History Film / TheFarewell

* Hypocrite: Billi feels like it’s wrong to lie to Nai Nai's by holding her cancer diagnosis from her, but at the same time Billi hasn’t told her parents that her application for a fellowship was rejected.

* InelegantBlubbering: Hao Hao starts uncontrollably sobbing as a result of having too much to drink during the wedding reception, to the point where Billi has to take him to another room to console him.

* MostWritersAreWriters: The protagonist Billi is a writer, albeit not a successful one.

%%** Billi is uncomfortable with keeping Nai Nai's cancer from her but she hides her rejection from a fellowship from her parents.

The film stars {{Creator/Awkwafina}} as Billi, an aspiring Chinese-American 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 secret from her to let her live her last days in peace. On top of that, they've organized a wedding in China between Billi's cousin Hao Hao and his girlfriend Aiko in order to allow everyone to see Nai Nai one last time.

->''"Isn't it wrong to lie?"''

* NotSoDifferentRemark:

** Those who want to reveal the secret are reminded that Nai Nai also hid her husband's cancer from him before he died.

* BadLiar: Billi's parents initially tell her to stay in New York, because she doesn't know how to hide her emotions and her face would give them away. She does go to China and has some near-slips, but Nai Nai doesn't catch on.

[[caption-width-right:350:''[[{{Tagline}} Based on an]] [[ExactWords actual lie.]]'']]

* FunWithSubtitles: Whenever Billi hears a word or phrase in Mandarin that she doesn't understand, the film's subtitles show that part in untranslated Mandarin until some other character explains or translates the term for her.

* MostWritersAreWriters: Billi is one, albeit not a successful one.
* NotSoDifferent:
** Billi is uncomfortable with keeping Nai Nai's cancer from her but she hides her rejection from a fellowship from her parents.
** Nai Nai also hid her husband's cancer from him before he died.

* RealityHasNoSubtitles: Whenever Billi hears a word or phrase in Mandarin that she doesn't understand, the film's subtitles show that part in untranslated Mandarin until some other character explains or translates the term for her.

* SkewedPriorities: When they visit Nai Nai's husband's grave, one of his sons places a lit cigarette on his grave. Nai Nai tells him that her husband can't smoke, it's bad for him. He notes that the man is already dead, he should be allowed to smoke after going through that.

* FunWithSubtitles: A subtle example. Whenever Billi hears a word or phrase in Mandarin that she doesn't understand, the film's subtitles show that part in untranslated Mandarin until some other character explains or translates the term for her.

* CallingTheOldManOut: When they first moved to the US, Billi's parents would hide their worries from her rather than discussing them to avoid scaring her. This only scared her ''more'' because she knew something was wrong but her parents never told her what.

[[quoteright:220:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_farewell_poster.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:220:''"A person's life is part of a whole. Family"'']]
''The Farewell'' is a 2019 {{Main/Dramedy}} written and directed by Lulu Wang, based off of a real incident in her life and adapted from an episode of ''Radio/ThisAmericanLife''.

It stars {{Creator/Awkwafina}} as Billi, an aspiring Chinese-American 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 secret from her to let her live her last days in peace. On top of that, they've organized a wedding in China between Billi's cousin Hao Hao and his girlfriend Aiko 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.

* AvoidTheDreadedGRating: Presumably the reason for Billi's [[PrecisionFStrike "shit"]] early in the movie. Though the movie isn't exactly for kids with it's melancholy subject matter and being mostly in Mandarin Chinese, not much occurs that would warrant higher than a G rating aside from perhaps the alcohol drinking.
* BadLiar: Billi's parents initially tell her to stay in New York, because she doesn't know how to hide her emotions and her face would give them away. She does go to China and has some near slips, but Nai Nai doesn't catch on.

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

* StepfordSmiler: ''Everyone'' except Nai Nai and Mr Li, as they don't know about Nai Nai's diagnosis. This is PlayedForDrama as it is discussed as part of the cultural barrier between China and the USA.

* 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.

* InsultOfEndearment: Nai Nai calls Billi "stupid child!", especially whenever she gets particularly happy with her.

-->In America, we couldn't do this. We wouldn't be allowed.
* SweetAndSourGrapes: Although it's based on a true story, so possibly justified. [[spoiler:Billi spends the entirety of her China trip painfully coming to understand as best she can that Nai Nai is terminally ill and their life in China is disappearing -- but the epilogue reveals that, after all, Nai Nai is still alive today.]]

* {{Irony}}: The movie revolves around Nai Nai's family struggling with whether or not to tell her that she's dying of cancer. [[spoiler:The first shot of the end credits reveals that Nai Nai is still alive ''six years later''.]]

* InsultOfEndearment: Nai Nai calls Billi "stupid child!", especially whenever she gets particularly happy with her.
* OverlyLongGag: Uncle Haibin escorting Billi to the hotel, telling her a bunch of stuff about the Nai Nai situation she already knows, and her repeatedly saying "I know".

''The Farewell'' is a 2019 {{Main/Dramedy}} written and directed by Lulu Wang, based off of a real incident in her life and adapted from an episode of This American Life.

* AskAStupidQuestion: When Nai Nai asks Bili if she got to China by plane, Bili teasingly answers, "I swam".

* BigApplesauce: Billie and her parents live in New York City, although they (of course) leave after the first fifteen minutes or so to go to China.

* SweetAndSourGrapes: Although it's based on a true story, so possibly justified. [[spoiler:Billie spends the entirety of her China trip painfully coming to understand as best she can that Nai Nai is terminally ill and their life in China is disappearing -- but the epilogue reveals that, after all, Nai Nai is still alive today.]]

* ForeignCultureFetish: Deconstructed, as Billi is never really sure which is her "foreign" culture. Many people she meets in China do fetishize the US, including her aunt and uncle, which she calls out.

* BigScrewedUpFamily: [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]]. Billi's family lightly squabble over cultural differences and life goals, but they clearly love each other and especially Nai Nai. However, there are also a lot of CrypticBackgroundReferences to Haiyan struggling with alcoholism and Billi's parents seem to have been deeply unhappily married at one point.