• Length: 100 min
• Director:
  Lulu Wang
• Release: 2019
• Language: Mandarin, English
• Subtitles: Dutch
• Trailer: View trailer

Fresh from her breakthrough in Crazy Rich Asians, hot new star Awkwafina proves she’s the real thing in writer-director Lulu Wang’s alternately moving and funny autobiographical tale. Thoroughly Americanised young Billi (Awkwafina) is called back home to China for a final visit with her dying grandmother, Nai Nai (the delightful and formidable Zhao Shuzhen). The catch? Billi’s parents and extended family have kept Nai Nai in the dark as to her diagnosis of terminal cancer, believing that it’s the fear engendered by the knowledge of a terminal diagnosis that kills one, not the cancer itself. Needless to say, Billi is caught between a rock and a hard place—should she go along with the ruse or grant her grandmother the respect she deserves by revealing the truth?

‘The push and pull between the bonds of blood and the ties of culture are explored with a light touch and a perceptive eye for detail in this delightful, semi-autobiographical family drama from writer and director Lulu Wang… As gifted a writer as she is at creating playful, visually layered frames, Wang is constantly juggling clashes—of cultures, of tragedy and joy… Ultimately, it’s all about balance, a yin and yang of roots and identities, humour and pathos that comes together into a satisfying, bittersweet wedding banquet of a movie.’—Wendy Ide, The Guardian