The Taiwan-born grandmothers-in-law who are going to the Oscars after starring in Sean Wang’s documentary short, Wai Po and Nai Nai. He’s their grandson
- Yi Yan Fuei and Chang Li Hua are the subjects of Sean Wang’s deeply charming Oscar-nominated work, in which they playfully go about their daily lives
- Wang has emerged as one of the year’s breakthrough filmmakers, with his feature-film directorial debut, Didi, causing a sensation at the Sundance Film Festival
Sean Wang’s two grandmothers live together. They read the newspaper together. They dance together. They sleep in the same bed and complain about each other’s farts.
The older of the two, Yi Yan Fuei, is 96. The younger, Chang Li Hua, is 86. They’re in-laws but they act more like sisters.
When Wang, their 29-year-old grandson, was getting into filmmaking, one of the first works he made was a short where Yi and Chang feed him blueberries. When Wang refuses, they kill him and bury him in the backyard.
Wang kept shooting them in their home in San Francisco’s Bay Area, especially after he moved back in with his mother nearby during the coronavirus pandemic. They got accustomed to his camera being around. But they never thought it would lead to the Academy Awards.
Wai Po and Nai Nai, Wang’s deeply charming portrait of his grandmothers, has been nominated for best documentary short at the Academy Awards.
In it, Wang films Yi and Chang going about their daily lives with bits of playfulness mixed in. They arm wrestle. They play dress-up. They watch Superbad.
