By John Corrado

Lulu Wang’s The Farewell, which is now available on Blu-ray, still ranks as one of the finer movies of the year. Based on Wang’s own life, the film follows Billi (Awkwafina), a Chinese-American woman who returns home for a family wedding that serves as a way to secretly say goodbye to her beloved grandma, Nai Nai (Shuzhen Zhou), who is being kept in the dark about the fact that she is dying of cancer.

Blending elements of comedy and drama, The Farewell is a beautifully handled tragicomedy that has a fascinating and complex moral dilemma at its centre. Awkwafina, starring in her first dramatic role, carries the film with a splendid performance, doing an incredible job of handling the many nuances of the story. It’s worth seeking out, and for more on the film, you can read my full review right here.

The Blu-ray also includes a commentary track with director Lulu Wang and director of photography Anna Franquesa Solano, as well as the two featurettes Going Home: A Conversation With Awkwafina and Nothing But the Truth: Confession of a Writer/Director, which present one-on-one interviews with the film’s star and director cut together with clips from the movie. They are followed by a pair of deleted scenes that are presented back-to-back, three minutes in total.

The Farewell is a VVS Films release. It’s 100 minutes and rated PG.

Street Date: November 12th, 2019