Farewell TA The extract is the very beginning of the film Farewell, a Chinese-American film telling the story of lies and love of a Chinese family while exploring Chinese-American identities and cultural differences. The film expands as Billi, a Chinese immigrant who grew up in New York, went back to China to see her grandmother, who was diagnosed with terminal cancer. However, the family decided to conceal her situation to her, following Chinese traditions. Unable to accept the decision, Billi went into “a gentle exploration of the cultural differences and generational schisms” of her identity and family. Exploring cultural contexts like the importance of family cohesion, benevolent lies, cultural gaps and inter-generational obligations in the Chinese society, this textual analysis will explore how these values and themes are embodied in film elements and techniques in the opening of the film, through sound, mise-en-scene, and cinematography. My extract is the right beginning of the film, which introduces the basic setting (Nainai’s situation and Billi’s life) by depicting the two different world (Changchun & New York City), and sets the tone for later when the two world comes together because of Nainai’s illness. The film starts with a calm and beautiful image of mountains surrounding a lake, with flowers in the front. The entire image is in **soft focus**, givng a peaceful and dreamy vibe. This serves as a **foreshadow**, indicating that the story will be emotional and intimate. However, soon, with the **diegetic sound** of the hospital coming up, the sense of calm and beauty is broken. The harsh and cold sound of hospital effectively contrasts with the serenity of the landscape. Not only is the sound diegetic — the image also undergoes a **diegetic reveal**, as in the next shot, it is turned out that the painting is actually a phorographic mural on a hospital wall. With the hospital sound as a **prelap diegetic sound bridge**, an **environmental reveal** redirects the audience to the real scene — a hospital. In the hospital, Nainai (grandma) is having a phone call with her granddaughter Billie. A **hard cut** cuts to a scene in New York, where a **tracking shot** moves alongide Billi, who is walking on the street while talking with Nainai. The moving tracking shot contrasts with the **static shots** in the hosital with Nainai, illustraing the fast-paced and busy life in the New York City. Wile metropolitan citiess such as New York and Shanghai have developed and undewent modernization rapidly in the past decade, most small and rural cities in China — especially those in the North-East (东北) — remain static and underdeveloped. The old and dogmatic building syle of the residence building of Billi’s family in Changchun is also shown later in the film, forming a stark contrast with New York, stressing the difference between the two worlds. The film proceeds with **parallel editing**, alternating back and forth between the two scenes and Nainai and Billie continue their phone call — Nainai in a hospital in China, and Billi walking on the street in New York. This further enables the audience to directly feel the difference of the two worlds. Diegetic sound continuity is ensured through different **sound perspectives**: Billi can hear the hospital’s announcement for patient numbers through her phone in the background. Through parallel editing and sound perspectives, the film effectively and magically connect the two worlds, interweaving sounds from two different realities. This symbolizes the emotional connection between Billi and Nainai, even though they have not seen each other for a long time and are separated by oceans and continents. *Qin* (亲) — meaing deep parent-child relationships and filial piety — is an important concept in the Chinese culture, and qualitative interview reveals that it remains central even after migration for Chinese, proving that physical distance does not erode family cohesion. Another study also shows that for Chinese-American immigrants, especially first-generations, filial piety serves as an “intrinsic desire” to provide ongoing emotional as well as material support to parents in China. Family cohesion is an important value in Chinese households. In this scene, Nainai just got out of a CT scan. The first thing she asked the doctor was, not about her test result, but “where is my sister?” Meanwhile, Nainai’s sister is in the doctor’s office listening to the test result. This scene has a beautiful and symbolic **framing** — layers of walls, windows and doors separate the audience from the conversation between the doctor and Nainai’s sister. Not being able to see the doctor who is hidden behind an opaque glass, the audience can only see Nainai’s sister’s **side shot** and speculate the results from her reactions. The sister is small, lonely, and being boxed in in the room, symbolizing her powerlessness under great emotional burden. The nurse who is sitting at the front and absorbed in the screen adds to the clinical coldness of the hospital. At the same time, the camera slowly **pushes in**, almost unoticably, adding to the pressure and emotional density of the scene as Nainai’s sister is undergoing great emotional stress to decide to conceal the truth from her. The glass and walls becomes a barrier of truth, and Nainai is distanced from her true health status. While the conversation between the doctor and Nainai’s sister is blocked behind the glasses, the **film score** appears for the first time. It is ba eautifully written classical vocal piece written by Alex Weston, and is desgined to be a recurring theme music throughout the film. The heavy tones accompanied by a high-pitch vocal symbolizes the social expectations of the family, society, and culture etc. In the next scene outside the office, Nainai’s sister is facing the wall with a heavy decision — to hide the truth fron Nainai. The use of **negative leading space** underscores Sister’s grief and despair as she needs to adjust her emotions to lie to Nainai. The“lie” — the major event of the entire film — is compressed in this scene. Like what the film illustrates, Chinese culture that puts qualities like family harmony over truth-telling, leading to so called benevolent or “white” lies. A cross-cultural comparison shows that Chinese adults consider (benevolent) lies as more appropriate and more likely to be used than Canadian or German adults, when truth clash with other priorities such as relationship harmony. In fact, during a short 5 minutes opening of the film, the audience have alreay heard at least 5 lies being told. First the landscape of the image at the hospital can be interpreted as a lie to the patients that every is beautiful and all right. First, in the phone call, Nainai asked if it is cold in New York and if Billie is wearing a hat. Billie lied about having worn a hat without any hesitation to reaasure her. Second, after Billi heard the background sound from the hospital and asked where is Nainai, Nainai lied about being at the grandaunt’s house, so that Billi would not worry about her health. Next, after Billi signed her name for a petition worker for marine life protection, she casually lied to Nainai that she just talked to a friend, saving her the trouble of explaining the whole concept of canvassing, which is mostly non-existent in the Chinese society. And finally, the greatest lie of the film — Nainai’s sister telling her that the test result shows no problem and it’s only a “benigh shadow”. All of these lies are considered as benevolent lies in the Chinese cultural context — not causing any harm and avoiding troubles. While throughout the film, Billie could not understand or support her family’s decision, she is already unconciously telling white lies, for most of the times when taling with Nainai. In fact, the concept of “lies” is so central to the film that Lulu Wang stated at the beginning that the entire film is “based on a lie”, as an **irony** to most film which claim to be based on a true story. This is yet another powerful contrast between the Chinese and western culture — while westerners value honesty and individual’s right to their own accurate information, Chinese view white lies as less negative, especially when they protects the group or is “out of love”. Moving away from the hospital, the film proceeds to introduce Bili’s family. In this **establishing shot** of Billi’s family house, the **low-key lighting** and cold environment **color tone** gives a somber feeling. However, the warm, yellow-orange light from within the house contrasts with the coll blue tones of the night, creating a visual representation of private vs public space, fimilial warmth vs external coldness. This also speaks to the fact that in most suburban American households, privacy is highly valued and nuclear families are the norm, unlike in many collectivist socieites in which extended families are central and emotional lives are shared across family networks. According to Pew Research Center, only 18% of Americans live din multigenerational homes in 2021. Her parents being first generation immigrants, Billi also grows up in a nuclear household, which makes it hard to understand the family obligations and dynamics she will later encounter. Inside, Billi’s parents have two guests over. The atmosphere is intimate and cozy thanks to the **warm color tone** and **low-key lighting**. The warm and cozy vibe forms a sharp contrast with the harsh and white lighting in the hospital, showing two vastly different worlds (that are about to go together). In addition, while in the hospital are the two eldest members of the family, in this scene are the second and third generation of the family, foreshaowing the ideas of generational gap and filial piety. A single **medium-wide shot** keeps all five charcaters in frame -- no cutaways or singles — forces the audience to read group dynamics instead of individual psychology, symoblizing the ideal of a collectivist meal in the Chinese culture. However, since among the five people, two are guests and are sitting in the dark, their back facing the camera and with little **fill light**, this meal is still considered a private and relatively lonely meal. This will contrast with true Chinese family meals later in the film, when dozens of people all sit around a large round table and sharing the food. The two worlds, separated as they are by geography, culture, and age, are at the same time deeply connected by the family cohesion of a Chinese ideal, forming a interesting tension that will be the core of the film. One of the main intention of Lulu Wang is to“bridg[e](#) those two world”, and the story is based on her personal experience. With the notion of a “white lie” as the main theme driving the story, The Farewell proceeds to explore the intricate differences of the Chinese and Western cultures. However, it should be noted that the film was made from a American perspective itself — it is intended for western audience, and a lot of what’s being portrayed in the film may not resonate with Chinese audience.