’How To Make Millions Before Grandma Dies’: Review

Dir: Pat Boonnitipat. Thailand. 2024. 126mins

How To Make Millions Before Grandma Dies has been winning hearts across Asia, giving Thailand its biggest box-office hit of the year. It’s easy to see why, as Pat Boonnitipat’s touching debut feature is an irresistible tearjerker, championing family ties and the notion that anything worthwhile requires time and commitment. The charm offensive should continue with the film streaming on Netflix in Southeast Asia from September 12 and beginning an American release on September 13 through WellGo USA. Vertigo have the UK rights and are scheduled to release in December. There is also remake potential in material that provides a plum role for an older performer. 

The two main performances avoid sentimentality

Inspired by the families of Boonnitipat and co-writer Thodsapon Thiptinnakom, How To Make Millions spins a great premise. The central characters and their defining attitudes are swiftly established at an initial Qingming holiday, when family members gather to remember and honour the dead. The elderly Amah (Usha Seamkhum) likes traditions to be observed and everything done properly. Her young grandson M (Putthipong Assaratanakul) is glued to his phone and mostly indifferent to the importance of the day. Regarded as a ”good for nothing”, he has dropped out to become a game caster with little success.

After a fall, Amah is taken to a hospital emergency department where an examination reveals that she has stage four cancer. Her three children must decide how to care for her. M becomes more interested in her fate once he meets his cousin Mui (Tontawan Tantivejakul). She has been caring for her grandfather and is eventually bequeathed his house. M starts to realise that the elderly might not feel quite so inconvenient when seen as a potential meal ticket. He decides to move in with Amah and take care of her, in the hope that his newfound devotion will be suitably rewarded.

How To Make Millions appears to be heading in a predictable direction as we anticipate the mercenary M melting in the face of his grandmother’s vulnerability and failing health. It is a sentimental journey to redemption but one that Boonnitipat grounds in understanding and empathy. The shrewd Amah knows exactly what her grandson is up to, but still appreciates his company, and the generation gap allows for a more honest relationship between the pair. Amah’s children want to protect her from the news of her cancer diagnosis but M respects her enough to tell her the truth.

Boonnitipat allows the story room to breathe as the barriers between grandmother and grandson break down. M helps his grandmother sell her congee, accompanies her to hospital for chemotherapy treatment and gives her a sponge bath. There is also time to address the complexities of a family in which money, rivalry and the hopes of inheritance have all played a part in poisoning the well of tender loving care. Amah’s son Soei (Pongsatorn Jongwilas) is eternally debt-ridden and prepared to exploit her. Her other son Kiang (Sanya Kunakorn) rarely visits her home whilst M’s mother Sew (Sarinrat Thomas) has gone unappreciated in a society that favours sons over daughters.

How To Make Millions takes pleasure in the stuff of daily life; the trip to the market, the hospital appointment, the pomegranate tree that grows in Amah’s home. It creates a world and a family that are genuine and recognisable, making our emotional engagement all the more secure. The gentle lilting score by Jaithep Raroengjai pulls on the heart strings, but the two main performances avoid sentimentality.

Chinese Thai singer and actor Assaratanakul (known as Billkin) is nicely understated and thoughtful as a young man who learns to appreciate that the riches of life don’t necessarily lie in wealth or property. Making her feature debut, the remarkable Seamkhum makes Amah a wise and gracious figure – not a typical cuddly grandma but someone canny, realistic and determined to make the most of her days. Depending on the film’s international impact, it is not inconceivable that she might receive some awards consideration.