Dir: Lulu Wang (2019)

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Awkwafina
Shuzhen Zhao
Diana Lin
Tzi Ma

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The Farewell tells the emotionally driven story, told from Billi’s (Awkwafina) perspective, about a family who make the decision not to tell their beloved Grandmother that she has been diagnosed with a fatal case of lung cancer. In China it is known as a tradition to keep fatal illness’s a secret, they believe that this elongates life and keeps the person in a happier mind set.

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There was so much of this film that I absolutely adore, it’s easy for me to sit here and say “it’s just perfect” because I genuinely think this is as close to a perfect film as you can get. It was full of heart and passion and shocking scenes to leave you thinking about it even days after. The storytelling was so well paced that you almost couldn’t sense the time passing. Performance wise, it was incredibly strong. It was so nice to see Awkwafina be pushed beyond her comfort zone and thrown into the deep end with this emotionally driven story. 

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There were elements of it that would categorise it as a comedy, there were a number of scenes which had the audience in stitches only to then be completely spun on its head and have you reaching for the tissues.

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It was shot in a very realistic manor, almost like it was on a handy cam by someone intruding on their family time. I didn’t feel the presence of the camera and I think that was the intension, at times it felt almost invasive, like we were creeping around whilst this passionate story unfolds.

The scenery was brilliantly selected, likely to be chosen to reflect the residential home life of the subjects real life. As this was completely based on a true story, or a “true lie” as they call it at the start of the film, it had a real residential feel to it, almost like it could have been filmed in the real home of the characters of which it’s based on.  

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The characters were all motivated by the strength of their family, despite the hardship that they had all been through and the harder times to come. The inclusion of the wedding scene portrayed humour and comfort within a family going through some of the worst times of their lives. The characters, although based on real people, seemed to contain so much love and innocence, particularly Nai Nai, portrayed so wholesomely by Shuzhen Zhao.

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I found that the script was very sub-plot heavy, not to say this is necessarily a bad thing, if anything it helped us prioritise the elements of the story that were important to the characters. Things that may normally seem very important to people such as an addictive drinking habit, relationship turmoil, unemployment etc. would all be considered huge drags on the family, but in this story we are trained to put these elements of Billi’s life to one side and focus on what’s truly important. 

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I would absolutely watch this film again, it’s full of heart and honesty with some of the rawest performances I’ve seen all year.