SINGAPORE: If you haven’t watched How To Make Millions Before Grandma Dies yet, please do so. Better yet, bring the whole family. Book a seven-seater MPV (or two if you are lucky enough to have a large multigenerational family) to fit in your kids, parents, grandparents and their wheelchairs as well.
“Inspired by true stories found in every family”, the Thai drama follows self-absorbed, feckless university dropout M (Putthipong Assaratanakul), who volunteers to move in with his grandmother (Usha Seamkhum) after she is diagnosed with late-stage cancer. Ostensibly, it’s to take care of her, but M’s real motive is to get Amah to bequeath her house to him. M’s fumbling attempts to win over his cantankerous grandmother are initially met with resistance, but over time and as her health takes a turn for the worse, his greedy self-interest and her suspiciousness of him give way to mutual trust, affection and understanding even as complicated relational dynamics play out between them and among other family members.
Hilarious in parts, profoundly moving in others, and painfully real, the movie had cinemagoers dabbing away tears, sniffling into tissues, and even bursting into uncontrollable sobs. REGRETS OF A SULKY TEEN Being Teochew-Chinese like M, I recall how sulky and resentful I had felt as a teenager at being dragged along to mosquito-infested cemeteries during the annual Qing Ming tomb-sweeping festival, or having to participate in what I felt were archaic, superstiti.
