Lulu Wang almost didn't get to make The Farewell, her sophomore feature that's garnered rave reviews since its Sundance debut in January. Told by doctors that Nai Nai has three months to live, the family decides to hide her diagnosis from her and gathers at their home in China to say goodbye under the pretense of a wedding. There is, however, a further bizarre twist to the story. When the movie went into production last year, not only did Wang cast her real aunt (who instigated the lie), she shot it two blocks from her grandmothers neighbourhood in Changchun and, let her visit the set. This news won't be shocking to anyone who listened to Wang'sThis American Lifeepisode from 2016 about the same subject, but it nevertheless acts as a welcome surprise given that the conclusion otherwise felt tragically cathartic. Rather than revealing the news directly to Wang's 80-year-old grandmother, doctors instead told her grandmother's sister (Wang's Great-Aunt Hong Lu) the news, who passed it along to the family. Her grandmother was diagnosed with Stage IV cancer in 2013. He just thought he was weird and got made fun of. "It's hard to say," says Wang, "because I know other people who've made similar decisions and they have a lot of regret or they still feel like the person deserved to know" (People). We want to hear it. 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 by the time we made the film, everyone was in China because they understood my perspective. "It's so meta," said Wang with a laugh. It will open in New York and Los Angeles on July 12. Photo via IMDB. Wang is much more sanguine now about the film industry too. Instead, it was from marching across China when she was in the army. Lulu Wang's Nai Nai did join the Chinese Army at age 14 to escape an arranged marriage. http://www.youtube.com/GoldenGlobes\r\rCONNECT WITH US\rWEB: http://www.goldenglobes.com\rFacebook: http://www.facebook.com/GoldenGlobes\rTwitter: http://twitter.com/goldenglobes\rInstagram: http://www.instagram.com/goldenglobes/ The podcast became a sensation with audiences and suddenly her personal story was just right for film. Struggling to understand her identity and her place in society, Joan keeps a low personal profile but is keen to share her thoughts with the wider world. Soon, Nora Lum, a.k.a. But what about the real grandmother that the story is based on? She says she had many disheartening encounters with American and Chinese financiers who wanted to include a "prominent white character into the narrative, and punch up the nuanced drama to turn it into a broad comedy. In 'The Farewell,' The Bad News Bearers Keep A Secret. 585: In Defense of Ignorance - This American Life Billi keeps her promise to maintain the lie. "Six years after her diagnosis, Nai Nai is still with us," reads a caption at the . Then she made a movie about it so it went through the entire history of our family, and my grandma read it. Let's get back to my interview with Lulu Wang. The Farewell True Story: What Happened To The Real Nai Nai - Screen Rant An old woman in China is talking on the phone with her granddaughter in New York, Billi. Yes. They wanted it to be my big, fat Chinese wedding, said Wang of the investors on both sides of the world. The Farewell Ending, Explained: Director Lulu Wang Explains - Thrillist That's just the nature of being an immigrant and straddling two cultures. She also said yes when Peter Saraf, the cofounder of the production company Big Beach, proposed a lets-get-to-know-each-other chat. Lulu Wang's deeply personal, disarmingly universal story of culture clash and family grief became an indie phenomenon when it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival last year.Based on Wang's own . 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. Based on Wangs own life, the film centres on a Chinese American womans family refusal to tell the grandmother that she has cancer. A24. All rights reserved. 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. She says that "life is not about what things one does, but more so about how one goes about doing them". "[11], Director Lulu Wang says that she kept the secret from her grandmother during and after film production. Wang had been here before; she assumed most of the sit-downs would start off well before the inevitable Yes, but what if shoe dropped. Lulu Wang is the writer-director behind The Farewell, which follows a Chinese-American woman as she returns to her family's homeland to say goodbye to her grandmotherwho doesn't . Billi disobeys her parents' orders and flies to Changchun shortly after the rest of the family arrive there. Wang told her shed send her some scenes. 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. Then Lum sent back a tape. No one really saw my perspective. Theres a second part to this anecdote, Wang points out with a smile, one that she swears is 100-percent authentic.
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