NZIFF: A family comes together based on 'a true lie' in The Farewell

The Farewell (2019), billed as being "based on a true lie," tells the story of Chinese-American woman Billi (Awkwafina), who travels from New York to Changchun, northeast China, to get the family together one last time to see her ailing grandmother under the pretext of her cousin (Chen Han)'s hastily-arranged marriage.

Billi's grandmother (Zhao Shuzhen), known affectionately as Nai Nai, remains in the dark about her terminal lung cancer diagnosis, with her family believing that it is the fear which kills you ("Chinese people have a saying: When people get cancer, they die"). While the lie is a common cultural practice in China, Billi struggles with the notion, with her parents deciding to leave her at home over her inability to hide her obvious distress.

From the very outset, the driving force behind the film lies in Billi's sense of cultural dislocation - of not being American or Chinese enough - and the anchoring power of her relationship with Nai Nai despite their time and distance apart. Their interactions are full of warmth and heartbreak in equal measure as they talk over the backdrop of a kitschy wedding photoshoot, practice tai chi together and reminisce about Billi's childhood in China, now lost to a sea of identical apartment blocks. 

The film, based on director Lulu Wang's own experiences, shows the family as they learn to come together again as part of a collective whole through a lavish wedding banquet - all the while navigating the intersecting identities of East and West, parent and child and the nuance of intergenerational relationships. While the film is located within a particular cultural lens, The Farewell is universal in its deft handling of a family attempting to hide their grief. 

If Jon Chu's Crazy Rich Asians (2018) proves that Asian stories with largely Asian casts can lead commercially successful romance films, The Farewell shows how films can be highly specific, yet accessible to people who belong outside its frame of reference.

The Farewell is screening at the New Zealand International Film Festival.