Lulu Wang. Lulu Wang's new film -- one of the best of the year -- is based on her own family's story, an "actual lie," as the opening suggests. The lie was her familys decision to withhold this information from her (a custom in China), even bringing Wangs cousins wedding forward by a year so theyd have an excuse to visit her en masse one last time without raising any suspicion. Its a tale of loss, a meditation on how to say goodbye, and an investigation into how different cultures handle illness and death. Her second and most recent . 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. Coronation Street actress Barbara Young dies aged 92, Nurses strike continues: Major disruption for NHS services in England, Additional flight to evacuate Britons from Sudan today, Ryanair cancels 220 flights over May 1 bank holiday due to strikes, Hardcore coronation fans already camped outside Buckingham Palace, One dead and seven injured in Cornwall nightclub knife attack. To me, its a very American story because Im American, and its just about me going back to a place where I dont understand and Im trying to understand, she said. Its so meta, said Wang with a laugh. So I feel like in a way, I now have an adult relationship with China, with the city.". Id also come to accept that it wasnt my decision; it was my familys decision. Billi intercepts Nai Nai's medical test results from the hospital and has it altered to reflect a clean bill of health, helping to maintain the lie. He also found the connection between Wang and her grandmother moving and was taken by the broader immigrant story she touched upon, the heartbreak of having to leave your family in pursuit of a better life. "I imagine once the movie comes out, she will have to find some kind of way to still put up this front. Director Lulu Wang, whose own experience inspired the film, says that like in the movie, it was her great-aunt (her grandmother's sister) who ultimately made the decision to withhold the diagnosis. Her grandmother finally told him the truth in the hospital three days before he died. I knew right away I wanted to do it as a movie, says Wang, over the phone from her home in Los Angeles ahead of the films Scottish premiere at this years Glasgow Youth Film Festival. Moderated by Silvia Bizio. After the praise and success of Crazy Rich Asians and Ocean's 8 last year, Awkwafina . 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. And [my friend] was like, 'That's it.' Wang first revealed the lie about her grandmother on public radio. My great-aunt is here [in New York] for the premiere today, so I was asking her what we should do. 'The Farewell's' Lulu Wang and Awkwafina want you to cry, then call But look, it says in the newspaper it's calledDon't Tell Her, and that's why you didn't tell me, because I am the 'her' of the 'don't tell her.'" The Chinese also believe that mental and emotional health are directly linked to physical health. 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. Things went smoothly as they made the festival circuit, because "it's an American festival, so it's never going to leave the country, and your grandma doesn't go on the internet, she doesn't read English, so it's fine.". 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. And she kept asking us, Why do you want me in your movie? The lightly fictionalized film finds Awkwafina's character Billi in the same situation, grappling with her own impending loss and frustration with the cultural practice of secrecy. There is, however, a further bizarre twist to the story. ", It's easy to summarize The Farewell as being about one young woman's internal culture clash, but there's a transcendence to the film easily summed up by the recurring image of the sparrow. Wang explained to. Her grandmother was diagnosed with Stage IV cancer in 2013. That was the most beautiful part of this. She wasnt suspicious; everybody on the crew knew not to tell her. Starring Awkwafina (Oceans 8, Crazy Rich Asians) as Billi, a young Chinese American woman wrestling with her familys request to keep her Nai Nai in the dark, The Farewell delivers an exquisitely nuanced, slyly funny exploration of the machinations of family life, one that transcends the absurd screwball elements the elaborate deceit, the hastily arranged marriage thrown up by the culture clash at the heart of the real story. She resisted. The only caveat: Nobody could tell Nai Nai the truth. Shed finished Crazy Rich Asians but it hadnt come out. That was they wanted out of this, she admits. She . The 36-year-old director who came to the U.S. as a child in 1990; she grew up in Miami but now lives in Santa Monica had . Lulu Wang's Grandmother Has Just Learned That 'The Farewell' Is About Her. In an interview with Vox, Wang was asked whether her grandmother will see the film. And the title of the movie is Dont Tell Her in Chinese. She came to the set a couple of times when we were doing outdoor scenes and it ended up being fine. A script began to make the rounds. Now The Farewellis opening in theaters around the country and Nai Nai is still, happily, aliveand well, now in her mid-80s. Why would they?, Did constructing another lie to make the movie she told her Nai Nai the film was about her family, but for obvious reasons wasnt specific on the details make it feel as if she was going through the same process again? 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. I just didnt know what the tone would be until later.. Still, when About a Boy director Chris Weitz asked to meet for coffee, she accepted. Like in the movie, Lulu Wang, her parents, uncle and cousin went to China for the main purpose of visiting her grandma. I heard this extraordinary true story, this beautiful complete story. This is sort of true. Aspiring Chinese-American writer Billi maintains a close relationship with Nai Nai (paternal grandmother) who lives in Changchun, China. Wang told her shed send her some scenes. #ggforeignfilms #goldenglobesStill haven't subscribed to Golden Globes on YouTube? No one really saw my perspective. Written and directed by the Chinese filmmaker, The Farewell casts rapper-turned-actress Awkwafina in her first leading role as Billi, a Chinese-American student playing a form of Wang herself. The Farewell opens with a title card declaring that the film is "based on an actual lie" from director Lulu Wang's own life. [24], On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 97%, with an average rating of 8.5/10, based on 345 reviews. Wang claims her grandmother eventually found out from discussing the movie with her little sister, who plays herself in the movie. ", 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. 15 years later, Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, Jonah Hill, Michael Cera, Emma Stone, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Bill Hader, and more remember making their seminal teen comedy. And so thats why I made the film.. And the review said, 'The film is based on Lulu Wong's real life. Jian Yongbo, Kmamura Aio, Chen Han, Tzi Ma, Awkwafina, Li Ziang, Tzi Ma, Lu Hong and Zhao Shuzhen in. Is that the question? 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. I was actually making a screwball romantic comedy when this happened to me, says Wang, referring to her debut feature, Posthumous (2014). The Farewell's release in China was recently delayed, which Variety suggested could be due to the film's likelihood of winning upcoming major American movie awards and potentially boosting its potential success in China. When we met on a late spring day in Los Angeles, Wang pulled up to the cafe on a mini Segway, embodying millennial chic in an oversized navy suit and bright yellow Vans. But its the surprisingly unsentimental mix of personal storytelling and universal, culture-clash dynamics thats made The Farewell stand out the melding of the familiar and the specific, the accessible and the art-house aestheticized, that comes from a singular voice. "[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. Wang and her family would have liked to keep it that way, but due to Chinese-language reviews published ahead ofThe Farewell's upcomingrelease in China, Wang's grandmother found out the truth. Nobody wants to tell my story. Right after I found out I had gotten in to Sundance, she notes, I was with my same friend at the same restaurant. Sitting on the floor, Billi shares the isolation she felt when her parents left the rest of their family to move to America. '", 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. (Wang toldThe New York Timesno one was too concerned about Nai Nai finding out the truth fromThis American Life, explaining They thought it was this niche thing. Awkwafina as Billi and Zhao Shuzhen as Nai Nai. Wang maintained the secrecy on set and her great-aunt, who played herself in the film, didn't tell Wang's grandmother the details of the story. When my grandmother was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer, she was given three months to live. Yes, I did, Wang says, laughing. Within two weeks, with the help of another production company, Big Beach, The Farewell was financed and Wang was busy banging out a script. Warning: Mild spoilers for The Farewell are ahead. Scene Stealer: The True Lies of Elisabeth Finch, Part 2. We kept asking ourselves, is it ethical to make her go through this traumatic experience again, take after take? We want to hear it. Filming there allowed her to spend a lot more time with her grandmother (NPR). 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. Wang's own "Nai Nai," or grandmother in Chinese, was diagnosed with cancer and her family decided to keep the diagnosis from her. And making this film brought joy to all of us." "[29] David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter commented, "its moments of sweet sentimentality are fully earned and heartfelt. When Wang's grandmother was diagnosed with cancer, her family . But look, it says in the newspaper its called Dont Tell Her, and thats why you didnt tell me, because I am the her of the dont tell her., But we havent talked about it, so Ill see what happens when I see her.. It added a good aspect to this story. When asked about her own grandmother, Wang revealed that she only recently found out about her cancer. Wang says that one plus is that the lie gave birth to the film, which was shot in her family's hometown of Changchun. An old woman in China is talking on the phone with her granddaughter in New York, Billi. In New York, shes a strong independent person with a lot of agency, but then you go home and you have no agency and you're not even allowed to talk because you might spill the beans. 'The Farewell's' Lulu Wang and Awkwafina want you to cry, then call The night it aired, Wangs friend took her to a sushi bar to celebrate. The Farewell (Chinese: ; pinyin: Bi Gos T; lit. Lulu Wang's Nai Nai did join the Chinese Army at age 14 to escape an arranged marriage. When Billi reveals the Guggenheim Fellowship rejection to her, Nai Nai encourages Billi to keep an open mind and not get hung up on this failure, "don't be the bull endlessly ramming its horns into the corner of the room." And by the time we made the film, everyone was in China because they understood my perspective. Lulu Wang is the writer-director behind The Farewell, which follows a Chinese-American woman as she returns to her family's homeland to say goodbye to her grandmotherwho doesn't . You just made it up for the movie.. "I'm saying it now, getting really emotional. On the other side of the world, birds scatter from a tree near Nai Nai's apartment complex. We got distribution in China. 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. "[8], The film was primarily shot in Changchun, China, over the course of 24 days in June 2018. Lulu Wang's grandmother learned she had cancer from 'The - Resonate In the film, the Chinese American woman played by Awkwafina, battles with her family to keep the secret. Based on the real life experiences of director Lulu Wang and starring Awkwafina, the film follows a family trying to hide a cancer diagnosis from their elderly matriarch. It was, in her words, an oasis in the middle of all of the Hollywood nonsense. It was on the air within a month. Lulu Wang's Grandmother Still Doesn't Know What 'The Farewell - Vice ", "Barack Obama's Favorite Movies and TV Shows of 2019", "The 2020 Film Independent Spirit Award Nominees are Here! As stated in the movie, Chinese law allows keeping a prognosis from a family member, something that is both unheard of and illegal in the United States. You were whole once. Dramatic Competition section at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival on January 25, 2019. [5], Lulu Wang faced whitewashing obstacles when pitching her film about a Chinese American family. Photo via IMDB. December 3, 2019, 3:48pm. The tiny creatures first appear in an early scene when one mysteriously breaks into Billi's Bushwick apartment. [16], The Farewell grossed $17.7 million in the United States and Canada, and $5.4 million in other territories, for a total worldwide gross of $23.1 million,[2] against a production budget of $3 million. "We had to whisper scenes, it was real," Awkwafina explained during an Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences screening I moderated. Meet Awkwafina, the Breakout Star of 'Crazy Rich Asians' "I just didn't want to make any compromises on this particular story," she said, emphasizing that her goal was to make the film as authentic as it could be. The filmcloses with an even more shocking title card: Six years after her diagnosis,Wangs real Nai Nai is still alive. It stars Awkwafina, Tzi Ma, Diana Lin, and Zhao Shuzhen. But: What if the main character is the bride, she breaks up with her white boyfriend, they have to get married to keep this lie to Grandma going, and then guess who falls back in love, and., Its like, I see the film youre envisioning because that film already exists! Wang adds. July 16, 2019. So I can hang out with you?' Theres just one tiny bit of information shes not getting. On the first day of shooting, Nai Nai wanted to bless the set, causing Lulu to run around and confiscate dozens of crew shirts bearing the productions Nai Nai LLC logo. Lulu Wang's Nai Nai was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer in 2013. 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 . Hong became the de facto authority for her fellow performers on whether the interactions of the screen family felt like the real thing; she and Shuzhen began hanging out together off-set a lot and, according to Lulu, started calling each other sister. The director had made good on the promise to shoot The Farewell in her still-living grandmothers hometown of Chungchun, ensuring that a high level of authenticity would be built in to the story. Wang was thinking about coincidences and strange out-of-body experiences when she incorporated the sparrow into the film, but a theme of connection was also on her mind: "The connection of these two countries that are across the world from each other, but that there is a connection even if its not physical," she says. Lulu Wang, the writer-director behind 'The Farewell. Then Lum sent back a tape. Come along for the ride! Struggling to understand her identity and her place in society, Joan keeps a low personal profile but is keen to share her thoughts with the wider world. 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.
