The farewell

“The farewell” is a sad and interesting movie, and you can tell from the name for nobody likes  farewell. However, IMDB gives this movie a score of 7.6, and it is about cultural differences between eastern worlds and western worlds. That is why I decided to watch it with my family. 

Plot

The story starts with an old Chinese lady who is diagnosed with Cancer and it is said that she can only live 3 more months. She has a couple of kids. The elder one immigrated to Japan a long time ago and the second one, Haiyan, moved to the US 25 years ago. Now that everyone got the notice, and people decided to come back to see her, however, they do not want to tell her because they feel that if they tell her, grandma will die of fear instead of cancer. This, at the beginning, seems not acceptable to Billi, Haiyan’s daughter, the main actress of this movie. The story is centered around the culture difference between China and the US, while people get together, eat, and do different things, they express various opinions and beliefs. To name a few.

Finally, it is the farewell time. Billi’s family went back to US and in the taxi to the airport, all started to cry, and a song was played that we all need a healing of the spirit and body in the time of the farewell and departure. 

The movie director, Luluwang, is pretty young and she knows the feeling of the Billi quite well, because when she was 6, her family moved to the US, and she had a wonderful relationship with his grandma back in China. 

I liked the movie and it kept me thinking. I believe if you are a chinese, who lives now abroad, US, Canada, or Europe, we will eventually encounter this, saying farewell to the people you love back in China. It is painful but unavoidable to say goodbye. 

Let’s cherish ourselves, the family members, and friends for life is short. My prayer for everyone that we may believe in Jesus which gives us eternal hope and ultimate care, that today we say farewell, tomorrow, we will meet again in Christ.

A song with a mixed feeling of sorrow and joy came to me after this. It is an old hymn “abide with me” by Scottish Anglican Henry Francis Lyte