Utterly Beautiful.
Watched it yesterday. It's one of the greatest films in my recent memory.Everything in this film is so relatable and is very real. I cried and I couldn't stop myself from tearing up from the first 30 minutes of the movies until the very end. The message is so strong and Bilkin, Grandma and the rest of the casts just did something we call 'Magical' in the world of the acting.
Cinematography is also on point. It looked real, but also artistic and very cinematic. This will resonate in every viewer hearts for so long and the tearing effect will stay hours after finished the film.
It's not often that the people in the whole theater cried and sobbed their hearts out like this. One of a very magical moment for the whole 2 hours.
Was this review helpful to you?
A simple and beautiful story about love and grief
This movie will be in my memories for a very, very long time.The whole storyline was nothing out of the ordinary, but that was precisely why it works. It was so, so relatable that it hurts to think about because it reminded me of my own experience in life with my grandparents.
I cried throughout the entire movie. The cinematography was gorgeous, and reminiscent of growing up in an Asian household.
I highly recommend this movie. But it's definitely not everyone's cup of tea. If you're a fan of the slice of life genre, then this movie is for you.
Nothing dramatic happens throughout the movie, it just tells a story about a grandmother who is dying, and how the family deals with the aftermath of the heartbreaking news.
Was this review helpful to you?
1"Early worms get eaten first"
How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies showed how the vultures come out when an older relative is near the end of their lifespan. For the most part the writers made the distasteful somewhat palatable and at least one character had a change of heart.M’s friend/cousin Mui makes her living off of becoming the #1 of dying patients, when she’s not hosting her Only Fans site. When M discovers his grandmother has terminal cancer he decides to become her #1 and begins to take care of her. Other family members also have their eyes on the old woman’s house, the only thing of value she owns.
Taew Usha Seamkhum as the grandmother gave a wonderfully nuanced performance as the woman who accepted life and people as they were. Grandmother was aware that when people visited, it was because they wanted something. She also saw the potential in her ne’er do well grandson and had pity on her deadbeat son. Even though she knew M's motivation for being with her, she could at least take pleasure in having someone to eat and play cards with and go to chemo with. Some of the supporting actors were stronger than others.
I’ve been around long enough to see the relatives crawl out of the woodwork in order to try and get what they can from a dying person. In real life, they rarely learn any meaningful lessons from a beloved elder, their eyes only on the financial prize. For most of the film the only people I felt any sympathy toward were Grandmother and Sew, her daughter. It was, however, disappointing that Grandmother failed to learn the lesson she suffered from as a daughter when her parents died.
While this film had a patented redemption arc, and I love a redemption story more than any other kind, it didn’t move me as much as I would have hoped. Perhaps, it was a more realistic portrayal of the selfish children and grandson but I spent much of the film being irritated with their myopic vision. It is the nature of children to be involved in their own lives and neglect older members of the family, but when the clock was ticking down on the matriarch’s life, I found their behavior inexcusable. The elderly may not want visitors who “are counting the minutes” before they can leave, but they also crave those precious minutes with beloved children and grandchildren when their own minutes are slipping away.
13 April 2025
Was this review helpful to you?
Whether it is love or greed, in the end there is still grief
Family oriented genre will always close to audience, combine with death trope and that's it. You got the perfect formula to make a studio full of people cry by the end of the movie. Of course, you have to blend the formula in the right way and this movie sure know how to stir people emotion.I read from someone who has chinese ancestry how certain scene at the end become their breaking point because it's hit close to their own tradition. I don't have that relation, however i lived with my grandparents until they passed away. So instead of certain scene, the whole part from the moment M decide to scheme his way to Amah's house just hit too close to home. About old people smell, weekly visit, the quite day after holiday, basically all those things you only learned if you live under the same roof with elderly.
I also think this movie show a human realistic side of being caregiver for elderly, especially as family member. Not in depth, but enough to show how it is like on general.
Of course the children dynamic also interesting, not only Amah's children but also Agong's (Mui and M grandpa) children from Mui's POV and Amah with her brother to their parents. Daughter in asian household should raise a toast lol. It's not always the "bad" side of being a daughter tho, i think M's mother show the complexity of mother-daughter relationship in a good way, beside she's a good child if we compare her to her siblings.
In conclusion, this movie success in gathering the formula and blend it perfectly to stir people emotion. Solid plot combine with good chemistry and good acting is already a feast. Cinematography and music just become cherry on top at this point. Really, it is that good.
Was this review helpful to you?
Hits close to home in a good way.
Today's the last day of showing in our local cinemas. I tried so hard to stop myself from rewatching, yet in the end, I rewatched it today because this movie has been on my mind ever since my first watch last month.I thought I wasn't gonna cry because I know the whole trajectory of the film, but boy was I wrong. It still hits close to home. The storyline is simple, but it's so damn relatable. Despite some nuances, I know that we Asians have some similarities in our family cultures. I'm not Thai nor Chinese, but I still related to M's family problems and complex relationship towards his family.
P'Billkin and P'Taew's acting is amazing. Honestly, all of them acted realistically. It just feels like you're watching a family live their lives.
The cinematography and color grading has a nostalgic feel to it. And the music scores too!!! One of my main reasons for rewatching this film is the score. Kudos to Jairaroeng Studio for making these magical scores. Huge thanks to P'Pat too for directing this film! His works are phenomenal.
This is the type of movie that you'll be thinking and remembering for a long, long time. I just wish that they put this on Netflix soon so that more people watch this masterpiece.
Please hug your grandmas for me. Love them while they're still alive.
Was this review helpful to you?
A profound and heartfelt movie, an intangible win for its viewers soul : impactful !
This movie centered around a Thai family and more particularly the relationship between a grandmother and her grandson was a huge critical and box office success, setting up record for a Thai movie release and rightly so ! The story is very deep but relatable and anchored in a reality that is both sad, full of pain but also full of love and moments of joy. The family bounds around which the movie articulates itself is complex and can resonate I think with most human beings as we are all confronted to life's thematic faced by the characters, as parents and grand parents gets older.Acting was excellent, especially on the male lead part with Billkin playing the grandson. He is really good in it: he maneuvers a greyish character with blurry motivations at first as he grows into his own individual and learns. It is extremely interesting. The grandma is amazing in this: the writer and director choose to make her a very nuanced character, flawed both with good and bad which I found particularly judicious. You love her for her quality and all the good she brings, but you also need to bear a lot of things while trying to help her, her personality being not so easy to handle.
The production was very good, pretty real and gritty with the house in which the grandma live being almost a separate character. You learn also a lot of cultural elements that are not often depicted (or at least not in so much details) regarding the culture of Thai family of Chinese descent, care of elders and so on. I love a lot the soundtrack, the ending song (sung by Billkin) is beautiful.
I strongly recommend this movie if you are looking for a movie that is both heart wrenching and healing. It is really worth a watch and it relates a lot to our common human life experience on earth. The viewer certainly get out of the watch having won something intangible, not measurable but that leaves a mark.
Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
Always treasure family over money
I watched in Malaysian cinema on 9 June 2024. This movie reminds me of my own grandma. When I was on summer break from uni in Australia, my dad asked me to return home. I visited my grandma 1 week before I returned to Australia then few days after, my grandma passed. I was grateful that I made the trip to visit her.What I like:
1) How to make millions before grandma dies is beautifully written & directed film. Cinematography was well done. Well done, Pat Boonnitipat and his team!
2) It is set in Thailand but the core themes relatable to Malaysian audiences. Some cultural practices are same here.
3) Wonderful acting by Putthipong Assaratanakul & Usha Seamkhum - their dynamics translated well on screen. Supporting cast did well too.
What I dislike
1) I think the title is misleading because I thought M worked multiple or sketch jobs to gain that much of money
Favourite scene
When M bathed his grandma. I understand perspectives from both sides.
Was this review helpful to you?
emotional torture
The movie was something that, at first glance, doesn’t seem to be very interesting or engaging. Everything progresses rather slowly. it’s not an action movie, and the story mainly focuses on two people. However, the plot, acting, and cinematography were so outstanding that watching it was captivating right from the start.I watched the film primarily because of Billkin, and he met my expectations. The acting was incredible, from both Billkin and the rest of the cast. The film made me develop an attachment to both characters, even though at the beginning, I didn’t feel any empathy for either the grandmother or Billkin.
By the middle, I realized it was an emotional torture. From that point on, my tears kept flowing non-stop until the very end, and as someone very emotional, I’m still processing the film, even though I watched it yesterday.
The film kept forcing tears out of me, and every scene was more and more heartbreaking with each passing minute. At some point, I just felt so tortured that I wanted to turn it off. It was too much for me.
Despite this, "How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies" deserves a very high rating. The cinematography is wonderful, everything is beautiful, and the exceptional acting moves our emotions. The plot is sad, but also very true to life.
Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
My April 2025 recommendations challenge
Watch this for my April 2025 recommendations challenge by TianD.Story about M, a young man who decided to drop everything to look after his dying grandmother. However, it is not out of love that he took the role of a devoted grandson but for a hope of substantial inheritance worth millions.
M got the idea from his cousin, Mui, who got the biggest inheritance from her grandpa after she took care of him during his final days. So, hoping to get the same result with Mui, M is going to great lengths to become the apple of his demanding grandmother’s eye before time runs out.
At first, M was indeed doing it half-heartedly & his grandma knows it by heart. So, M goes to Mui again to learn about ‘the fastest’ way to win his grandma's heart. Mui 'teaches’ her way to M. So, slowly but sure, day by day M is getting closer to his grandma.
But was all M efforts taken into account by his grandmother? Will M get the inheritance he hopes in the end…?
That's pretty much the story without giving the spoiler. Now what I like and don't.
What I like:
+ Told a story about the bitter truth about the reality of family and money:
> Where sometimes filial and desire for inheritance overlap.
> We really can't measure the love of our elders or between siblings to their mother with younger generations the same.
+ In the end M did learn about his grandma loneliness & really did all the grandson has to do with his whole heart.
What I don't like:
- How the title is kinda misleading. I think it's better with the other version, The Chinese Family. Reading the title I kinda hope they help each other to gather the money for their grandma.
Overall this good movies that really tell the truth between expectations & reality in the family. And also how to genuinely put ur heart for ur family
Was this review helpful to you?
made me realize how less time i have with my grandma
I had heard a lot about this movie but never found the right time to watch expect today. It made me realize how less time i have with my grandmother. my grandmother doesn't live with me, she lives with my maternal uncle so i don't see her everyday. I am not the closest grandchild to her and we didn't spend a lot of time with each other. But still this movie made me cry I hope everyone is kind to their grandparents. I really recommend it to everyone it's a must watch, before anything tragic happens realize the importance of timeWas this review helpful to you?
Warm and healing
A beautiful story. It's definitely been done before — particularly in Asian media, but that didn't really affect my enjoyment overall and I really appreciate the slow but steady pacing. It feels very down-to-earth, in a way. It did, however take a while for me to get into this but I think it grew on me and will keep growing, slowly.Was this review helpful to you?
emotional value is this film's selling point
this film's plot is quite simple, but acting and directing ended up pulling on my heart strings. it also made me think of my grandma (who passed away) and how significant role do grandmothers actually play in family dynamics. after finishing the film, i got quite emotional. hopefully, oscar voters see this film's uniqeness in portraying complicated emotions and it scores a nomWas this review helpful to you?
