With A $21M Opening", "Keira Knightley in 'Official Secrets' and Molly Ivins Doc 'Raise Hell' Lead New Openers", "Awkwafina Proves She's More Than a Comedian in The Farewell", "Is The Farewell the olive branch the US-China culture war needs? But Wang elaborated that her grandmother only knew it was a "family story" and actually encouraged her to shoot the film at their hometown. Instead of toasting, Wang, who still desperately wanted to adapt her story for the big screen, burst into tears. 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. There was no fear while we were there. [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. The lie has allowed me to spend so much time with my grandmother in China, shooting a movieall kinds of scenarios that I never dreamed possible, said Wang, who has made peace with her familys orchestrated deception. During the conversation, her mother told her that she would not be permitted to tell her grandma the truth, no matter how much she thought it was the right thing to do. This caught the attention of producer Chris Weitz who helped secure financing for the film. 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. A Chinese family discovers their grandmother has only a short while left to live and decide to keep her in the dark, scheduling a wedding to gather before she dies. Wang's Nai Nai is still alive today but hasn't seen the film because she still doesn't know. Then Lum sent back a tape. 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. And then we went to America and it was just the three of us," she says. The experience of working with This American Life had been so amazing and so pure. 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. Lulu Wang's deeply personal, disarmingly universal story of culture clash and family grief became an indie phenomenon when it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival last year.Based on Wang's own . She also said yes when Peter Saraf, the cofounder of the production company Big Beach, proposed a lets-get-to-know-each-other chat. And, yet, as much as Billi disagrees with her family's decision, she also feels an inexorable pull toward the country in which she was born. "I imagine once the movie comes out, she will have to find some kind of way to still put up this front. "I got to see the city in a different way because I think when you look back on places that youre from or the places where you spent a lot of time as a child, you are viewing it through a romantic lens and a nostalgic lens," she says. 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. Who else can I talk to about this, Lulu? The Farewell, Wangs dramedy about her experience, turns her misadventure into a funny, bittersweet story about a Chinese-American woman named Billi (Crazy Rich Asians Awkwafina) caught between maintaining a shiny, happy deception and the painful process of saying goodbye to a loved one. 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. She explored the possibility of turning her life into a film, but when she couldnt secure enough funding, she insteadtold her storyon an episode ofThis American Life,which featured interviews with the other members of her family minus the real Nai Nai, whowas still alive, andstillclueless about her fatal diagnosis. And thats not the story I want to tell or the movie I want to make. 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. I thought I might as well give it a try, said Weitz, who was drawn to the conundrum at the center of the film, the notion that lying to a loved one can actually be a good thing. ButThe Farewell makes its debut in Chinese theaters onJanuary 25, 2019, which made it more likely that Wang's grandmother would find out and, of course, it was a Chinese-language review sent to her by a friend that would reveal it. 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.". Sharing her story first as an episode of the NPR podcast and radio show This American Life back in 2016, Wang realised the amount of internal conflict that she was struggling with as she tried to respect her familys wishes and process her own grief at the imminent loss of her Nai Nai was what made the story interesting. Energetically, she wasnt going to fit in with everybody else. I dont know, she replied. A writer and classical pianist by trade, Wang, who was born in Beijing and immigrated to Miami when she was six, first told her absurdist family drama as a short story and then as a podcast, in collaboration with This American Life and producer Neil Drumming. But what about the real grandmother that the story is based on? Yes. 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. [28] Richard Lawson of Vanity Fair wrote, "Wang movingly tells not just a story about the negotiations of familial love, but also of the immigrant experience, of revisiting one's homeland to, in some senses, say goodbye to it. However, the true story behind The Farewell revealed that Lulu Wang's grandma was still alive when the movie was released in 2019. Filming there allowed her to spend a lot more time with her grandmother (NPR). She knew it was about the family that was obvious. Its already been dubbed a bona fide indie blockbuster success, and it doesnt even go into national release until August 2nd. All rights reserved. Wang's crew would even stop in her grandmother's apartment for bathroom breaks while scouting locations around the neighborhood. . "[27] Christy Lemire writing for RogerEbert.com gave the film 4 out of 4 stars, saying Zhao Shuzhen is "the most frequent source of laughs", but went on to say that "as delightful as [Zhao] is in this crucial, central role, she will also quietly rip your heart out by the film's end". Ad Choices. Throughout the trip, however, she clashes with the rest of the family over their deliberate dishonesty towards her grandmother. Gallery The Best Twist Endings of All Time. Wang had been here before; she assumed most of the sit-downs would start off well before the inevitable Yes, but what if shoe dropped. 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. "We couldn't tell her what the movie was about!" And so thats why I made the film.. To Wang, her story was nothing like that. Wang's grandmother even visited the set, which was shot at her hometown in China. 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. Every time I finish a film, its kind of depressing because you're kind of at the end but kind of at the beginning again, and youre just excited but also unsure, she said. There was just one problem. Based on Wangs own life, the film centres on a Chinese American womans family refusal to tell the grandmother that she has cancer. The Farewell screens at the Glasgow Youth Film Festival on 13 September and goes on nationwide release on 20 September. Jian Yongbo, Kmamura Aio, Chen Han, Tzi Ma, Awkwafina, Li Ziang, Tzi Ma, Lu Hong and Zhao Shuzhen appear in a still from The Farewellby Lulu Wang. As much as The Farewell is about confronting loss, it's also distinctly about place. [11] However, she added that her main source of inspiration came from "spending time with Lulu's family at their home in Changchun, during pre-production. It's true that doctors often break bad news to members of the family instead of the patients themselves. And the review said, The film is based on Lulu Wongs real life. Yes, I did, Wang says, laughing. They just want to put me in this box, andunless I can do this kind of storytelling, its not worth it for me to do all that.. Its kind of an interesting insecurity in the film business right now. Filmmaker, alumna Lulu Wang '05 will discuss "The Farewell" at virtual event March 25. Theres a version of this movie in some alternate universe where the laughs are broad, your heartstrings are constantly under attack, everyone learns a life lesson, and youre left with the recognizable taste of saccharine in your mouth. I got to share the American part of my life with my family in China and the Chinese part of my life with my colleagues. 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. The episode also gave her the high card and the courage to ask for everything she wanted. "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 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. "[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. But we haven't talked about it, so I'll see what happens when I see her. That was the added bonus, to get to spend time with her." My great-aunt is here [in New York] for the premiere today, so I was asking her what we should do. 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 . "Six years after her diagnosis, Nai Nai is still with us," reads a caption at the . -People. In the film, the Chinese American woman played by Awkwafina, battles with her family to keep the secret. 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. [My grandmother] actually just found out, Wang said. Wang's mother told her over the phone, not in person like in the movie. You can't tell me the title. "[25] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 89 out of 100 based on 47 critic reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". 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.'" Shereturned to her hometown in China and even Nai Nais house! 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. Yes. Is that the question? "Whether or not we will keep the secret is up in the air, because we want to show her the movie," the director recently told IndieWire. Casi Moss/Courtesy of Big Beach. Then Wangs relatives fast-tracked a cousins planned wedding as an excuse for everyone to visit the elderly matriarch one last time. (After that, it was, You did this once already and youre so young Ang Lee didnt make his first movie until he was in his thirties and he was supported by his wife. That was always their reference point.) But Wang didnt relish the idea of repeating that disappointment or selling out. "This was our plan," says Lulu Wang, "a giant goodbye party disguised as a giant wedding banquet." The Farewell opens with a title card declaring that the film is "based on an actual lie" from director Lulu Wang's own life.

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