I'm disappointed by many of the other reviews here and I'm actually a bit surprised. This movie tells the manifestation of a lie unfolding between Eastern and Western cultures. In the west we are taught from a young age that keeping secrets and lying is essentially bad. In the East there is the notion of a good lie. This issue is central to this film and explores how the two cultures accept the emotional burden of telling a lie depending on whether they believe it is good or bad. There are some funny moments but they are very nuanced and again often related to cultural peculiarities. I noticed the other film goers weren't laughing as much as me. I could imagine myself in China trying to politely remove the hotelier from my room as well. Reading from other reviews I suspect this film will appeal to lovers of Asian art-house cinema, myself included, perhaps more than american cinema audiences. This is certainly not a Hollywood popcorn movie and it doesn't try to be. I think this film could have been improved a little by putting a little bit back of any scenes which was were perhaps cut out. I could have had another 20 minutes more to explore some of the characters more, perhaps the "bride and groom". In saying that, the pacing was very good and the whole package felt fairly sharply edited down to it's 90 mins running time. I look forward to more films to come by this talented director. I'm glad Lulu Wang was able to make this very personal film.
Review of The Farewell
