The Farewell is hardly the first movie to find humor and pathos in a culture clash. But as director Lulu Wang notes in this exclusive featurette, there's something kind of unusual about this one.
"We've seen so many fish-out-of-water stories when the person looks different than the people of the country that they're visiting," she says. "But how do you do a fish-out-of-water story with an Asian person who is going to an Asian country?"
The way in for The Farewell proved to be Billi (Awkwafina), a young American who reunites with her relatives in China, and discovers that, despite their shared lineage and heritage, they're as different as they are alike.
But you don't have to have participated in a rushed wedding planned as a covert goodbye to a relative who doesn't know she's dying in order to understand The Farewell.
"It's kind of a universal love that one has with their grandma," notes Awkwafina. "I think [Billi] serves as this vehicle for something everyone can relate to."
The Farewell is in theaters now.
