Farewell's director, Lulu Wang, about the laughter of human nature

Director Lulu Wang says that she had known for years that she wanted to turn her personal experience into a film: when her grandmother was diagnosed with terminal cancer, the family decided that she was "deadly". it was better not to tell him, for fear of the culture of death is more dangerous for sufferers than their actual symptoms. The problem was that when Wang spoke to the producers, they wanted to rewrite his personal story to make it more accurate and predictable. "We love this idea, but can you make it different?" … I quickly realized that she was moving away from the story I wanted to tell, "Wang told an audience at the Chicago Film Critics Festival earlier this year.

And then she met a producer for This American life who has been interested in its history and has developed it for a segment of a 2016 episode of the popular radio show. After 24 hours, the producers called to woo her on her terms. "There were so many producers who called so I could choose who I wanted to do it. I have to interview their. Rather than walk into a room and pitch, I have to say, "All right, so like everyone else, you want to do this movie. But how do you do it? 'And I was able to choose the producers who wanted to protect my vision.'

The resulting film, L & # 39; farewell, was one of the biggest successes of the Sundance Film 2019 festival, and A24 quickly took over for distribution. This is one of the most anticipated independent films of 2019: at its opening weekend, its box-office average has exceeded Avengers: End of the game.

Awkwafina, star of the film and viral rap, plays the role of Billi, a young Sino-American woman living in New York. When she learns that Nai Nai (her grandmother) is dying of cancer, she joins the family to go to China, using the hastily arranged marriage of a cousin with a recent girlfriend. as an excuse for a family reunion. The film is incredibly funny and alive considering the themes of death and farewells. But he is also attentive and insightful about the immigrant's experience, the cultural gap between generations and the confrontation between family traditions and individual experience. With L & # 39; farewell slowly moving in the country, The edge explained to Wang how she had told her story, how she had kept her secret grandmother's diagnosis while bringing her team members home, and how to play the singing and drinking game that is one of them the most memorable moments of the film.

This interview has been modified for clarity and brevity.

During the screening in Chicago, a member of the public said it was one of the best films she had ever seen on this bicultural experience. Was it an important part of this movie for you?

I do not think I necessarily went in trying to represent biculturalism. From my point of view, where I am, that's what I am. That's part of my point of view. It's just organic for me. In a way, biculturalism is my culture. So, I do not even necessarily think of the way I introduce it to someone who comes from the other side. I have just written from my own experience and my own struggles to balance both sides of my own identity. I'm in the United States working as a filmmaker, and I'm from China, with my grandparents and my family.

In many ways, everyone has that, right? We all have different aspects of ourselves and of what we are for different people in our lives, at different stages of our lives. This particular experience is at the crossroads of many aspects of my life.

But you thought a lot about how he would play for different audiences. You talked about it in interviews – how did you know it would be a different story for the American public and for the Chinese TV audience?

Yes, but only in regard to the fact that I wanted to do it for an American audience, because my perspective is American. There was a discussion about how we wanted the film to be shown to the Chinese audience as well, but I do not live in China. So, I did not want to badume things. And I knew it was what I should do for a Chinese audience. While targeting an American audience meant that I could do it myself, as an American. I knew that Billi, who is based on me, was going to be shocked by this lie. It's something she would never think of doing. It's illegal in America, right?

And that's the gateway – his indignation at what the family was doing was the way we started the story. So I do not know if it interests a Chinese audience, because they could look at it and say, "Why is it dramatic? What is his problem? Why is she outraged? That's what we do all the time. So now, I'm learning, because I'm going to ask the Chinese public, "Are you shocked? Do you understand where Billi comes from?

Photo: Casi Moss / A24

What was the response from your Chinese audience about how it works for them?

Most of the time, I spoke to younger people, and for them, it makes sense, because most of them have international experience. That they travel abroad even for a semester, or that they leave their country to go to school, or even that they leave their community to move into a larger one. big city, like Beijing, Shanghai or Hong Kong, where more international population. And they will bond with many Westerners. Western influence is much greater on culture and viewpoints, so they see more of the gap that separates them from their home country. It's not just a cultural gap, it's also a generation. Young people are becoming more globalized and have the same mentality, which can be wonderful and dangerous at the same time.

Younger audiences also tend to be more empathic about other cultures, more sensitive to being perceived as laughing at others' beliefs. Do you find that they are afraid of laughing at this movie? It's very funny in places, like the graveyard scene, but I can see that people have the impression that laughing makes fun of each other's religion.

I did a short film that was a drama that dealt with a very complex problem and there were some really fun times. People were afraid to laugh. They said, "Oh, we heard bursts of laughter! I am really sorry! Are you OK? I do not think there has ever been a inappropriate time to laugh! I am a curious person. So, if someone laughs, I want to know why. There have been times when I mocked the culture of my own family, although it's hard to tell if something fun is cultural, or just my grandmother in particular. The exaggerated nature of the ritual can be fun, but I do not think I'm laughing at a culture or the public is making fun of that culture. I make them laugh at humanity as a whole, as we are all so ridiculous, because we are all so attached to our identities, and we take all of this very seriously. At the end of the day, everyone has their point of view and so much. But is it really important? We only do rituals.

Photo: A24

During the question-and-answer session on the Chicago screening, you explained how you had thrown Awkwafina on the basis not of her hearing or reading of lines, but of what she did during the breaks while she did not play. What did you hit?

Billi spends so much time talking about the movie. His action as a protagonist is inaction. Most of the protagonists are invited to act to achieve their goal, and the challenge for Billi is that she wants to act and she can not. It is his challenge: how not to act? How do not you speak? And how can you not reach your goal? How do you accept that there may be no purpose?

It's an American perspective such as a protagonist has a goal and you spend the whole movie watching them get to their goal. And that's what I was playing against. And yet, at the same time, I had to make sure that the tension was sufficient to advance the story. And so seeing her hearing, seeing the emotions on her face as she listened, she answered by not speaking. It was really important that we could have a lot of nuances of what she just felt through her eyes and face.

The film is kind of centered on the conversation with her mother in the hotel room, where she is sitting on the floor and crying. How did you work with her on this sequence?

You know, we did not talk much about this specific sequence. While reading the script, she knew that it was a very moving scene for her and she was very worried about not being able to cry. In fact, she told me that very early, when we first launched it: "You know, I have to be honest, I do not know if I can cry. I have already tried to cry in the movies and I have not managed to draw false tears. And I thought, "Do not worry. If you can not cry, do not cry. Nobody asks you to cry, I just ask you to be at the moment of this scene and feel the emotions of the character. "

And then, as we were rehearsing, she started to enter the scene and she immediately started crying. And I thought, "Okay, okay, stop! Stop!" I was trying to record for the shoot, but she could not help crying. She was so moved during the rehearsals that I was afraid that we would exhaust our emotions. I had to stop the rehearsals and start spinning. I think it's because – she grew up in the United States, so it's not like she left people, but the excitement of losing her family one by one as we get older and the divisions that you feel. Her grandmother lives in New York with her and she was raised by her grandmother, but she will never be fully connected to her grandmother's life in China. There's a side of her grandmother she will never know, and I think it was just personal.

Photo: A24

You based this movie on your own life, you shot it in your old neighborhood, you have one of your family members in the cast, and while you were shooting, you were taking your team to meet your grandma and use her bathroom. Where in all this was the line of demarcation between reality and fiction? How did you decide which parts of your story you wanted to take to a fictional place?

In the end, that was the best thing for the story. Of course, there is so much more about my family than I could have put in the movie. My father is a diplomat. He speaks Russian. Tzi Ma, who plays it, kept repeating: "Your father is an extraordinary man, I feel that you do not represent him correctly. We should take into account that he spent 10 years in Russia, "and all that. It did not really contribute to the overall story. And the other line considered the film as a work of art and not as a documentary. It was not a question of describing the characters exactly as they are, but of representing them.

You explained how difficult it was to keep the story of this film secret from your grandmother. And she asks what it is and asks to see it. Have you ever found a solution for this?

No, and we will soon be showing in China. So, I'm sure it will put pressure. It's definitely a family conversation going on.

It's hard enough to keep a secret with a small group of people, but you take your team to meet her. How did you keep this secret among so many people who came into contact with her?

They knew she did not know it and we did not intend to tell her. Although it's difficult for them in some ways, no one says, "So you have cancer, do not you?" Even in American society, there are so many things that we do not talk, because you do not want to make others feel bad or uncomfortable. You are just trying to talk about happier things and make their day a little easier. So this part was not so difficult.

For me, everything was internal. I did not know if my grandmother would come to bed at any time. The production team had made t-shirts on which Nai Nai was written because at the time we did not have a film title, and Nai Nai is in Chinese for grandma. So, they were distributing t-shirts the first day and we were shooting in the street from her home, and she was heading for the plateau. So I was like, "What are you guys Make? We can not have t-shirts bearing the inscription "Grandma", she will ask, "Why does everyone wear" Grandma "on her shirt?" Small things like that looked like a bowling game.

You said that it was very important for you to represent Billi in a modern way and describe China in a modern way. What did that mean to you? Why was it important?

Because we often see films that deal with China or Asian culture with an outdated perspective, as if China was always aiming to bind the feet and things of the same kind. It was important to present the authenticity of my experience regarding the similarity of things that are similar in the world and their difference below the surface.

On a surface, you can go to a city in China and see all the shops you see here. In front of my grandmother's neighborhood where we shot the movie, you'll find a giant mall with Zara, Chanel, H & M, Sephora, all the shops you could imagine. And yet, two blocks away is this neighborhood where cultural beliefs are so different. I wanted to show people how different we all are and how similar we are. And how do we respect ourselves? How do we grow up in the same family and have very different points of view? And you, do you like? Instead of being so polarized and trying to be right, there may be no right or wrong, it's not so black and white. So how can we respect and ask questions about the provenance of the other person and have a sense of grace?

I know you've been asked before, but it's clearly something that sticks to everyone who sees the film. Can you explain the drinking game at the wedding?

Yeah! Most people call it chicken dancing, but it's not chicken, you're supposed to be birds. Everyone is in a circle and everyone gets a number. So, if I am number one and you are number two, I would say "a bird flies, a flight of bird", while flapping its wings, "a bird flies up to two flights". In Chinese, this song is actually rhymes. And then, because I called your number, you read it, "Two flying birds, two flying birds," and so on. And the way you bother people, I could say "two birds", but I look at the table at number five, so they might think I'm talking to them if they do not remember their number, or if you do not hear it. It's just a fun game.

Of course, it becomes more and more difficult as you drink. We played in my family. That's why I always thought it was such a strange feeling to play this game where you have so much fun and laugh about grandmother, but you are constantly reminded that this might be the last time. So it's just this constant in and out of the moment, where you can not be totally present in the joy you feel, because you know you're going to lose it.

How did you shoot this sequence? You just have a rotating camera in the middle of the table?

Yes, it was one of our biggest pieces of platter. We had such a tight production and we did not have time to do anything, but I said, "Whatever it is, we can not lose the game of it." "We built a table around the camera, cutting a hole in the center of the table, with a mechanism that we built to allow it to turn." So, the DP and I went under the table, hidden under the tablecloth, I was heading from under the table, it was a really fun time, we thought it would be very difficult and we would never have understood, so we prepared a lot.