History Film / TheFarewell

* StrangerInAFamiliarLand: Billi especially, but [[discussed DiscussedTrope]] as an unavoidable part of moving from China, as most of the family has. Billi's aunt plans to send Bao to school in America and Hao's family lives in Japan.

* BigScrewedUpFamily: [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]]. Billi's family lightly squabble over cultural differences and life goals, but they clearly love each other and especially Nai Nai.

* InelegantBlubbering: Hao Hao starts uncontrollably sobbing during the wedding reception, to the point where Billi has to take him away to let him calm down.

* ProneToTears: Hao Hao is of a sensitive temperament and often looks sad. During the wedding he has a crying episode.

* BasedOnATrueStory: Writer/director Lulu Wang and her family really did lie to Nai Nai about her cancer diagnosis. [[spoiler:According to [[https://www.npr.org/2019/07/24/744805282/filmmaker-lulu-wang-based-the-farewell-on-her-family-s-real-life-lie an interview with NPR]], since Nai Nai is still alive six years after they thought she was going to die, Wang and her family have even had to lie to her about ''the subject of this film'' to maintain the charade.]]

* ChildOfTwoWorlds: Billi was born in China but moved to the United States at age six. Throughout the movie, she has trouble reconciling her childhood memories and love for her family with the values she's been raised in.

** Later, Billi learns that [[spoiler:Nai Nai]] told the same lie to [[spoiler:her husband when he became sick and died]].
* RunningGag: At the start of the movie, Billi's great-aunt tells Nai Nai that the doctor found only "benign shadows". Over the course of the film, various characters ask what that even means.

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: The future for Nai Nai is uncertain, but so far she has greatly outlived her prognosis and is still alive as of the film's release.]]

* ActionGirl: Back in the days of Chairman Mao, Nai Nai served in the PLA and even got wounded in combat.
* TheAlcoholic: Billi's father Haiyan is a fairly realistic depiction of one, unable to stop drinking until he passes out. While he's been able to avoid alcohol for years, his mother's situation causes him to relapse, though this is played for humor rather than drama.

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: The future for Nai Nai is remained uncertain, but she will live more longer than a few months and is still alive to this day.]]

* FunWithSubtitles: Subtle example. When it comes to Mandarin phrase or term Billi doesn't understand, it came with transcription instead of translation until someone explain or translate the term for her.

** Since Aiko doesn't understand Mandarin, Nai Nai uses it at the photo shoot to complain about Aiko right in front of her without Aiko knowing.

** Aiko, the fiancée of Billi's cousin Hao Hao, is unable to understand most of the Mandarin conversations around her because she only speaks Japanese.

** Billi's parents don't tell her that Nai Nai has cancer until she confronts them and demands to know what's wrong. They initially don't want to tell her because they think she won't be able to keep the secret.

* NeverMessWithGranny: Some of the conversations at the wedding reveal that Nai Nai fought alongside with her comrades against Nationalists during the Chinese Civil War.

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: The future for Nai Nai is still uncertain, but she will live more longer than a few months and is still alive to this day.]]

* BittersweatEnding: [[spoiler: The future for Nai Nai is still uncertain, but she will live more longer than a few months and is still alive to this day.]]

* DontMessWithGranny: Some of the conversations reveal that Nai Nai fought alongside with her comrades against Nationalists during the Chinese Civil War.

* BasedOnATrueStory: Writer/director Lulu Wang and her family really did lie to Nai Nai about her cancer diagnosis. [[spoiler:According to [[https://www.npr.org/2019/07/24/744805282/filmmaker-lulu-wang-based-the-farewell-on-her-family-s-real-life-lie an interview with NPR]], since Nai Nai is still alive six years after they thought she was going to die, Wang and her family have even had to lie about ''the subject of this film'' to maintain the charade.]]

* DueToTheDead: Some interesting Chinese mourning and funeral customs are shown or discussed, such as the hiring of professional mouners to cry for a loved one. At the grave of Nai Nai's late husband, the family prays and offers up food, drink, a cigarette, and paper effigies of worldly goods such as an iPhone.

%%* DramaticIrony: the movie is full of it.

* LanguageBarrier: Aiko, the fiancée of Billi's cousin Hao Hao, is unable to understand most of the Mandarin conversations around her because she only speaks Japanese.

* IneligantBlubbering: Hao Hao starts uncontrollably sobbing during the wedding reception, to the point where Billi has to take him away to let him calm down.

* LanguageBarrier:
** Aiko, the fiancée of Billi's cousin Hao Hao, is unable to understand most of the Mandarin conversations around her because she only speaks Japanese.

* ValuesDissonance: Discussed in-universe. The collective decision of the family is to hide Nai Nai's terminal diagnosis from her because the Chinese believe it's kinder for the sufferer to be blissfully unaware before they die, rather than fearful and helpless. Billi with her American sensibilities feels it's wrong to decieve a loved one like that, and everyone acknowledges that such a thing would be ''illegal'' in America, but her uncle Haibin points out that they're not in America. The Chinese way is for the whole family to bear the burden of Nai Nai's diagnosis rather than her alone. Even the doctor in the hospital, who's studied in England, explains to Billi that the Chinese medical establishment plays along with this practice.

* DueToTheDead: Some interesting Chinese mourning and funeral customs are shown. At the grave of Nai Nai's late husband, the family prays and offers up food, drink, a cigarette, and paper effigies of worldly goods such as an iPhone.

It stars {{Creator/Awkwafina}} as Billi, an aspiring writer who gets the news that her grandma ("Nai Nai," Chinese for "father's mother) is dying of lung cancer. However, she also learns that her Nai Nai doesn't know she has cancer; the family has decided to keep the news away from her to let her live her last days in peace. On top of that, they've organized a wedding in order to allow everyone to see Nai Nai one last time. What follows is a series of misunderstandings and [[DramaticIrony Dramatic Ironies]] as Billi heads to China and grapples with the moral weight of the family's lie.

* DrowningMySorrows: Billi's dad spends most of the movie getting drunk.
* LockedOutOfTheLoop: Aiko, the fiancée of Billi's cousin Hao Hao, is unable to understand most of the Mandarin conversations around her as she only speaks Japanese.

* DramaticIrony: the movie is full of it.
* DrowningMySorrows: Billi's dad spends most of the movie getting drunk.

It stars {{Creator/Awkwafina}} as Billi, an aspiring writer who gets the news that her grandma ("Nai Nai," Chinese for "father's mother) is dying of lung cancer. However, she also learns that her Nai Nai doesn't know she has cancer; the family has decided to keep the news away from her to let her live her last days in peace. On top of that, they've organized a wedding in order to allow everyone to see Nai Nai one last time. What follows is a series of misunderstandings and [[DramaticIrony Dramatic Ironies]] as Billi heads to China and grapples with the family's decision.

* DramaticIrony: the movie is full of it.