If tear-jerker family dramas are your thing, have I got a film for you! HOW TO MAKE MILLIONS BEFORE GRANDMA DIES is tearing up the box office not just in its home country of Thailand but throughout the region, breaking all kinds of records since its domestic release at the beginning of April. The film has now come to Hong Kong and is sure to do well here as the locals love a weeper. So confident that it will resonate with audiences here, the local distributor is even handing out packets of tissues to people as they enter the cinema.

M (pop idol Putthipong “Billkin” Assaratanakul) lives in Bangkok with his hardworking single mom, Chew. He dropped out of university to strike it rich as a game caster but he’s still waiting for the big payday to happen. When his cousin inherits her grandfather’s multi-million dollar home after being his caregiver in his final days, M has the idea to do the same for his grandmother (Usha Seamkhum) after she is diagnosed with terminal cancer. “Amah” is no fool though, and she cottons on to his scheme early on. They do enjoy each other’s company, however, and she does appreciate that he takes her for her chemo treatments and helps her out at her congee stand in the market. She’s also well aware that her other children, which includes her well-to-do older son, Kiang, and her ne’er-do-well younger son, Soei, are just waiting in the wings her for to die so that they can cash in on her home.

HOW TO MAKE MILLIONS BEFORE GRANDMA DIES has a lot going for it thanks in no small part to the winsome performance of Usha Seamkhum, who is appearing in her first feature. The actress brings a lot of heart to her character, making it easy for audiences to get caught up in the emotions that are at play. Filial piety, which is a cornerstone of Chinese Confucian and Buddhist ethics, has taken a beating over the past 30 years or so as families splinter due to relocation, work demands and both the absence and abundance of money. Some of that is on display here as M is determined to make a million dollars any which way he can even if his methods are unscrupulous. His uncle Kiang, meanwhile, just wants to throw his money around to ease his mother’s burden without giving her what she really wants from him – from any of them, and his uncle Seoi can’t wait for his expected inheritance to come through so that he can pay off his gambling debts. There’s no love there, which Amah recognises, so she accepts M’s advances because getting his time and attention makes her happy.

Of course, HOW TO MAKE MILLIONS BEFORE GRANDMA DIES also has its share of schmaltz, particularly the closing scenes where M conveniently remembers a couple events from his childhood that put so much of his relationship with his grandmother into perspective. I don’t know that co-writer and first-time feature director Pat Boonnitipat needed to include these scenes, or to frame M’s understanding in those terms, but if you’re going to go for the heartstrings, this is the way to do it. I heard a few sniffles in the audience at that point.

HOW TO MAKE MILLIONS BEFORE GRANDMA DIES opened in Hong Kong yesterday (June 13^th). If you plan to watch it, be sure to bring along plenty of Kleenex. Then go visit your grandparent.

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