The Farewell
Short description
The Farewell centres on Billi, a Chinese-American woman living in New York whose close tie to her grandmother in China pulls her back when the family learns the older woman has a terminal illness. Rather than tell her, the relatives keep the diagnosis from her and arrange a hastily planned wedding as a reason for everyone to gather and see her one last time. Billi, unable to accept the deception, finds herself at odds with the family consensus while reconnecting with the country and relatives she left behind.
Lulu Wang wrote and directed the film, following her earlier feature Posthumous. Awkwafina leads as Billi, with Zhao Shuzhen as Nai Nai, Tzi Ma and Diana Lin as her parents, and Hong Lu and Hong Lin among the credited cast of 38. The film was made for about 3 million dollars and took roughly 23 million worldwide, a strong return on its production cost.
Audience response has been warm: on IMDb it holds 7.5/10 from around 75,000 votes, and on TMDB 7.4/10 from a much smaller base of about 1,600. A critics' rating of 8.5/10 across 350 reviews places it noticeably above those audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- The film's idea is based on a real-life story from Lulu Wang’s life – as shown in the film, Lulu’s family once lied to her grandmother about a diagnosis that offered no hope. This was done in a futile attempt to prolong her life, even just a little. The plot element involving a wedding where all relatives gather, giving them another opportunity to see their grandmother, is also taken from real life.
- At the table, they tell a joke about a dead cat and a mother on the roof. The same joke was told by Sam Waterston's character while climbing rocks in the desert in Peter Hyams' thriller "Capricorn One" (1977).
- In searching for funding, Lulu Wang faced serious problems. American producers objected to the all-Asian cast and demanded she add characters of Caucasian descent to the plot. Chinese financiers believed the entire story was too American in spirit and also insisted on adding white characters to the plot.
- In the scene where Billy, Haiyan, and Haibin rush to the hospital, they speak in Chinese, but no subtitles appear on the screen. This was done to emphasize the universal feeling of confusion.
- Screenwriter and director Lulu Wang stated in an interview that she seriously miscalculated the amounts of fees she had to pay to actors from China. For example, Zhou Shuzhen, who played the role of Nai Nai, is very popular in China itself, and Wang had to personally persuade her to take on the role.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
