The Farewell — Official Trailer

added: Tue, May 7th '19

Some movies are based on truth. This one, however, is based on an "actual lie."

Check out the first official trailer for this year's Sundance hit "The Farewell," which stars "Crazy Rich Asians" breakout Awkwafina as a New Yorker named Billi who returns to her birth country of China to attend her cousin's wedding.

She soon discovers the family ceremony and reunion has been staged as a part of an elaborate lie, which directly involves Billi's beloved grandmother, who has not yet been told by her family that she has been diagnosed with cancer and now only has months to live.

Billi is put in an extremely awkward position. Does she tell her grandmother the truth or does she abide by her family's wishes and keep the lie going?

The heartfelt family dramedy, which premiered to glowing reviews at Sundance this year, is written and directed by Chinese-American filmmaker Lulu Wang, who previously made her feature debut with 2014's indie film "Posthumous."

Based on a real incident in the director's life, which was previously the subject of an episode on This American Life, "The Farewell" is scheduled to hit theaters July 12th, via A24 Films.

synopsis:
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.

directed by Lulu Wang

starring Awkwafina, Tzi Ma, Diana Lin, Zhao Shuzhen, Lu Hong, Jiang Yongbo

release date July 12, 2019