Even after Awkwafina took home a Golden Globe for lead actress in a movie for her performance as Billi in The Farewell on Sunday, her grandma knows how to keep her grounded. This isn’t a sad story despite triggers like “grief,” “loss,” and “saying goodbye.” It might be about death, Lulu Wang’s The Farewell, and choked-back holiday tears – but I type these words with clarified purpose.. The two exercise out of doors, Nai Nai's shouted 'Hai!' On the morning after "The Farewell" played to a sold-out audience at the Chicago Critics Film Festival, Wang spoke with RogerEbert.com about the real-life experiences behind the movie, how horror films influenced the way her characters deal with Nai Nai, the striking way in which "The Farewell… Wang turns her frustration and bewilderment into a gentle exploration of the cultural differences and generational schisms that have, over the years, opened up within Nai Nai’s extended family. “Ha!” This was the first scene that we shot on the first day of production. It’s played by Nora Lum, aka Awkwafina, and Zhao Shuzhen as Nai Nai. Wellness April 15, 2021. But, as many a screenwriter has discovered, it’s what you do with the good idea that counts. It's easy to summarize The Farewell as being about one young woman's internal culture clash, but there's a transcendence to the film easily summed up by the recurring image of … Search the world's information, including webpages, images, videos and more. Tampa International Airport CEO Joe Lopano said the past 50 years have been a ride. “There’s tea and cake in … And she would just be off camera the whole time. Erik rang his grandparents’ doorbell and silently wished the next four hours would go by quickly. And we wanted it to be a static shot because we wanted the audience to feel the natural chemistry between the two actors— “Ha! DEADLINE: When Nai Nai is showing Billi her daily exercise routine, it looked like you were genuinely having fun together. The Farewell is not an exercise of brute defiance against eastern cultural norms, it is a look at how family conflicts with the ideas of the individual and how Lulu herself (the real-life subject of this story ‘based on a true lie’) battles with tradition. A few hard feelings. It’s the morning after Billi has arrived in China, and Nai Nai is exercising. Nai Nai, who has a persistent cough, receives a grim diagnosis. The Farewell asks viewers, “Can a family hold conflicting truths, can a lie be both true and healing, and can someone be … Ha!” —without the camera getting in the way. AWKWAFINA : That was our first scene together. Chinese-American film The Farewell tells what initially seems like a predictable story of a family trying to cope with a loved-one’s terminal illness but infuses this with refreshing and often very moving honesty. Starring: Aoi Mizuhara, Awkwafina, Becca Khalil, Diana Lin, Diane Dehn, Gil Perez-Abraham, Han Chen, Hong Lin, Hong Lu, Ines Laimins, Jim Liu, Shuzhen Zhou, Tzi Ma, X Mayo, Yang Xuejian, Yongbo Jiang, Zhao Shuzhen. But there is also something hesitant about the way Wang turns this beguiling family story into a film, an unwillingness to push too hard into potentially painful emotional territory, which also keeps the comedy in check. When a visit to see her ailing grandmother in China became the crux of a dramatic family secret, her trip became the basis of her hit 2019 drama, "The Farewell," which won a Golden Globe for star Awkwafina and two Film Independent Spirit Awards for best feature and supporting actress Zhao Shuzhen in the grandmother role. Around the frame April... 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