A24’s released the first official trailer for The Farewell starring Awkwafina. The film made its debut at the Sundance Film Festival where it earned rave reviews from audiences and critics. The Farewell currently stands at 100% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, with Time Out saying “it unearths the universality of complex familial love that defies borders and language barriers.”
In addition to Awkwafina (Crazy Rich Asians), the cast includes Tzi Ma, Diana Lin, Zhao Shuzhen, Lu Hong, and Jiang Yongbo. Lulu Wang (2014’s Posthumous) wrote and directed the 2019 comedy/drama.
The behind the scenes team includes director of photography Anna Franquesa Solano, editors Matt Friedman and Michael Taylor, production designer Yong Ok Lee, and costume designers Vanessa Porter and Athena Wang.
A24’s planning a July 12th theatrical release. The Farewell is rated PG for thematic material, brief language and some smoking.
The Plot:
“In this funny, uplifting tale based on an actual lie, Chinese-born, U.S.-raised Billi (Awkwafina) reluctantly returns to Changchun to find that, although the whole family knows their beloved matriarch, Nai-Nai, has been given mere weeks to live, everyone has decided not to tell Nai Nai herself.
To assure her happiness, they gather under the joyful guise of an expedited wedding, uniting family members scattered among new homes abroad. As Billi navigates a minefield of family expectations and proprieties, she finds there’s a lot to celebrate: a chance to rediscover the country she left as a child, her grandmother’s wondrous spirit, and the ties that keep on binding even when so much goes unspoken.
With The Farewell, writer/director Lulu Wang has created a heartfelt celebration of both the way we perform family and the way we live it, masterfully interweaving a gently humorous depiction of the good lie in action with a richly moving story of how family can unite and strengthen us, often in spite of ourselves.”
