China The Farewell returned 92.2× its production cost, earning $23.1M against a $250K budget — one of the highest-return China films in our catalog.
Synopsis
“Based on an actual lie.”
A headstrong Chinese-American woman returns to China when her beloved grandmother is given a terminal diagnosis. Billi struggles with her family's decision to keep grandma in the dark about her own illness as they all stage an impromptu wedding to see grandma one last time.
Audience Engagement
1,275 audience reviews — more than 94% of China films in our index.
Review volume (94th percentile) outruns trending popularity (69th) — a durable title with sustained audience attention.
Budget & Box Office Efficiency
At a 1h 40m runtime, production spent $3K per minute on screen and earned $231K per minute back.
Titles With Overlapping Themes
Films and series that share thematic tags with The Farewell. Number on each card indicates how many keywords overlap.
Comedy + Drama in China
90 China titles in our catalog blend the Comedy and Drama genres. Below: the top-rated of them (excluding The Farewell itself).
The 2018–2020 China Window
The Farewell holds position #67 of 219 China films in the 2018–2020 window, below highlighted by audience rating.
The 2010s China Landscape
2019 was the decade’s peak output year for China — 86 titles released, including The Farewell. Bars below show how the 2010s stacked up year by year (515 total).
Position in Catalog
Released alongside 85 other China films in 2019.
The 683rd China title from China we index (earliest catalogued entry: 1935).
Our China catalog contains 946 titles in total (747 films).
Thematic Fingerprint
Tags on The Farewell, grouped by how common each theme is across the full Asian catalog. Rare tags are more distinctive signals.
- grandmother granddaughter relationship · 5
- family reunion · 4
- asian american · 3
- family gathering · 2
- ethical dilemma · 2
- deadly disease · 2
- chinese american · 1
- lung cancer · 1
- relationships · 1
- personal relationships · 1
- wedding · 24
- east asian lead · 10
- grandparent grandchild relationship · 7
- grandmother · 7
- woman director · 246
- family relationships · 57
Reception Benchmarks
Ranked #205 of 946 China films indexed here (78th percentile by TMDB audience score).
Rating is +0.7 points above the China average of 6.7/10.
Among China Comedy productions specifically: #46 of 214 (top 21%).
Production Details
| Primary Country | China |
|---|---|
| All Production Countries | China, United States of America |
| Original Language | En |
| Spoken Languages | English, Japanese, Mandarin |
| Production Companies | Big Beach, Depth of Field, Kindred Spirit, Seesaw Productions |
| Runtime | 1h 40m |
| Release Date | July 12, 2019 |
| IMDb | tt8637428 |
| Official Site | a24films.com |