Awkwafina in The Farewell: Riding The Wave of Life and Loss
A few days ago, I kicked off my little quarantine movie club. I wanted to do it just for fun and selfishly, to motivate me to write more content about film. I wrote a list of films I considered “drifty”, or relating to travel or another culture. I immediately wrote down favorites like The Ramen Girl, Midsommar, and Vicky Cristina Barcelona. As an afterthought, I added The Farewell. I hadn’t seen it and I’ve been meaning to. I decided that would be the first film.
I vowed that Thursdays would be viewing days, but this week, I didn’t make enough time for it. I waited until Friday to watch it. Unfortunately, Friday was also the day that Molly, our family dog, died of cancer. Cut to me curled up in my bed, sobbing through the film and wiping my tears away with the sleeves of my sweater.
In the film, Nai Nai (Shuzhen Zhao), the matriarch of a Chinese family, senses that she’s sick and goes to the doctor. The visit reveals that she has Stage Four lung cancer and has months to live. The catch? She never sees the real test results. Her family decides not to tell her that she’s dying. Her granddaughter, played by the ever so delightful Awkwafina, is plagued by the lie.
The idea of deceit, even for the sake of culture and family, made me uneasy. Since I watched the movie immediately after my own loss…
