The Farewell

I wasn't able to see The Farewell during the Sundance Film Festival so I have been looking forward to its wide release.  I had to wait a few days because I have been so busy lately but I finally saw it last night and I had quite a reaction to this beautiful and poignant movie.  When Billi (Awkwafina), a young Chinese-born writer struggling to find her way in New York City, receives the news that her grandmother Nai Nai (Zhao Shuzhen) is dying of cancer and only has a few months to live, she is bewildered when the rest of her extended family decide not to tell her.  Instead, a wedding is planned for Billi's cousin Hao Hao (Chen Han) and his Japanese girlfriend Aiko (Aoi Mizuhara) in China as an excuse for the entire family to get together to say their goodbyes to Nai Nai.  Billi is incredibly conflicted about this but ultimately has a meaningful visit with her grandmother who encourages her to keep following her dreams.  This movie is so funny because it is such an authentic portrayal of family relationships and I found myself laughing out loud many times at the wry comedic situations.  In my opinion, this movie is also a touching exploration of identity. Billi is constantly told that her objections to the lie they are telling her grandmother are because she is too Westernized but she idealizes the China she remembers from her childhood when she gets angry with her father for talking about the advantages of living in America.  There were several scenes that brought tears to my eyes because they mirrored my own personal experience of moving away from family to another country.  As her family drives around Changchun, Billi recognizes her grandmother's old neighborhood and asks them to take her back because she has happy memories there.  The last time I was in Canada I asked my Dad to drive me to my grandmother's old house for the exact same reason.  In another scene, an emotional Billi lashes out at her mother (Diana Lin) for moving her away from China and her family.  She is especially angry that she was not able to go to her grandfather's funeral because, the next time she visited China, he was gone and it was hard for her to reconcile it.  I felt the same way when I visited Canada after my grandfather died.  There is a beautiful scene near the end of the movie where Billi and her family are leaving to go back to the U.S.  The camera shows Nai Nai in the middle of the street crying as she watches their taxi drive away.  This absolutely gutted me because I have a distinct memory of looking out of the window from the car at my grandmother standing in her driveway and crying as my family drove away.  That is the last time I saw her.  I was openly sobbing for the rest of the movie and I had to sit through all of the credits before I could compose myself enough to leave the theater.  Awkwafina (who is so funny in Ocean's 8 and Crazy Rich Asians) gives a wonderful performance that is very subtle but incredibly powerful.  It is one of the best performances I have seen all year!  My reaction to this movie is definitely based on my own personal frame of reference but I think the themes are universal enough for everyone to enjoy it.  I loved it and I highly recommend it!