Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
These words are at the heart ofThe Farewellwriter-directors Hong Kongset show, based on a novel by Janice Y.K.
I saw it as an opportunity to expand.
I am an expat when I travel to Hong Kong and Asia.
But Im also an immigrant from Asia.
Its about perspective, says Wang.
About holding multiple truths at once.
It requires a lot of critical thinking.
People often think portraying something is equivalent to judgment.
But the film is about the prejudices that you are bringing [to it].
I love that its complicated and messy.
WithExpats, thats what I wanted to do its about people being people.
Can we accept others and ourselves in all the degrees of being human?
I wanted to show that all three women have a shared experience, Wang explains.
Theyve all been hurt, and theyve all hurt others.
And theyre talking to the audience as well.
I love when cinema forces the audience to engage.
The book doesnt go that deep into these two women.
On their days off, they can actually do something for themselves.
The writers room also made sure that Puri and Essie were pronouncedly different characters in well-defined ways.
We didnt want to make them this one key in, andThe Helperinfluenced that a lot.
When you have the space to feel more, it lingers for a long time.
Thats whatA White, White Daydoes so brilliantly.
When youre devolving and coming apart, your reality shifts, Wang reflects.
Because grief can be so disorienting, youre not sure if what youre seeing is real.
And that was something that we wanted to give to Margaret.
Mercy thinks shes inGilmore Girls, she says with a chuckle.
Shes coming of age.
And maybe Hilary thinks shes in a romantic drama.
She lives in a psychological thriller.
She is a mother who is seeing something but has a hard time convincing others.
I just love the gray area of this movie.
Is she a good mother?
Is she a bad mother?
Its not one or the other.
But in the end,Nashvillewon.
It requires the audience to exercise patience and be immersed without knowing what the point is.
And yet when we get there, you feel totally satisfied.
Joshua: Teenager vs. Its a film about young people and their tenacity, Wang explains.
I wanted to capture that resilience.
But seeing it through the lens of 2024, theres a sadness to it, she continues.
My family left [Beijing] in 1989.
My parents had a lot of friends who were students and participated [in the 1989 student protests].
And it makes you wonder, what is it for?
What would you call that film?
A drama?, she ponders.
It exists somewhere in between.
And I love when genre tools are used within dramatic storytelling.
Brinder was very much Gursimrans story.
And I saw so much of my mom in hers.
Its just a really tender, beautiful film that feels very local.
It was the films immense tenderness that spoke to Wang the most.
Thats something that we didnt want to let go of.
I think bothMy LoveandSuk Sukreally represent how life is both long and so short, so fragile.
