Thailand
Review: Thailand’s “How To Make Millions Before Grandma Dies” Is a Worthy Tearjerking Family Drama
Thai box-office hit "How To Make Millions Before Grandma Dies" lives up to its hype with strong character dynamics and cultural relevance.
By Richard Yu, 19 Jul 24 04:01 GMT
Earlier this year, Thai family drama How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies became a box office and social media sensation. The film—from famed studio GDH, which also produced other hits like Bad Genius—quickly became the top-grossing Thai movie of 2024 thus far, and also the 11th-highest grossing Thai film of all time. When released in other Southeast Asian countries like Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, and beyond, How to Make Millions continued its box office success. Young viewers across Southeast Asia took to sharing TikToks about the extent to which the movie made them cry, with many so touched that they felt compelled to reconnect with their grandparents. Indeed, How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies has well-depicted character dynamics and strong cultural resonance for Asian audiences, making it fully deserving of its popularity.
How to Make Millions centers around M (played by popular Thai singer and actor Putthipong Assaratanakul), a struggling game streamer and college dropout from a Thai Teochew Chinese family. M’s life lies stagnant, until his grandma (who he and all the other characters call Amah, the word for grandma in Teochew dialect) gets diagnosed with cancer. Inspired by how a cousin of his inherited her grandfather’s house after caring for him throughout a long illness, M decides to cozy up to Amah (played by the wonderful Usha Seamkhum) in an attempt to inherit her assets after she dies.
However, living with Amah is not easy. Despite her cancer diagnosis, she still wakes up at 5am to sell congee, and constantly berates M for being a failure. To make matters worse, M has to compete with his two uncles and mother for Amah’s affections; there’s no guarantee that he’ll “make millions” when grandma dies.
The well-crafted dynamics between How to Make Millions’ characters gives the movie a strong foundation. Each family member plays a distinct yet complementary role that highlights the range of personalities that Asian families often embody. Amah’s two male offspring are M’s Uncle Soei, who’s perpetually in debt and asking for money, and Uncle Kiang, who’s coldhearted and materially driven. M’s mother, Chew, embodies the underappreciated daughter. Then there’s Amah herself, arguably the film’s most standout character, who authentically embodies an Asian grandma with a time-worn prickly exterior masking a warm heart.
With this strong set of characters, How to Make Millions’ proceeds to craft numerous tearjerking moments whose emotional punch comes from their degree of cultural relevance; many of the movie’s audiences in Southeast Asia could probably see such incidents playing out in their own families. This is especially true (and worth highlighting) with the movie’s treatment of how Asian families can treat daughters unequally, as highlighted by Amah’s strained relationship with her older brother, and M’s mother Chew’s precarious state compared to M’s Uncles.
Amidst the tears though, moments of levity arise to give the film a more well-rounded, heartfelt tone. These, too, should feel extremely relevant for Asian audiences, especially younger ones, as many revolve around the generational gaps between M and Amah. For instance, we see M trying to boil water for Amah’s Guanyin altar using a microwave in order to save effort in one scene, and then Amah trying to use amusing smartphone camera filters in another.
As How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies makes its US debut at the New York Asian Film Festival, it will be intriguing to see how the film gets received in the West. Perhaps young Asian Americans, who share intergenerational challenges with the young Asians who’ve already received the film warmly, may find it especially relevant. Scenes like M’s inability to understand when Amah speaks Teochew, for instance, may hit home among this sub-audience. While some Americans of non-Asian backgrounds may think sending grandma to a nursing home is OK (something that Asian cultures—and How to Make Millions itself—do not particularly approve), we have faith that How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies’ tearjerking but also laugh-inducing family dynamics are resonant enough to cross cultural boundaries.
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How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies (Thai: หลานม่า)—Thailand. Dialog in Thai and Teochew Chinese. Directed by Pat Boonnitipat. Running time 2hr 5min. First released April 1, 2024. Starring Putthipong Assaratanakul, Tontawan Tantivejakul, Usha Seamkhum.
This article is part of Cinema Escapist’s dedicated coverage of the 2024 New York Asian Film Festival (NYAFF). How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies will have its North American premiere at the festival, including a screening on Friday July 26, 2024.
