Awkwafina (aka, Nora Lum) stars as a struggling artist named Billi in New York City. Billi loves her grandmother, Nai Nai (Shuzhen Zhao), who lives in China. Billi and her mother (Diana Lin) and father immigrated from China to America 20 years ago. When Billi learns her beloved grandmother has Stage Four lung cancer, she immediately wants to fly to China to take care of her. But, Billi’s mother, father, and entire Chinese family decide to keep this knowledge from Nai Nai. Director Lulu Wang based this movie on the actual “white lie” that she and her family told her own grandmother who was diagnosed with cancer.
Much is made in the movie about the differences in Eastern and Western thought. Billi, Americanized and modern, wants to share the medical information with her grandmother. But, peer pressure from her family force her to remain silent. A wedding between Billi’s cousin and his Japanese fiancé (played brilliantly by Air Mizuhara) is pushed forward as the reason for the entire family to gather together around Nai Nai.
The cast is great, but Lulu Wang could have cut the wedding festivities short. If you’re in the mood for a wonderful family drama with some humor, I recommend The Farewell. GRADE: B+
I was disappointed. I think this started as a short and that was about all the material it had. At one point, the protagonist says ” I was only happy with my grandmother before we left China.” And we have no idea from what the unhappiness stems. The entire family seems unhappy to me. And yet the films spends all of its time on the faux or at least rushed wedding. The conceit of keeping bad news hidden is familiar and doesn’t need 100 minutes worth of examination. For a great Chinese wedding movie, see Ang Lee’s THE WEDDING BANQUET, which also examines the idea of not telling people bad news. We barely know Awkwafina-what is it she does? This is a problem when you make a movie or a book about real live people: you can only examine them so far without hurting them.
I agree about THE WEDDING BANQUET. This one, will wait for cable. Sounds overrated, like CRAZY RICH ASIANS (though Awkwafina was fun in that one).
Jeff, there was a lot of hype about THE FAREWELL. I heard a couple interviews on NPR and PBS NEWS HOUR featured it.
Patti, I share many of your opinions about THE FAREWELL. The family seems to harbor a lot of secrets. And that wedding banquet went on FOREVER! But I think the Director, Lulu Wang, leaned a lot from making THE FAREWELL. Her next movie will be a lot better.
The movie itself doesn’t appeal to me, but Grumpy Old Farts want to know: how does someone who can choose any name she wants come up with an abomination like Awkafina?
Michael, I suspect “Awkafina” is a take-off on Aquafina, a brand of purified bottled water products produced by PepsiCo, consisting of both unflavored and flavored water.
It is, indeed…as well as suggesting awkward and fine, as in attractive. She came to public prominence as a rapper.
And an amusing one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z726OPwCnjE
Todd, I like Awkafina and think her career will soar in the coming years. I’m not a fan of rap music, but she’s amusing…as you noted.
I first saw her on GIRL CODE.
ELLE: “Nora Lum grew up in Forest Hills, Queens and eventually took up the nickname Awkwafina, partly as a lark, in her teens. (At first it was “Aquafina,” until someone told her she might get sued.) She began to record herself rapping into a boombox at 13, then started laying down tracks in GarageBand when she got her first MacBook at 17. By 19, she was releasing comedic rap riffs on YouTube, where she whipped up millions of views and a dedicated cabal of fans. Then came two seasons on the all-female MTV comedy series Girl Code, a bodega-set web talk show called Tawk, a travel guide titled Awkwafina’s NYC (sample chapter: “The ‘Mr. Wong Fu, I Don’t Think We’re in Kansas Anymore’ Tour of Flushing, Queens”), a handful of TV and movie roles, and two albums of what she calls “brash, feminist rap”: 2014’s Yellow Ranger and this year’s richer, sleeker follow-up, In Fina We Trust.”
https://www.elle.com/culture/movies-tv/a22798191/awkwafina-crazy-rich-asians-oceans-8-interview/
Another one high on my list of must-not-sees!
Bob, I think you would enjoy SPIDER-MAN: FAR FROM HOME more than THE FAREWELL.