How To Make Millions * * * * Before Grandma Dies

M wondering where Grandma is hiding the dollars.

This endearing film has broken box office records in Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and a few other Asian Countries but it's not broadly available here with only one or two cinemas showing it.  Though I believe it's going to be streaming next month if you want to hang in there.

It's set in Bangkok and features a Sino-Thai family, who we get to know through the film.

Grandma is ageing quickly and then things are expedited by an incurable illness.  Like many elderly people the joy of associating with her family is important to her.  In the opening scenes they are at the graves of the predecessors where they are having a picnic. It's a bit of a Chinese thing apparently.

But soon she is back home alone.  M (that's his whole name) is not getting on with his Mum (who appears to be single) and so he tries to make himself useful to Grandma and moves in with her.  

She's a bit prickly at first but comes to appreciate his company.  Her own children do not visit her much.  Her eldest son is interested in finance, her daughter works the hours of the devil just to make a living and has little time to help Grandma and her youngest son is a deadbeat.  All are flawed in their own way and their selfishness exposed.  

Though, like Grandma, we still feel an affection and understanding for them. Features of Sino-Thai patriarchy are exposed as bordering on a cruelty, especially with Grandma's brother who will not help her because he believes her own deceased husband should have made preparations for her.  

Like her second born son, it appears her deceased husband was pretty hopeless with money.  Perhaps that is why she extends unending forgiveness toward him.  He being the most like her husband.

When Grandma is getting closer to the end it is M. who is there for her.  Even so, he is hoping for a payout. Does he get it and what will he do with it?  Let's just say his actions show the importance of  filial piety.

It's a lovely film and well worth seeking out now, or watching when it streams next month.