The Farewell

The Farewell
Name	The Farewell
Director	Lulu Wang
Writer	Lulu Wang
Starring	Awkwafina, Tzi Ma, Zhao Shuzhen, Diana Lin, Lu Hong, Jiang Yongbo
Music	Alex Weston
Cinematography	Anna Franquesa Solano
Editing	Benjamin Kasulke
Studio	Big Beach, Huayi Brothers, New Republic Pictures
Distributor	A24
Released	2019
Runtime	100 minutes
Country	United States, China
Language	English, Mandarin

The Farewell is a 2019 comedy-drama film written and directed by Lulu Wang, depicting a Chinese-American family's decision to keep a terminal diagnosis from their matriarch during a family gathering in Changchun. The film stars Awkwafina and features performances by Tzi Ma and Zhao Shuzhen, exploring diasporic identity, filial piety, and cross-cultural tensions between the United States and China. It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and received acclaim from critics and film institutions for its screenplay, direction, and lead performance.

Plot

The narrative follows Billi, a young Chinese-American woman living in New York City, who learns from her parents and extended family in Changchun that her grandmother, Nai Nai, has been diagnosed with terminal cancer. The family organizes an impromptu wedding as a pretext to gather several relatives from cities such as Shanghai, Beijing, and Los Angeles, while agreeing to withhold the prognosis from Nai Nai based on cultural norms rooted in Confucian filial customs and contemporary practices in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Billi struggles between Western individualist perspectives influenced by New York and Boston connections and Eastern collectivist values represented by Shanghai elders, leading to confrontations at family meals, on WeChat group chats, and during visits to hospitals and local markets. The plot interweaves scenes that recall films like Roma, Parasite, Moonlight, and Lady Bird in its intimate focus on family, migration, grief, and memory.

Cast

The ensemble cast includes Awkwafina in the lead role alongside veteran actors Tzi Ma and Zhao Shuzhen, supported by Diana Lin, Lu Hong, Jiang Yongbo, and several relatives cast from Chinese theatre and television backgrounds. The casting choices evoke intersections with actors from Hollywood productions such as Crazy Rich Asians, The Joy Luck Club, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and The King and I adaptations. Directors and performers associated with festivals like Sundance, Cannes, Venice, Toronto, and Telluride often appear in similar international co-productions, connecting the film to industry figures represented by agencies like Creative Artists Agency and William Morris Endeavor.

Production

Development began after Lulu Wang's autobiographical short and radio essays, drawing on experiences in Boston, New York, and Changchun. Financing involved independent producers and companies with ties to A24, Big Beach, Huayi Brothers, and New Republic Pictures, and the production navigated co-production norms between the United States and China, interacting with regulatory bodies such as the Chinese Film Administration and the Motion Picture Association. Principal photography took place on location in Changchun and in New York City, with cinematography influenced by works from Emmanuel Lubezki, Roger Deakins, and cinematographers of contemporary independent cinema. The production design referenced domestic interiors similar to those in films by Wong Kar-wai, Ang Lee, Spike Lee, and Greta Gerwig, while post-production editing echoed rhythms found in films distributed by Neon, Focus Features, and Sony Pictures Classics.

Themes and analysis

Critics and scholars have linked the film's themes to diasporic literature by authors like Amy Tan, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Maxine Hong Kingston, and to films by directors including Mike Leigh, Pedro Almodóvar, and Yasujiro Ozu for its family tableaux and tonal shifts between comedy and pathos. The film interrogates notions of filial piety grounded in Confucius and examined in sinological studies, juxtaposing American legal and medical frameworks like HIPAA and the hospice movement with Chinese medical practices and hospital dynamics in Changchun and Shanghai. Themes of assimilation and identity recall theories from sociologists such as Pierre Bourdieu and Benedict Anderson, while its use of bilingual dialogue and code-switching echoes research in linguistics from Noam Chomsky and Deborah Tannen. The portrayal of intergenerational memory and migration resonates with works in memory studies and transnational studies linked to institutions like Harvard, Columbia, Stanford, and Berkeley.

Release and reception

The film premiered at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival and subsequently screened at international festivals including Cannes, Toronto International Film Festival, New York Film Festival, and Telluride Film Festival, before a theatrical release handled by A24 in the United States and various distributors in China and Europe. Reviews in publications such as The New York Times, The Guardian, Los Angeles Times, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, and The Atlantic praised the screenplay and Awkwafina's performance, with commentary from critics referencing predecessors like Frances McDormand performances, films by Paul Thomas Anderson, and actresses represented at the Academy Awards. Audience response on platforms similar to Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic reflected high scores, while box office results compared with other indie successes from Focus Features and Searchlight Pictures.

Awards and nominations

The film received nominations and awards from institutions including the Golden Globe Awards, Screen Actors Guild, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, and the Academy Awards, with particular recognition for screenplay and lead performance categories. Festivals and critics' circles such as the National Board of Review, Critics' Choice Association, and various film critics' societies honored the director and cast, aligning the film with previous award-season contenders like Nomadland, Marriage Story, Little Women, and 1917.

Category:2019 films Category:American films Category:Chinese films