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He goes, Hey, do you remember when we had that conversation here, and you said youd never feel this creatively satisfied again? Lulu Wang's grandmother learned she had cancer from 'The - Resonate Once its released in China, thats going to be trickier, but that date hasnt been set yet so everyone is like, Well deal with that problem when it actually comes.. The film is based in part on director Wang's life experiences, which she first publicly discussed as part of her radio story What You Don't Know, which appeared as part of an episode of This American Life. To me, its a very American story because Im American, and its just about me going back to a place where I dont understand and Im trying to understand, she said. I got to share the American part of my life with my family in China and the Chinese part of my life with my colleagues. Lulu learned five years ago that her grandmother, her father's mother or, in Chinese, her Nai Nai had stage-four lung cancer; the doctor said she had three months left to live. There was just one problem. And by the time we made the film, everyone was in China because they understood my perspective. Well, she remembers telling him, there was this one thing about my grandmother. The lie wasnt her grandmas illness: in 2013, her Chinese grandmother, or Nai Nai, really was diagnosed with cancer and given three months to live. Lulu Wang's Grandmother Has Just Learned That 'The Farewell' Is About In the film, the Chinese American woman played by Awkwafina, battles with her family to keep the secret. I felt like if people dont get it, but I made the film I set out to make, then I could be proud of it. It stars Awkwafina, Tzi Ma, Diana Lin, and Zhao Shuzhen. "I said something that she responded to which was: 'In China, I felt whole because I had my entire family and then I came to the U.S.,'" Wang says, "She was saying she's never felt whole in her life. I have a fat face and Im going to ruin everything. Finally, one day I sat my great-aunt down and said, Listen, we all love you, but if this is going to be difficult for you emotionally. And she told me, No, I have to do this. Jian Yongbo, Kmamura Aio, Chen Han, Tzi Ma, Awkwafina, Li Ziang, Tzi Ma, Lu Hong and Zhao Shuzhen appear in a still from The Farewellby Lulu Wang. Lulus very-much-alive grandmother still didnt know about her cancer diagnosis. The Farewell True Story: What Happened To The Real Nai Nai - Screen Rant Filmmaker Lulu Wang Based 'The Farewell' On Her Family's Real - NPR The film follows a Chinese American family who, upon learning their grandmother has only a short while left to live, decide not to tell her and schedule a family gathering before she dies. Sign up here for our daily Thrillist email and subscribe here for our YouTube channel to get your fix of the best in food/drink/fun. Well send you our daily roundup of all our favorite stories from across the site, from travel to food to shopping to entertainment. She wrote and directed the new film "The Farewell," which is based on her experience after her Chinese grandmother was diagnosed with stage 4 lung . It's that this familyare are linked across continents; their intangible bonds expressed perfectly in that final visual. Shooting around the real Nai Nai created an extra challenge for the cast and crew who had to make sure they didn't let anything slip. So I can hang out with you?' Casi Moss/Courtesy of Big Beach. She was 80 years old, and my family, for reasons I'll get into in a minute, decided not to tell her. After Wangs short film Touch played a few festivals, she found herself talking to the radio shows producer, Neil Drumming. That lie is told by a . So I feel like in a way, I now have an adult relationship with China, with the city.". We couldnt tell her what the movie was about! Wang says. There's energy. A few other ideas for potential sophomore projects started to take shape here and there. [11] In an interview with Filmmaker, cinematographer Anna Franquesa Solano stated that the references for the film included Force Majeure and Still Walking. In a way I guess we were all entangled. This is therapy to me.'. 2023 Cond Nast. Send us a tip using our anonymous form. But look, it says in the newspaper it's calledDon't Tell Her, and that's why you didn't tell me, because I am the 'her' of the 'don't tell her.'" But: What if the main character is the bride, she breaks up with her white boyfriend, they have to get married to keep this lie to Grandma going, and then guess who falls back in love, and., Its like, I see the film youre envisioning because that film already exists! Wang adds. Lulu Wang's Nai Nai did join the Chinese Army at age 14 to escape an arranged marriage. Excerpt from the Golden Globe Foreign-Language Film Symposium presented by the American Cinematheque and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association on Saturday, January 4, 2020 at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood. [19] It continued to expand in the following weeks, making $2.4 million from 426 theaters and then $2.2 million from 705 theaters. So I was driven to make the film by the juxtaposition of love and joy with grief and being angry with my family, but on some level understanding it at the same time, and just having a lot of questions and not having any answers for them., If I talked to my American friends, would have the American answer, and then my family would have the Chinese answer, the Chinese American director said. They had all their friends over talking about literature and movies and culture and drinking and smoking, and Im a kid and I would wake up in the middle of the night and they would be like, 'come join us,' and there was just a sense of community and family and friends, and it all made sense. It was, in her words, an oasis in the middle of all of the Hollywood nonsense. It was on the air within a month. [17] It expanded to 35 theaters in its second weekend and earned $1.14 million,[18] then made $1.5 million from 135 theaters in its third. "[30] Brian Lowry of CNN.com described it as a "small, melancholy movie that explores cultural differences and dealing with death in an utterly charming, understated manner. Breaks Down His Killer White House Correspondents Dinner Set, New Jeans, Rina Sawayama, Saweetie Among Gold House A100 Honorees, Newsmax Accuses Murdochs of Designing a New-World-Order Globalist Kill List Against Tucker Carlson, DeSantis' Disney Board Will Countersue the Mouse, 'Redfall' is a Decent Looter Shooter With an Identity Crisis. My great-aunt is here [in New York] for the premiere today, so I was asking her what we should do. Why would they?, Did constructing another lie to make the movie she told her Nai Nai the film was about her family, but for obvious reasons wasnt specific on the details make it feel as if she was going through the same process again? Oh, she already wants to see it, says Wang. That immediacy of storytelling reminded me why I became a storyteller in the first place. Lulu Wang's new film -- one of the best of the year -- is based on her own family's story, an "actual lie," as the opening suggests. I was actually making a screwball romantic comedy when this happened to me, says Wang, referring to her debut feature, Posthumous (2014). Dramatic Competition section at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival[4] and was theatrically released in the United States on July 12, 2019, by A24. And so thats why I made the film.. July 12, 2019, 12:15 PM. You can't tell me the title. 'The Farewell' Makes the Asian American Immigrant Experience Feel Universal, also told IndieWire in a separate interview. And making this film brought joy to all of us." Come along for the ride! I thought I might as well give it a try, said Weitz, who was drawn to the conundrum at the center of the film, the notion that lying to a loved one can actually be a good thing. Wang and cinematographer Anna Franquesa Solano. But for me, going back and having agency allowed me to see the city as an adult. 3 Is Yet Another Big Marvel Movie Misstep, Rachel Weisz Doubles Down in Dead Ringers, To Love Tupac Was to Fight With Tupac: Why Allen Hughes Needed to Make Dear Mama, Academy Slaps Down New Rules After Andrea Riseborough, Tom Cruise, Michelle Yeoh Controversies, Here's Where to Watch 'Scream 6' (and All the 'Scream' Movies) Online, Ryan Murphy Sets Sights on Menndez Brothers for 'Monster' Season 2, White House Plumbers Gives Watergate the Veep Treatment and Misses Big, Roy Wood Jr. "On one level, I didn't want to shoot in my grandma's hometown because, um, we're trying to lie to her," Wang told the audience after the movie's Sundance premiere. My mom's a writer and my dad was a former diplomat and they would be in the apartment. When they were filming Awkwafinas tearful farewell to her screen grandmother, the real grandmother came up to her after an emotional take and kept inquiring, Whats wrong, why are you crying? The star had to bite her tongue. An old woman in China is talking on the phone with her granddaughter in New York, Billi. But unfortunately, the world's best-kept secret couldn't stay secret for long. '", As we sit on a couch in Park City, Utah, a few days after the film's first screening, Wang's voice begins to crack as she explains how her life changed when her parents emigrated. I dont think shed done Oceans 8. I dont know, she replied. Paul Newman and Joanne Woodwards Daughters Appreciated the Fuck Hut Detail Too. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Cond Nast. [22][23], The Farewell was a box office "flop" in China, grossing only $580,000 by January 2020 in what was then the world's second-largest film market. The Farewell (2019 film) - Wikipedia 'The Farewell's Lulu Wang Talks Bringing Humor To Grief - Deadline And her friend saw a review of it and was so proud of her, one of her longest friends, and sent it to her.. She never found out the truth, even when Wang first told the story onThis American Lifein 2016, nor when Wang began shooting her film in her grandmother's hometown in China. Instead of toasting, Wang, who still desperately wanted to adapt her story for the big screen, burst into tears. That was they wanted out of this, she admits. And somehow that just clicked for him and he became a lot less awkward and things made sense to him as a child. Lulu Wang's Grandmother Has Just Learned That 'The Farewell' Is About Her. When we met on a late spring day in Los Angeles, Wang pulled up to the cafe on a mini Segway, embodying millennial chic in an oversized navy suit and bright yellow Vans. Last year, Wang headed to Changchun, China, and her grandmothers neighborhood to tell her story. Where The Real Grandma From The Farewell Is In 2019 - Refinery29 Brooklyn, US. We kept asking ourselves, is it ethical to make her go through this traumatic experience again, take after take? How a filmmaker turned a real-life fib about death into a funny, bittersweet movie about her family and scored a genuine crossover hit, 'The purpose of the lie was to bring joy. Somehow, it is. Billi disobeys her parents' orders and flies to Changchun shortly after the rest of the family arrive there. Wang was thinking about coincidences and strange out-of-body experiences when she incorporated the sparrow into the film, but a theme of connection was also on her mind: "The connection of these two countries that are across the world from each other, but that there is a connection even if its not physical," she says. She came to the set a couple of times when we were doing outdoor scenes and it ended up being fine. The Farewell (2019), apparently based on a real story, is a light-weight comedy that mainly explores the difference customs and values of China and the USA. She talks to Alistair Harkness ahead of the films screening at Glasgow Youth Film Festival. By signing up, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy & to receive electronic communications from Vice Media Group, which may include marketing promotions, advertisements and sponsored content. 'The Farewell' Breakout Zhao Shuzhen Anchors Lulu Wang's Memoir Film So making this film became part of the lie. Producer Chris Weitz (About a Boy), who along with his brother, Paul, runs Depth of Field, the production company behind such films as Nick and Norahs Infinite Playlist and A Single Man, was driving down the 10 freeway in Los Angeles with his wife, actress Mercedes Martinez, when the two happened upon Wangs story. But I could just tell there was something really rich there.. Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Sharing her story first as an episode of the NPR podcast and radio show This American Life back in 2016, Wang realised the amount of internal conflict that she was struggling with as she tried to respect her familys wishes and process her own grief at the imminent loss of her Nai Nai was what made the story interesting. It wasn't until he went back to China for the first time when he was 4 years old that he was suddenly like, 'Oh, I come from some place. Then Wangs relatives fast-tracked a cousins planned wedding as an excuse for everyone to visit the elderly matriarch one last time. But as Beyer would soon realize, Finchs past wasnt what she claimedand Beyers own difficult history was up for the taking. Based on the real life experiences of director Lulu Wang and starring Awkwafina, the film follows a family trying to hide a cancer diagnosis from their elderly matriarch. The family got a second opinion, and then a third. Instead, it was from marching across China when she was in the army. I don't envy Wang in finally having that conversation to her grandmother about the diagnosis, but at least she could finally see the movie that is getting her granddaughter so much acclaim. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. ButThe Farewell makes its debut in Chinese theaters onJanuary 25, 2019, which made it more likely that Wang's grandmother would find out and, of course, it was a Chinese-language review sent to her by a friend that would reveal it. Jian Yongbo, Kmamura Aio, Chen Han, Tzi Ma, Awkwafina, Li Ziang, Tzi Ma, Lu Hong and Zhao Shuzhen in. And that feels very limiting, at least for me. December 3, 2019, 3:48pm. The breakout hit of this years Sundance festival after a bidding war, it was picked up for a reported $7 million by A24 the movie has left jaded press corps in tears and generated serious awards chatter for its star. is nai nai from the farewell still alive. Yeah, its great that you have this premise and that the grandmother is dying. The problem was no one else did. She . As Shuzhen, who played Nai Nai in the film, also told IndieWire in a separate interview, the whole cast and crew had to take part in the family's lie, too. Shes like, Well just tell her that movies are fiction and none of it actually happened. Billi admits that she wants to stay in Changchun to spend more time with Nai Nai, but Nai Nai declines, telling her that she needs to live her own life. According to Wang no one understood the story she was pitching about her internal conflict over lying to her grandmother, with whom she is still very close. They were planning a celebration in China the next year, but it was decided the celebration would instead be in two weeks to ensure that Nai Nai was still alive. A writer and classical pianist by trade, Wang, who was born in Beijing and immigrated to Miami when she was six, first told her absurdist family drama as a short story and then as a podcast, in collaboration with This American Life and producer Neil Drumming. Coronation Street actress Barbara Young dies aged 92, Nurses strike continues: Major disruption for NHS services in England, Additional flight to evacuate Britons from Sudan today, Ryanair cancels 220 flights over May 1 bank holiday due to strikes, Hardcore coronation fans already camped outside Buckingham Palace, One dead and seven injured in Cornwall nightclub knife attack. Right after I found out I had gotten in to Sundance, she notes, I was with my same friend at the same restaurant. They wanted it to be my big, fat Chinese wedding, said Wang of the investors on both sides of the world. Prior to making the movie, writer/director Lulu Wang told the story of her family's little white lie in an April 2016 episode of the. -NPR. And the title of the movie is Dont Tell Her in Chinese. Its a tale of loss, a meditation on how to say goodbye, and an investigation into how different cultures handle illness and death. Filmmaker, alumna Lulu Wang '05 will discuss "The Farewell" at virtual event March 25. They just want to put me in this box, andunless I can do this kind of storytelling, its not worth it for me to do all that.. Participants include:Pedro Almodvar (PAIN AND GLORY), Bong Joon Ho (PARASITE), Ladj Ly (LES MISRABLES), Cline Sciamma (PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE) and Lulu Wang (THE FAREWELL). Its so meta, said Wang with a laugh. Based On An Actual Lie: Director Lulu Wang's Sundance Hit It's a family drama centering on a young Chinese . The Farewell (Chinese: ; pinyin: Bi Gos T; lit. Lulu Wang's new film -- one of the best of the year -- is based on her own family's story, an "actual lie," as the opening suggests. You can't tell me what it's about. 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"It's so meta," said Wang with a laugh. 'The Farewell': Lulu Wang's Truth, Lies, and the Long Goodbye Later, she sees a similar bird resting on the windowsill of her Chinese hotel room. Born in Taiwan, Joan moved to the UK at an early age. Saying Goodbye: Revisiting Lulu Wang's The Farewell A wedding for Billi's cousin from Japan, Hao Hao, has been planned in China as an excuse to unite the family to spend what is expected to be one last time with Nai Nai. He asked, You just did this amazing thing, so why are you upset? And I just said, I dont know if Im ever going to feel like this making films now. There was such a purity to it and I felt such power as a storyteller that I thought, maybe I should quit the film business and just work for these guys. Then the story aired, and everything changed. Throughout the movie, she struggles to navigate between her conscience and her family's whims once she finds out that her beloved grandmother - or Nai . Let's get back to my interview with Lulu Wang. The experience of working with This American Life had been so amazing and so pure. She resisted. Wang told her shed send her some scenes. In an interview with Vox, Wang was asked whether her grandmother will see the film. . Aspiring Chinese-American writer Billi maintains a close relationship with Nai Nai (paternal grandmother) who lives in Changchun, China. Its already been dubbed a bona fide indie blockbuster success, and it doesnt even go into national release until August 2nd. And, yet, as much as Billi disagrees with her family's decision, she also feels an inexorable pull toward the country in which she was born. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. Billi keeps her promise to maintain the lie. Soon, Nora Lum, a.k.a. Through deception and manipulation of medical test results, the diagnosis is kept a secret from Nai Nai herself. Theres a second part to this anecdote, Wang points out with a smile, one that she swears is 100-percent authentic. The Farewell's release in China was recently delayed, which Variety suggested could be due to the film's likelihood of winning upcoming major American movie awards and potentially boosting its potential success in China. This story contains spoilers forThe Farewelland also real life. The only caveat: Nobody could tell Nai Nai the truth. When it came time to cast her parents, Wang chose Chinese-Australian actress Diana Lin to play her fictional mother and Hong Kong-born Tzi Ma, a prolific character actor whos worked on everything from Rush Hour to Arrival, L.A. Law to Silicon Valley episodes, to play her dad. I think my reaction was, The girl who did My Vagwants to read for this?! A Chinese family discovers their grandmother has only a short while left to live and decide to keep her in the dark, scheduling a wedding to gather before she dies. The Chinese also believe that mental and emotional health are directly linked to physical health. -This American Life, All of the doctors predicted that Lulu Wang's Nai Nai had three months left to live after the stage 4 lung cancer diagnosis in 2013. Lulu Wang on lying to her grandmother for her new film The Farewell After all, her grandmother had lied to her grandfather when he was diagnosed with liver cancer when Wang was 10-years-old. [My grandmother] actually just found out, Wang said. Awkwafina, was asking to audition. The Farewell thoughtfully explores that moment where grief and sadness collide with comedy . Theres just one tiny bit of information shes not getting. On the first day of shooting, Nai Nai wanted to bless the set, causing Lulu to run around and confiscate dozens of crew shirts bearing the productions Nai Nai LLC logo. When Elisabeth Finch met Jennifer Beyer in 2019, the two women forged a fiercely loyal friendship, and eventually got married. That lie is told by a family to their beloved grandmotherNai Nai (Zhao Shuzhen), who has been diagnosed with lung cancer. I went to bars -- I never went to bars as a 6 year old, obviously. [13][14] It was released in the United States on July 12, 2019. -People. Films take so long to make. Like Wang herself had been, Billi is a struggling artist living in New York. Warning: Mild spoilers for The Farewell are ahead. With Shuzhen Zhao, Awkwafina, X Mayo, Hong Lu. Lulu Wang's indie hit, starring Awkwafina and Zhao Shuzhen, may be an awards contender, but that doesn't mean the film is easily categorized. Awkwafina as Billi and Zhao Shuzhen as Nai Nai. The lie has allowed me to spend so much time with my grandmother in China, shooting a movieall kinds of scenarios that I never dreamed possible, said Wang, who has made peace with her familys orchestrated deception. She's always felt like an outsider. I just didnt know what the tone would be until later.. "We had to whisper scenes, it was real," Awkwafina explained during an Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences screening I moderated. As stated in the movie, Chinese law allows keeping a prognosis from a family member, something that is both unheard of and illegal in the United States. Her family threw a fake wedding for her cousin from Japan and her grandmother didn't know. Related That night, Nai Nai gives Billi a hngbo, encouraging her to spend the money as she chooses. It is ironic that films only get made now if they exist in another medium, added Weitz. I was like, OK, but you realize that means this will be 75 percent in Mandarin,' she recalls. Send any friend a story As a subscriber, you have . When my grandmother was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer, she was given three months to live. Lulu Wang's "The Farewell" may have premiered at the Sundance Film Festival almost 10 months ago and arrived in theaters in the U.S. this past summer, but one of its breakout stars somehow . Wang, who was born in Beijing but emigrated to the United States with her parents when she was six, says that she had never heard of withholding a prognosis from a family member. The website's critics' consensus reads: "The Farewell deftly captures complicated family dynamics with a poignant, well-acted drama that marries cultural specificity with universally relatable themes. Zhao Shuzhen plays Nai Nai, the 'Farewell' character everyone loves