The Farewell: Vocal & Facial Performances, Corporeal Performances, Naturalistic Acting, Character Development

The following analysis was submitted for an informal film journal assignment Junior year.

Vocal & Facial Performance

A representative moment in the film is when Billi is in New York on the phone with Nai Nai. Awkwafina plays Billi and reveals narrative information in this initial scene. Nai Nai tells Billi she is worried about Billi living alone as Billi opens a letter. Once Billi opens the letter, she goes silent on the phone and does not respond when Nai Nai asks if she is okay. She furrows her brows and responds that she is fine. The letter is out of the shot, but Billi’s downward gaze suggests her character is still stricken by the letter she received, despite telling Nai Nai she is fine. Billi’s next dialogue is when she states she is tired, which she accompanies by a sigh of disappointment. We know that the rejection letter was extremely disappointing to Billi. Nai Nai tells her to go to bed and, when she says I love you, a closeup shot of Billi reveals a slight grin. The next shot shows her closed eyes and slumped posture as she takes one last look at the letter, then out the window. While the contents of the letter indicate that Billi’s application for a Guggenheim fellowship was rejected, Awkwafina’s performance in the scene conveys that the rejection letter is more than just a professional setback. The way she harnesses the power of a facial performance by furrowing her brow and dwelling in a downward gaze helps emphasize the emotional sentiments accompanying this rejection. Furthermore, the line where she quickly says she’s tired and accompanies her dialogue with a sigh is a vocal indication that the fatigue she mentions stems from the stress in her life rather than her lack of sleep. The slight smile when Nai Nai says “I love you” also narratively underscores the influence Nai Nai has on Billi’s life. Billi’s subtle inclusion of this grin amidst her otherwise depressed disposition helps explain the magnitude of influence Nai Nai has on Billi’s life.

Corporeal Performance

A moment in The Farewell that uses a gestural and corporeal performance is when Awkwafina, as Billi, learns a traditional exercise from Nai Nai upon her arrival in China. The exercise involves slapping the arms, which Nai Nai uses firm gestures to perform. Awkwafina moves her hands loosely, gesturally signalling her lack of interest in this exercise. When Nai Nai firmly slaps her legs for circulation, Awkwafina flails her arms loosely to slap her legs. When Nai Nai reaches her arms over her head slowly, Awkwafina quickly swings her arms up and back down. In terms of Awkwafina’s body, she walks around with a rather informal, loosey-goosey posture, slumping her body around the space to perform some of the gestures. While Nai Nai seems to be walking around in the same space in an almost intentional-circular motion, Awkwafina walks wherever she wants, sometimes attempting to just follow wherever Nai Nai goes. The combination of Awkwafina’s flailing gestures and casual posture in this performance suggests she is not as invested in this traditional exercise. Furthermore, I think it demonstrates an almost unsuccessful attempt to take her mind off her grandmother’s condition. While Nai Nai’s more intentional movements and gestures suggest her interest and full-attention to the exercise, Awkwafina’s half-hearted effort in completing the exercise suggests her mind is centered on something else. Billi wishes to be honest with her grandmother about the cancer and this physical distraction is not successful in helping her forget about the severity of the situation. Nai Nai is blissfully unaware of her condition in this moment, but Billi cannot fully commit to the exercise as she is aware of Nai Nai’s worsening condition. Billi follows along and verbally plays around with Nai Nai in this scene, but her gestures indicate she is just going along with it to make Nai Nai happy.

Naturalistic Acting

Awkwafina’s performance is naturalistic because her acting as the character, Billi, is both believable and realistic. Awkwafina is from New York–raised by her father and grandmother–because her mother died when she was young. Awkwafina draws on her emotional experiences in her real life to portray a realistic relationship between a girl and her grandmother. She carries shared experiences with Billi, including: loss, a Chinese-American living in America, and a strong relationship with her grandmother. Therefore, her performance exemplifies a Method performance because her role as Billi fuses with her real life. However, Awkwafina does not traditionally play a serious, emotional role in films and typically errs more on the side of a lighthearted performance. In her other films, like Crazy Rich Asians, her performance is more repertory in nature since she shuts her character off once the camera stops recording. Her role in Crazy Rich Asians arguably demonstrates a less fused relationship between actor and character than her role in The Farewell. 

Nai Nai’s Character Development

First, The Farewell uses the “name” character sign to signify traits about Nai Nai. The “name” character sign helps characterize both the character and the relationships the character possesses. Nai Nai means grandmother in Chinese, so–when Billi refers to her as “Nai Nai”–spectators understand she is Billi’s grandmother. More specifically, Nai Nai refers to a person’s grandmother on their father’s side, which tells us Nai Nai is Haiyan’s mother. Second, the first scene we see of Nai Nai is her in a hospital dress getting a scan done in the hospital, which embodies the appearance character sign. We immediately know that Nai Nai’s health is in question. Afterwards, when Little Nai Nai picks Nai Nai up from the waiting room and explains her tests are good, Nai Nai’s appearance further signals her age and health. Here, Nai Nai has white hair, wears a drab, tweed vest (typical of someone that is elderly), struggles to clutch onto her purse, and requires Little Nai Nai’s assistance when attempting to stand. From her hospital garb, physical features, clothing choice, and the feeble appearance of her body, spectators learn Nai Nai is both old and sick. Finally, two of the earliest scenes involving Nai Nai occur very early in the film and both feature her using a phone to call Billi. The object correlative of the phone suggests Nai Nai is far away from Billi, for she cannot speak to Billi in person. This moment also immediately signifies her care and love for her granddaughter’s wellbeing. Although the two are far away from one another, the phone symbolizes her relentless desire to stay involved and in touch with Billi.