American Movie: The Farewell (2019)
Genre: family, drama
Starring: Awkwafina, Zhao Shu Zhen, Tzi Ma, Diana Lin
Released: July 2019
Watched: July 2019 in theatres
I like how since I heard about the movie (a week after it came out), I wanted to go watch it, but the only AMCs that had it were the two in Burbank (an hour drive+)… And then a week later, after meaning to drive over and watch it, it comes out in Atlantic Times Square (which I go over to often…)… It makes no sense because why would Burbank have it before Atlantic Times Square… ATS has all like Chinese-speaking people…
WATCHED IT BECAUSE...
Akwafina’s in it, and she’s fun… although it seemed like it would be quite different from her other roles… But anyhow, support Asian (American) actors!! And also, the ratings for the movie are so good!
THE REVIEW/THOUGHTS
I wanted to watch the movie as soon as I heard about it and saw the ratings on Rotten Tomatoes… But I actually hadn’t watched the trailer for it until a few days later (so yeah, I was going to watch it even without seeing a trailer). Anyhow, after watching the trailer, I wanted to see it even more… Because it’s family stuff… and I cry so much with family stuff.
The Farewell follows Chinese-American woman, Billi (Akwafina), as she learns about her grandmother’s stage 4 lung cancer and as she watches her parents and relatives hide this diagnosis from her grandmother. Under the guise of her only cousin’s wedding in China, Billi and her relatives reunite in China.
The movie is like 75% in (Beijing Mandarin) Chinese, so there are subtitles. Keep in mind that this is an Indie movie, so the feel is different from mainstream playing-everywhere motion pictures. It’s more artistic, and you can really tell. There are some shots/scenes that are unusual—not bad, but slightly surprising for someone who isn’t familiar with independent films. Most noticeable is the mood of the movie—the whole 1.5ish hours is very somber throughout. From what I briefly read and what I know of Awkwafina, I expected there to be a lot of LOL moments, but actually I didn’t feel like there were.
Something that was particularly interesting for me was seeing the audience that was watching this movie. Around 3PM, I booked my seat for my 7:45PM showing, and the whole theatre was basically full (granted it was also a Friday night). The audience, to my surprise, was primarily white/Caucasian/non-Asian. So what I really took notice of was where they laughed in the movie. There weren’t like crazy everyone-is-roaring-in-unison moments, but there were several spots where a lot of the audience laughed or chuckled… and I actually sort of felt awkward/confused at these parts where they laughed. It was weird.. like I didn’t feel offended or anything, but it just seemed strange (since I didn’t think those parts were particularly funny). But I guess if anything, it’s sort of cultural: what they saw as silly or funny or lovable/laughable, seemed pretty regular. For instance, the grandma (奶奶 nai nai, grandma in Mandarin) often calls Billi 傻孩子 sha hai zi, which the subtitles translated as “stupid child” (although I feel like “foolish child” is more accurate. Everytime Nai Nai called her that, some of the audience laughed, but it’s so regular… I mean then again, I guess they would also be surprised to hear that other nicknames for kids in Chinese can range anything from “fat cow” or “fattie” to “fartie” or “big head”… Nicknames for people in Chinese are no joke man.
Anyhow, the characters are all very unique. The hunched Billi is seemingly independent but struggles by herself, conflicted at the roads that cross between her American-ness and understanding her Chinese culture. I think her parents are a little bit too traditional with her, which is weird because they seemed more Americanized than my parents. (Honestly, I’m still always surprised at Asian adults my age who speak English well. I, in no way, mean that they are the perpetual foreigner, but all of the adult relatives I grew up with don’t speak superfluent English…) Nai nai is a strong-hearted strong woman who feels that she still needs to do everything for her family, like planning her grandson’s wedding and arguing about the promised lobster menu.
The cousin who lives in Japan is quite interesting, and being the language-person that I am, I must point out the discrepancies: he doesn’t speak Chinese well (he has like one line the whole time), but he does seem well aware of what’s going on. Given this, then his Japanese must be a lot better than his Chinese. However, he barely talks in the movie, not even to his fiance, Aiko (Ai Zi). Even when they’re taking wedding photos, it’s the mom who has to translate into Japanese for Aiko, NOT him. But it seems like he DOES understand Chinese, then why can’t he translate into Japanese for his wife? Also, there’s a scene during the wedding when he’s singing a Japanese song with Aiko on stage. They’re singing it acappella and I don’t know if he doesn’t know the song or the words; it IS meant to be super awkward and silly, but at the same time… He should know Japanese… (Again, I know there are exceptions, BUT he supposedly GREW UP in Japan AND is getting married to a Japanese woman…. The latter of which is like a for-certain way to learn a language, says my adviser’s adviser.)
The wedding was pretty interesting to see, since I just attended Wei’s cousin’s wedding in Chinese back in December 2018. It seems a little over-the-top (not to criticize other cultures), but I wasn’t used to anything like this. I’ve only attended…. 6? American(/fusion?) weddings, but Chinese weddings are so different. Values and whatnot are so different. Weddings are all about flaunting wealth (which is why the grandma was so upset about the crab-not-lobster on the wedding menu). It’s usually the parents who invite all of their coworkers and coworkers’ families and every single person that lives on the block. If you know a politician or something, they should be there too. There’s a LOT of food, and maybe the servers will parade around the room before they set a dish out. The part that surprised me the most is when people come in t-shirt and jeans. Overall, it just doesn’t seem like the stars are the couple being wedded… And so I guess this goes back to a theme that was being made in the movie: in the West, people are self-centered and individualistic, while in the East people are more family-oriented and part of society as a whole. Honestly though, Chinese weddings I feel like are more about money and power than family. Also, I don’t think weddings in all East Asian countries are like these either…
Last thought: Super kudos to Awkwafina. She’s amazing in the sense that her Mandarin pronunciation isn’t very accurate at all, but she speaks it throughout the whole movie, putting herself in front of everyone that watches the movie. I kept comparing how I speak Mandarin to hers, and I would say that my pronunciation is a definitely a little better… but I don’t speak enough, which is something I’m not proud of. Despite her language barrier, she still tries, and that’s really commendable.
SPOILERS
(highlight below to read)
“So Billi was supposed to get a fellowship for something, but she didn’t get it. She’s a writer? But it’s a little unclear of her background situation, other than she’s behind on rent but doesn’t want to ask her parents for money. Her parents are super critical. When she figures out something is wrong with her grandma, of course she wants to go back. Her parents don’t want her to which is crazy, because it seems that Billi is very close with her grandmother. She and her parents speak in English.
When she sees her uncle, her uncle does say something super meaningful that I keep remembering now: the reason that they don’t want to tell Nai Nai that she’s dying is because as a family, they want to take the burden off of her. If they tell her, she has to deal with the fact that she’s dying, and the family doesn’t have the guilt of keeping the truth from her. BUT, by bearing the guilt, the family also deals with the sadness amongst themselves, and Grandma doesn’t have to. This explanation was really profound for me.
As I keep saying, the wholeee movie is so somber. As a moviegoer (as you could tell by what I wrote up there ^), I knew it would be sad and I was basically waiting to see Billi break down and cry over hearing the death of her nai nai. It was really sad when they were leaving… Billi told her grandma that she would come back and visit and see her soon, and that part I could hear people sniffling. I think I also teared up a little bit. I couldn’t help but think of every time I have to leave my ah ma in Taiwan.
The first line of the movie, written in text was “Based on an actual lie.” (which people laughed at…) I didn’t know if this was based on a true story (I think it’s loosely based on director/writer Lulu Wang’s family). BUT THE PART THAT DID IT FOR ME WAS… At the end of the movie, Billi is back in NYC, walking the streets, feeling sad. And then she channels her inner grandma and taichi(?) yells, “HA!” The screen turns black, and then a video of a grandma comes up and she’s doing the taichi movements that Nai Nai was teaching Billi. The text underneath it says something like, “6 years later, Nai Nai is still living.”
I actually didn’t cry, but I was like.. !!! And maybe a little teary-happy. And then I left the theater, talked to Wei a bit, and while I was driving home, I told him about the movie… And then I could feel it. I was starting to get that weird choked up-ness and I had to keep stopping since I couldn’t explain things. And finally, I told him the ending, and I started crying so much. Because I was so happy. Happy crying gets me all the time. ”
</spoilers>
OST/MUSIC
I can’t remember, but it was also very somber. Overall, it wasn’t my style of music, but the instrumentals really did add to the mellowness of the movie.
OVERALL
- Did I cry? Yes (albeit a little delayed).
- Should you watch it? To support Asian actors, yes; to learn a little more about Chinese culture, yes; if you’re a family person, yes. If you’re expecting something super hilarious (like Awkwafina’s main type of stuff), no. If you want to be mellow, yes.
-huay