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 . 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. 3 Is Yet Another Big Marvel Movie Misstep, Rachel Weisz Doubles Down in Dead Ringers, To Love Tupac Was to Fight With Tupac: Why Allen Hughes Needed to Make Dear Mama, Academy Slaps Down New Rules After Andrea Riseborough, Tom Cruise, Michelle Yeoh Controversies, Here's Where to Watch 'Scream 6' (and All the 'Scream' Movies) Online, Ryan Murphy Sets Sights on Menndez Brothers for 'Monster' Season 2, White House Plumbers Gives Watergate the Veep Treatment and Misses Big, Roy Wood Jr. [12], The film had its premiere in the U.S. Nobody wants to tell my story. Excerpt from the Golden Globe Foreign-Language Film Symposium presented by the American Cinematheque and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association on Saturday, January 4, 2020 at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood. When asked about her own grandmother, Wang revealed that she only recently found out about her cancer. The film was screened in the U.S. Things that we don't see. 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. [34], Santa Barbara International Film Festival, "12 Cultural Easter Eggs in The Farewell, Explained", "Sundance Unveils Politics-Heavy Lineup Featuring Ocasio-Cortez Doc, Feinstein Drama", "Lulu Wang, the Director of 'The Farewell,' Explains That Surprise Ending", "10 Directors to Watch: Lulu Wang Shows Another Side of Awkwafina in 'The Farewell', "Awkwafina Leads 'The Farewell'; Marc Maron Brandishes 'Sword of Trust': Specialty Box Office Preview", "Lulu Wang's Grandmother Learned That She Has Cancer From The Farewell, Lulu Wang's Film About Not Telling Her Grandmother That She Has Cancer", "A24 Near WW Deal For Sundance Buzz Title 'The Farewell', "Sundance: Awkwafina Drama 'The Farewell' Lands at A24", "A24 Seeks Summer Box Office with Release Dates for 'The Farewell' and 'Last Black Man', "A Full Mandarin-Subtitled Version of 'The Farewell' is Coming to Theaters This Weekend", "Counterprogramming 'Crawl' & 'Stuber' Collateral Damage In Superhero Summer As 'Spider-Man' Climbs To $45M+ Update", "Hooray For 'Hollywood': Quentin Tarantino Sees His Biggest B.O. This felt like a real-life screwball comedy, but as the situation unfolded what was really interesting was how emotional the whole experience had been for me, but also how undramatic it was from an external perspective. Photo: courtesy of A24 Films. "[The studios] wanted it all in English, or as a very broad comedy," she told the Seattle Times. "It's so meta," said Wang with a laugh. [17] It expanded to 35 theaters in its second weekend and earned $1.14 million,[18] then made $1.5 million from 135 theaters in its third. Aspiring Chinese-American writer Billi maintains a close relationship with Nai Nai (paternal grandmother) who lives in Changchun, China. 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. But for me, going back and having agency allowed me to see the city as an adult. "It went into this whole conversation where I was like, 'Yeah, [in China] I had my grandma and then my other grandma and uncles. But while Wang's family's story has been broadcast on This American Life and on theater screens nationwide, The Farewell still hasn't hit China, and per IndieWire, the real Nai Naiwho is still alive despite the three-month prognosis given to her in 2013still hasn't seen it nor been told what exactly the movie is all about, though she does know it's "loosely based" on the family. And her friend saw a review of it and was so proud of her, one of her longest friends, and sent it to her.. 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. 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. Its a decision that both upset the American-raised Wang (who wanted to tell her), but also fascinated her, inspiring her to write and direct The Farewell, a bittersweet comedy drama thats in the process of becoming a genuine break-out hit after racking up higher per-screen averages than Avengers Endgame when it went on limited release in the US this summer. 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. Gallery The Best Twist Endings of All Time. Wang is much more sanguine now about the film industry too. Its so meta, said Wang with a laugh. In real life, Lulu Wang's cousin had recently married a Japanese woman. 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. The experience allowed Wang to prove to herself that she had the chops, initiative, and know-how to make a movie if she wanted to. Xiaojie Tan dreamed of traveling the world and celebrating her 50th birthday with her daughter.. Starring Awkwafina as a struggling writer in New York and based on a "true lie" from Wang's life, the film tells the story of a Chinese-American family that, upon learning their grandmother has cancer, decides not to tell her and instead stages a mock . ", "Barack Obama's Favorite Movies and TV Shows of 2019", "The 2020 Film Independent Spirit Award Nominees are Here! This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google, This website and its associated newspaper are members of Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO). ", 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. Awkwafina was cast as Billi, Wangs avatar, while her own aunt Hong Lu played the aunt in the film, Little Nai Nai. She also said yes when Peter Saraf, the cofounder of the production company Big Beach, proposed a lets-get-to-know-each-other chat. http://www.youtube.com/GoldenGlobes\r\rCONNECT WITH US\rWEB: http://www.goldenglobes.com\rFacebook: http://www.facebook.com/GoldenGlobes\rTwitter: http://twitter.com/goldenglobes\rInstagram: http://www.instagram.com/goldenglobes/ We want to hear it. So I feel like in a way, I now have an adult relationship with China, with the city.". [5], Lulu Wang faced whitewashing obstacles when pitching her film about a Chinese American family. Shes like, Well just tell her that movies are fiction and none of it actually happened. It will open in New York and Los Angeles on July 12. Wang told her shed send her some scenes. After all, her grandmother had lied to her grandfather when he was diagnosed with liver cancer when Wang was 10-years-old. I knew I had to make this film for me and anyone else who may be understood me, she said. After receiving a rejection letter for a Guggenheim Fellowship, Billi discovers from her parents, Haiyan and Jian, that Nai Nai has been diagnosed with terminal lung cancer, and is predicted to have only a few months left to live. It was 2016, and Lulu Wang was done with filmmaking. 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. That dialogue was inspired by a conversation Wang had with a friend who is American-born Chinese, unlike Wang who was born in China. 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. Then shed she ask, But what about the family, whats the story? But she was suffering a crisis of faith in the film industry she had worked so hard to be a part of. That immediacy of storytelling reminded me why I became a storyteller in the first place. It's a little astonishing that Wang was able to keep that secret from her grandmother, through the shooting ofThe Farewelland as the film garnered praise at film festivals and award shows. Incredibly, Nai Nai, and the family secret, survived long enough for her to discover both the deception . As she told The Hollywood Reporter, the fact that a script which was then named Nai Nai, the Chinese word for grandmother, and was written by an Asian-American woman had come across her radar was too unique to pass up. Copyright 2023 HistoryvsHollywood.com, CTF Media. When Lulu Wang's grandmother was diagnosed with a terminal illness, her family in China decided not to tell her, inspiring the US-based director to make culture-clash drama The Farewell. 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.. As much as The Farewell is about confronting loss, it's also distinctly about place. Director Lulu Wang's films are built on secrets and lies. Wang explained to. July 12, 2019, 12:15 PM. I was like, 'What?' Lulu Wang RUBEN V. NEPALES LOS ANGELESWriter-director Lulu Wang has quite a dilemma. And the review said, 'The film is based on Lulu Wong's real life. 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. Billi admits that she wants to stay in Changchun to spend more time with Nai Nai, but Nai Nai declines, telling her that she needs to live her own life. 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. Yes, I did, Wang says, laughing. Wang's grandmother even visited the set, which was shot at her hometown in China. In the film, the Chinese American woman played by Awkwafina, battles with her family . He just thought he was weird and got made fun of. When they were filming Awkwafinas tearful farewell to her screen grandmother, the real grandmother came up to her after an emotional take and kept inquiring, Whats wrong, why are you crying? The star had to bite her tongue. 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. When I come across people who have [original] stories they want to tell, they feel like they have to tell those stories in some other medium first in order to get any traction.. When Elisabeth Finch met Jennifer Beyer in 2019, the two women forged a fiercely loyal friendship, and eventually got married. Lulu Wang, the writer-director behind 'The Farewell. Instead, it was from marching across China when she was in the army. is nai nai from the farewell still alive. That was the contrast we needed., The whole purpose of the lie was to bring joy. 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. Id also come to accept that it wasnt my decision; it was my familys decision. Lulu Wang was in Berlin in 2013, editing her first film, when she got the call: Her grandmother in China, whod briefly taken her in when her parents fled the country in 1989, was terminally ill. Opening Of All-Time With $40M+ As 'Lion King' Still Lords With $76M+ Sunday Update", "How Universal Is Reviving The R-Rated Comedy & Making 'Good Boys' Great At The B.O. She decided to write out the tale of deceiving her grandmother as a short story. When they suggested her, the first thought I had was, Guys, I thought we were on the same page here. But we haven't talked about it, so I'll see what happens when I see her. The Farewell opens with a title card declaring that the film is "based on an actual lie" from director Lulu Wang's own life. Wang first told the story on an April 2016 episode of This American Life, which piqued the interest of various producers, allowing her to make the movie. National World Publishing Ltd. All rights reserved. The Farewell (Chinese: ; pinyin: Bi Gos T; lit. 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. That night, Nai Nai gives Billi a hngbo, encouraging her to spend the money as she chooses. Weve been able to stall her by telling her were not allowed to send it over. That lie is told by a . 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. Within two weeks, with the help of another production company, Big Beach, The Farewell was financed and Wang was busy banging out a script. "Whenever Im there with my family, I basically revert to a childlike state. 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.. Sign up here for our daily Thrillist email and subscribe here for our YouTube channel to get your fix of the best in food/drink/fun. A very broad, ethnic comedy.. It's true that doctors often break bad news to members of the family instead of the patients themselves. Walking down a busy street, she stops and thrusts her arms outward giving a loud, energy-expelling "HA!" They wanted it to be my big, fat Chinese wedding, said Wang of the investors on both sides of the world. Right after I found out I had gotten in to Sundance, she notes, I was with my same friend at the same restaurant. You dont really have any agency. [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. [13][14] It was released in the United States on July 12, 2019. ", 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. It was awkward to keep the secret when the grandmother visited the filming, a block from her home. This idea of being in a room with a mic and knowing that once I recorded, within the next three days, people all over the world would hear it, she said. But if I sort of compromised, and it didnt do well, and I left the industry, I would forever regret it.. Wang and cinematographer Anna Franquesa Solano. Let's get back to my interview with Lulu Wang. The Farewell is a bilingual film in English and Mandarin Chinese. My mom's a writer and my dad was a former diplomat and they would be in the apartment. I just knew her music videos, because my brother was a fan. (There are mild spoilers ahead.). And then I met a friend from college for dinner right after and I just started crying. There are other people who look like me as a whole.' Filmmaker, alumna Lulu Wang '05 will discuss "The Farewell" at virtual event March 25. Spend more than a few minutes in Wangs company, and you realize that she has zero interest in anything even close to pandering. Advertise with us (Opens in new window) 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. But what about the real grandmother that the story is based on? Her Nai Nai is still very much alive, six years on, and the family still havent told her about her illness a testament, perhaps, to the benefits of the lie, but also a development that has necessitated additional layers of screwball-like subterfuge. And thats not the story I want to tell or the movie I want to make. And making this film brought joy to all of us." After Wangs short film Touch played a few festivals, she found herself talking to the radio shows producer, Neil Drumming. The filmcloses with an even more shocking title card: Six years after her diagnosis,Wangs real Nai Nai is still alive. And that feels very limiting, at least for me. July 16, 2019. Her family threw a fake wedding for her cousin from Japan and her grandmother didn't know. Is this evidence that there's some truth to the line in the film, "People dont die of the cancer, they die of the fear"? Little Nainai is certain her big sister is still alive because of her decision to lie to her, because we gave Nainai joy instead of . She wasnt suspicious; everybody on the crew knew not to tell her. She knew she had a film in the personal tale of her Chinese familys quest to keep her aging grandmother in the dark about her cancer diagnosis. Her Nai Nai was played by 75-year-old veteran Chinese star Shuzhen Zhao. The film shoot offered her an extended period of time with her grandmother, time in her neighborhood, where Wang would often find herself running up to her Nai Nais apartment to use the restroom, returning with armloads of snacks for the crew. Jian Yongbo, Kmamura Aio, Chen Han, Tzi Ma, Awkwafina, Li Ziang, Tzi Ma, Lu Hong and Zhao Shuzhen in. Hed seen her movie, loved her voice, was interested in working with her on something. And so she said to little Nai Nai, her sister, who plays herself in the movie, she said, I just thought that you were really daft, because you went and shot a movie, you went to the premiere in New York, and you come back and you cant tell me anything about it.
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