“Nǎi Nai & Wài Pó”: Interview of Sean Wang, His Grandmothers

The place I am From: Now and Gen options in-conversation items between generations — like a youthful girl and her grandmother — discussing a subject like magnificence rituals, funds, or marriage. We sat down with filmmaker Sean Wang and his grandmothers, Yi Yan Fuei and Chang Li Hua, the topics of Wang’s Oscar-nominated documentary quick, “Nǎi Nai & Wài Pó.” Learn their heartwarming chat about friendship under.

In 2021, within the wake of elevated anti-Asian violence and the continued pandemic, filmmaker Sean Wang moved again residence to San Francisco. There, he began observing — then filming — Nǎi Nai and Wài Pó, his 94-year-old paternal grandmother and 83-year-old maternal grandmother, respectively, who occur to be inseparable pals and roommates. As he captured the mundane moments and joys of their day by day lives, he created “Nǎi Nai & Wài Pó,” an Oscar-nominated documentary quick that just lately landed on Disney+.

The Taiwanese American director — whose debut characteristic movie, “Dìdi,” just lately premiered on the 2024 Sundance Movie Competition — basically filmed a sequence of residence movies, which he became an exquisite 17-minute “private love letter” to his grandmothers. “As a lot as this film is about my grandmothers and my relationship with them, it’s about friendship, sisterhood, and the bonds that you just preserve and water in previous age,” he tells POPSUGAR. “I am not 86, 96 years previous. However I believe [their friendship] is an effective north star — hopefully, the friendships I’ve now that I really feel are deeply particular in my life, those that I do know will final, that I hope could possibly be Nǎi Nai and Wài Pó in our previous age, are nonetheless as foolish and vibrant and enjoyable.”

Forward of the 2024 Oscars, Wang and his grandmothers focus on their decades-long bond, the facility of friendship, and the life classes they’ve taught each other.

On Nǎi Nai and Wài Pó’s Distinctive Friendship

Chang Li Hua (Wài Pó): Us with the ability to spend our days collectively and dwell collectively can be a type of destiny and luck. Nǎi Nai is older than me by 10 years, so I’ve all the time seen her like my very own huge sister. I’m youthful than her by 10 years, so anytime I’m able to assist her and maintain her, I’ll do my greatest to take action. We have now nearly all the identical hobbies. Studying the newspaper, exercising within the yard, going out for walks. On daily basis, we go to our orchard collectively to examine and see which tree has grown fruits. On daily basis, we eat fruits collectively, and we take the peels of fruit and veggies to the yard and make fertilizer.

Yi Yan Fuei (Nǎi Nai): [Wài Pó and I] have the identical perspective. We each love pals, we like to train, and we like to learn the information, so we’re in a position to be collectively harmoniously, identical to sisters. Sean is aware of too. He grew to become shut with us, and I cherish the time we spent collectively every single day.

Sean Wang: They’re my grandmothers. And as their form of mischievous, younger filmmaker grandson, I believe our relationship is one among such pleasure, silliness, and this childlike, youthful vitality. They point out it within the movie that I deliver it out of them, however in addition they deliver it out of me. I believe that ends in some enjoyable collaborations and these foolish movies that we make. Numerous these had been the seeds that grew to become one half of “Nǎi Nai & Wài Pó.” The silliness, the chaotic pleasure, I prefer to name it, that balances out of with the extra poignant, deeply human grounded pains of their lives.

On What They Realized About Every Different All through Filming

Sean Wang: I believe I knew all of the broad strokes of their lives, however getting to essentially discuss to them about their childhoods and their lives earlier than they had been my grandmothers was actually enlightening. However reducing to current day — and possibly I all the time knew this — I discovered simply how a lot of those inventive spirits they’re.

A lot of this movie was only a option to give them a platform that I believe no person had ever actually thought of them for. They dance, play, and permit their silliness to take middle stage. And now that they are going to the Oscars and being enveloped on this world that is filled with spectacle and fancy clothes, they’re actually loving it and getting to precise a muscle that they so clearly have, that nobody has ever allowed them to flex.

Yi Yan Fuei (Nǎi Nai): Sean was very approachable with us previous folks. He did not deal with us as previous folks in any respect. He joked with us every single day. He did not even act like we had been dozens of years older than him. We had been very completely happy having enjoyable collectively.

Chang Li Hua (Wài Pó): I discovered that Sean was very proficient — he has a fantastic imaginative and prescient. Additionally, he was very affected person with us after we had been filming the film. He would train us the way to pose. He is a child who loves to show his pals. He is ready to hang around with previous folks, youngsters, or pals of the identical age. He is a younger man with a vigorous persona, but additionally works very onerous.

On the Life Classes They’ve Taught Every Different

Sean Wang: There is a line within the film that Nǎi Nai says that has actually caught with me. She says, “The times we spend feeling pleasure and the times we spend feeling ache are the identical days spent, so I am going to decide on pleasure.” I believe that quite simple determination is a strong one: selecting pleasure. Particularly for somebody like her who’s within the twilight years of her life, understanding that her days are extra restricted than mine. In our dumpster fireplace of a world at occasions, permitting your self to decide on pleasure and have a good time the folks round you is a worthy determination.

Yi Yan Fuei (Nǎi Nai): This younger child can get alongside so effectively with others. He does not deal with us like previous folks; he nonetheless shouts like us younger folks in entrance of us every single day. When he is right here, we’ve got a really completely happy life. We must be like him, whether or not he is younger or previous. He’s our pal.

Chang Li Hua (Wài Pó): He helped us be taught we’re not ineffective after we are previous. We are able to nonetheless be helpful folks after we are previous. We are able to nonetheless dance, make films, and be actors. Previous folks mustn’t underestimate themselves. The aged are additionally able to doing so many issues.

This interview has been translated, edited, and condensed for readability.

Yerin Kim is the options editor at POPSUGAR, the place she helps form the imaginative and prescient for particular options and packages throughout the community. A graduate of Syracuse College’s Newhouse Faculty, she has over 5 years of expertise within the popular culture and ladies’s life-style areas. She’s captivated with spreading cultural sensitivity via the lenses of life-style, leisure, and magnificence.