats not the story I want to tell or the movie I want to make. ", Wang hadn't been to Changchun since she was 6 years old, and when she returned to film The Farewell, she found her relationship with her surroundings evolve beyond her childhood nostalgia. ", The reasoning behind keeping a secret like this from the real Nai Nai is "to make sure the person still lives a happy and carefree life, and that their condition does not get worse," Shuzhen said, and from her experiences meeting with Nai Nai, that's been the case. When I was explaining this to my friend she was like, 'Oh my god, thats the difference. "[32][33], Former United States President Barack Obama named The Farewell amongst his favorite films and television series of 2019 in an annual list released on December 29, 2019. "This was our plan," says Lulu Wang, "a giant goodbye party disguised as a giant wedding banquet." And so thats why I made the film.. The family, however, told Nai Nai that she was just fine, that the doctor had given her a clean bill of health. You were whole once. She said: 'And then it was just the three of us.' Why isnt your protagonist the bride in the wedding? When Wang's grandmother was diagnosed with cancer, her family traveled to China to say goodbye, but decided to keep the diagnosis from the woman she affectionately called Nai Nai. There are things that we don't see that are in motion that dictate our lives that we are not in control of.". That was they wanted out of this, she admits. Journey deeper into the true story behind The Farewell by watching an interview with writer/director Lulu Wang, whose family's story provided the basis for the movie. You can't tell me the title. And its very traumatic that its coming out in China. And somehow that just clicked for him and he became a lot less awkward and things made sense to him as a child. Lulu Wang's "The Farewell" may have premiered at the Sundance Film Festival almost 10 months ago and arrived in theaters in the U.S. this past summer, but one of its breakout stars somehow . It's a family drama centering on a young Chinese . As for the fact that Nai Nai has outlived her initial diagnoses by more than five years, Wang toldThe New York Timesthather dad was like, See, we did the right thing! Right or wrong, its a wonderful feeling when that final title card comes up, and you see the real Nai Nai practicing her tai chi moves. It was a brilliant combo of audio theater and investigative journalism. They had all their friends over talking about literature and movies and culture and drinking and smoking, and Im a kid and I would wake up in the middle of the night and they would be like, 'come join us,' and there was just a sense of community and family and friends, and it all made sense. Dramatic Competition section at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival on January 25, 2019. Theres a second part to this anecdote, Wang points out with a smile, one that she swears is 100-percent authentic. No, at least not according to Wang, who says that she told her grandmother that the film was about their family, emigrating to America, and returning for a reunion in the form of a wedding. ', Lulu Wang, left, on the set of The Farewell., Awkwafina, left, and Wang on the set of The Farewell., The Farewell: Lulu Wangs Truth, Lies, and the Long Goodbye, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. July 16, 2019. Then she made a movie about it' so it went through the entire history of our family, and my grandma read it. THE FAREWELL director Lulu Wang tells the harrowing tale about how she kept the content of her film about her grandmother a secret from her grandmother while shooting it right under her nose in her grandmothers neighborhood in China. The film ends with the revelation that Wang's real-life grandmother, who was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer in 2013, is still alive and still unaware of her diagnosis. Wang, who was born in Beijing but emigrated to the United States with her parents when she was six, says that she had never heard of withholding a prognosis from a family member. Wang already had one film under her belt her 2014 debut Posthumous which, by her own admission, hadnt quite turned out the way shed hoped. [15] A fully Mandarin-subtitled version of the film played in select theaters on September 8, 2019. In the beginning of Lulu Wang's film, she establishes the affectionate relationship between Billi Wang (Awkwafina) and her grandmother, who is usually called "Nai Nai" (Zhao Shuzhen).Although she has lived with her parents for more than 25 years in the U.S. since they left their hometown Changchun, China, Billi still remains close to her grandmother, and their mutual affection is apparent. And the review said, 'The film is based on Lulu Wong's real life. And then This American Life came calling. [20][21] The film expanded further to over 800 theaters in the next few weeks, $1.4 million from 861 theaters, $882,623 from 816 theaters and $841,414 from 891 theaters. This is sort of true. The lie wasnt her grandmas illness: in 2013, her Chinese grandmother, or Nai Nai, really was diagnosed with cancer and given three months to live. -People. But theres a line in the movie that people dont die of the cancer, they die of the fear. By making that movie, Im bringing people, were cooking, were eating together. Meet Awkwafina, the Breakout Star of 'Crazy Rich Asians' I was actually making a screwball romantic comedy when this happened to me, says Wang, referring to her debut feature, Posthumous (2014).
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