The Farewell: 10 Best Characters, Ranked

One of the best things about The Farewell is its variety of unique, interesting characters. This movie is about family, and, like every family, no two people are the same. Each individual of Billi’s family has their own voice and perspective.

Ranking family members is something real families shouldn’t do, but, since they aren’t our family, we’re going to try. Here are our rankings of the characters in The Farewell.

10 Mr. Li

Mr. Li is essentially Nai Nai’s live-in boyfriend. It’s hard to say a lot about him because we don’t get to see a whole lot of him throughout the film. Nai Nai describes him as “a live body in the house,” but doesn’t go much beyond that. If there’s one thing that we can count on for him to be there for, though, its a family meal, and there is no shortage of eating in this movie. If we’re being honest, this is probably what most men will end up doing at the end of their lives; showing up just for the food and calling it a day.

9 Aunty Ling

Aunty Ling is the wife of Haibin, Haiyan’s brother. She doesn’t get a great deal of screen time either, but what she does get she makes count. She takes Billi and Haiyan to what appears to be some kind of day spa. She offers her perspective on not telling Nai Nai she’s dying, but it doesn’t prove too helpful to Billi. But Aunty Ling does help Haiyan and Billi relax, so she can’t be all bad, right?

8 Aiko

Aiko is the blushing bride-to-be of Billi’s cousin Hao Hao. She doesn’t get many lines, but there’s a great deal to be said for someone who willingly agrees to move up their wedding date to accommodate one person on her husband’s side of the family. That’s definitely not something every bride would do.

Aiko also receives her fair share of scorn from Nai Nai behind her back, and if this family is as close as it appears to be, it’s hard to believe Aiko is not aware. In a different movie or even a different version of this movie, we could see Nai Nai and Aiko go head to head. It is impressive to see someone in her position not turn into a bridezilla.

7 Hao Hao

Hao Hao is Billi’s cousin who has agreed to move up his wedding to Aiko for Nai Nai. While Hao Hao doesn’t get many lines, you can tell that he is experiencing much of the same grief and sadness that Billi is. Only in one scene do we see him start to break down, and, during a stressful time like this, that’s pretty impressive. Hats off to you and your new bride, Hao Hao.

6 Uncle Haibin

Uncle Haibin is the brother of Billi’s father, Haiyan. He and his family, despite living in Japan, still very much consider themselves first and foremost Chinese. As Billi struggles to understand why her family isn’t telling her grandmother she’s dying, Haibin offers some of the more profound insights.

He knows it is a burden to withhold this knowledge, but it is a burden that he willingly accepts and tries to help Billi accept as well. He mostly maintains his composure around Nai Nai until he delivers a speech at his son’s wedding where he breaks down in gratitude for Nai Nai. If there is a better kind of son Nai Nai could hope for, we don’t know who it would be.

5 Lu Jian

Lu Jian is Billi’s mother. She can be a little rough around the edges because of her high expectations for Billi. We discover that she too has had her struggles with losing a family member and being accused of not being sad enough when that occurred.

She may not have the most gentle of touches when it comes to helping Billi understand traditional Chinese customs, but she does hear Billi out eventually and doesn’t try to sugarcoat anything. By the end, she may not be our most favorite character, but we do understand her struggles and her pain, and we can’t hold them against her.

4 Haiyan

Haiyan is Billi’s father and another son of Nai Nai. While he feels connected to his more traditional Chinese family, he considers himself more of an American, which causes a little bit of a stir during meal conversations. Perhaps because of that, he tends to be more understanding of Billi’s struggle with not telling Nai Nai about her impending illness/death. At least he is not giving the same kind of spiels that Lu Jian or Haibin give about what it means to be Chinese.

3 Little Nai Nai

Little Nai Nai is the younger sister of Nai Nai. She is the first family member to be burdened with lying to Nai Nai about her cancer. For years, she has spent a lot of time with Nai Nai at the expense of her own marriage. Lu Jian invites Little Nai Nai to come to America when she has the opportunity where she will be able to go and see the sights.

Little Nai Nai insists that she doesn’t have to be worried over, but it is hard not to when her sister may be passing soon and she doesn’t have forever to live either. (Fun fact: Little Nai Nai is portrayed by the actual individual from director Lulu Wang’s life!)

2 Billi

Billi is probably the most relatable character in the entire movie. We find ourselves just as baffled, if not more so, about how families navigate difficult situations like this. She does her best to be understanding and respect the wishes of her family to not tell Nai Nai about her cancer, but she finds herself constantly conflicted in the process.

By the end, we still don’t know exactly what Billi thinks about not telling Nai Nai, but we do know she’s trying her best. We may not have the iron resolve of Haibin or the stalwartness of Lu Jian, but we can look up to Billi as she goes forward.

1 Nai Nai

How could our favorite character not be Nai Nai? She always speaks her mind and doesn’t apologize for it, perhaps to the detriment of some family members. But we always see her giving her love to her family by the things she does, whether it’s going to the caterer to make sure they get what they paid for, or giving Billi a hongbao at the end of the movie.

Even though we only get to spend a little bit of time with Nai Nai compared to all the time the rest of her family has had to be with her, she feels like the kind of grandma we would all like to have. We would do anything for Nai Nai, even if it tore us up inside as it does for Billi.

(Another fun fact: The real Nai Nai only just found out a short time ago that this movie was based on her life!)

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