The Farewell

A matriarch is stricken with illness, and a family overwhelmed with grief, but she isn't told of her dire affliction, to avoid distressing emotions of fear.

They decide to gather, back home in China, one brother having spent his life in Japan, the other far away in North America.

She's ecstatic to see them, even if her joy's somewhat reserved, everyone assembled to celebrate a wedding, the bride and groom full of flowing good cheer.

It's a bit of a shock.

They've only known each other three months.

But a sense of responsibility motivates their actions, and they play intergenerational ball, Grandma excited to cater and plan, dutiful reckonings, improvised romance.

Granddaughter Billi (Awkwafina) may blow it all though, for she's unaccustomed to hiding her feelings, her relatives hoping she won't attend, and spoil everything with distraught candour.

The Farewell invigorates familial concerns, thoughtfully composed honest observations, blending in harmless well-meaning lies, to uphold sincere age old integrity.

Within a specific context.

Fully aware of the pressures of truth.

The sons feel guilty for having left home, for having left their loving mom far behind. They didn't just leave for another city close by, they made their ways in far off foreign lands.

She's tough though, and doesn't critique or condemn, is rather proud of her children, who modestly succeeded in the great wild unknown.

Grievances aren't absent from the film, in fact they're aired with heartfelt lucidity, less obsessed with who's right or wrong, than acknowledging tension to facilitate healing.

Perhaps they are just a little obsessed with who's right, but their mutual remorseful feelings betray unsure convictions, their conversations relieving pent up grief, embraced maturely by people who get over things.

Perhaps the West is more obsessed with individual desires, and its personal pursuits often overlook family ties.

However I know a lot of people who genuinely love their families, and make sacrifices to spend quality time with them.

Not just at Christmas or on Mother's or Father's Day, or on birthdays, but the whole year through, thanks to the miracle of web based communication.

I find familial bonds transcend the religious and the secular, and that people who have never been to church are just as loving as those who tithe.

My stats are based on conversation and personal experience.

I like to listen to the things people say.

Plus well rounded novels and films.

I don't know much about domestic life in China.