"Don't Tell Her The Farewell" was originally a podcast. According to director Lulu Wang, the script had already taken shape at that time, but many partners have not been able to implement it after talking back and forth. For young directors, the first feature film is always the most difficult. So she thought of the way to save the country very cleverly, and collaborated with the popular podcast column This American Life to present the script in the form of a first-person radio story. Within three days of the broadcast of the show, many film and television companies came to the door and said they would directly establish the project. In the end, she chose Big Beach Films, a veteran of the American independent film industry who had produced "Little Girl in the Sunshine". After that, "Don't Tell Her" was bought by A24 at a high price from the Sundance Film Festival at the beginning of the year. It led the way to become one of the most high-profile new films in 2019, and finally landed in the Chinese theater after a year of hot discussion in North America. String.
Most likely, the director’s debut will always be related to personal experience, and "Don't Tell Her" is no exception. New York ABC girl Billi returned to her parents' hometown in Northeast China to visit her grandmother with terminal cancer. All the family members kept secrets tacitly, but she was the only one who could not restrain herself from wanting to tell grandma the truth and give grandma a chance to finish her life goodbye. Most of the movies were shot in Changchun, and more than 80% of the lines in Mandarin are probably the most Chinese-style American movies I can see.
I have read the script before, and I felt a little worried at the time. Some lines are inevitably condensed expressions of Eastern and Western stereotypes, such as the elder education Billi, "Westerners regard life as individuals, while Easterners regard life as collectives. "It's a kind of golden sentence that attempts to directly summarize the central idea for the audience. On the contrary, after seeing the film, the impression is much better. I think a large part of it is attributed to Awkwafina's performance, which made many plot points that were extremely likely to be embarrassed while reading the script to have a soft landing without any risk. In the movie, she is not pretty, even a bit dull. She often hunches like a female middle school student in the developmental stage, making people want to take a hard shot from behind. It is this relaxation and naturalness, as well as the actor's own joyful rhythm, that gives the story a sense of breathing and revitalizes the atmosphere of the whole film. With her natural performance in this film, Awkafina also won the Best Actress in a Music/Comedy Film at the Golden Globe Awards that just ended this month, and she is the first Asian actress in the Golden Globe Awards.
In addition to the main plot of "Don't Tell Her", it also tries to explore the subtleties of the internal structure of Chinese families. Among them, the grandmother and the little grandmother, the mother and the concubine, are separated from the cousins of the two countries who have not seen them in more than ten years. The confrontation of words is more interesting than the slogan lines, and it is worth pondering. Another advantage is that the film and art department of the film is very well-established. Whether it is grandma’s house, Billi’s hotel, wedding service and cupping and foot bath city, they are all extraordinary. One point is fake, and one point is deliberate. .
The only thing I regret is the end of the movie. Billi has been struggling with the choice, but in the end, she neither insisted on what she believed and said goodbye to her grandma in the truth, nor seemed to be able to truly understand the values of the first generation of immigrant parents. She just came, then left, and returned to her life. And what about grandma? There is no change in grandma. It may be because the director's grandma is still alive in real life. It is true that everyone will see the real grandma in the subtitle scrolling and applaud and smile from the heart, but as the movie itself, the ending is like a farewell that can't be said properly, a very Chinese style forget it. Not to mention it.
Many overseas Chinese audiences who were deeply moved after watching "Don't Tell Her" have compared with last year's "Crazy Rich Asians", which I think is not appropriate. Except that the protagonists are all yellow-skinned, the two films are very different in terms of genre, size, language, and filming location. You can refer to "Searching", which are all low-cost independent productions. The emotional core of the oriental family is all after the film festival. The local theaters in the United States issued a good box office, and then moved to the cultural source of the film—— Asia market. I am curious about how Chinese audiences will react after "Don't Tell Her" is released in China. As relatives in their hometown, can everyone accept this small film and let it blend into the Northeast Renaissance which is in full swing.
Having said that, regardless of the performance of the film in China, the cost of 3 million US dollars, the current box office of 19 million "Don't Tell Her" has already won a big win. From time to time, I can see Lulu Wang and her boyfriend Barry Jenkins (director of "Moonlight Boy") go in and out at various events during the awards season, just like another pair of rising literary film directors. In the past two years, the young Chinese female directors under the beam of Hollywood searchlights, in addition to Lulu Wang, as well as Zhao Ting ("Eternal Race") and Cathy Yan ("Birds of Prey"), will have major productions to be released in 2020. For girls who are talented and hardworking like this, of course, the more the better, the higher the standing, the better. I am very much looking forward to what Lulu Wang will shoot next. The next work outside of his personal experience will often be the cornerstone of his career as a director. Wait, look at her talking without stage fright at the director round table of The Hollywood Reporter. I believe this girl will not leave the scene easily once she gets to the table.
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