“How to Be a Millionaire Before Grandma Dies”, in addition to being one of the best premieres in Asia this year, is a story that makes it impossible to resist crying. Its title says it: the Thai film depicts the relationship of a grandson with his grandmother, the second maternal figure in the life of a lucky person. “Filming it was a beautiful process,” says filmmaker Pat Boonnitipat of his experience, who connected through an exclusive video call with this newspaper to talk about the moving film, which arrives on December 19 in theaters in Peru.
“How to be a millionaire before grandma dies”
Synopsis
No one in the family of stubborn old woman Amah (Usha Seamkhum) thought her life was in danger. However, since eternity is not for humans, her children and grandchildren have to face bad news, and ultimately take care of her whenever they can. Her grandson, a teenage college dropout, M (Putthipong Assaratanakul), takes on the responsibility of helping grandmother at home. In Thailand, caregivers of the sick are well rewarded. Thinking about money, the young man was excited to accompany the person who, when he was a child, served as his second mother. With that intention, he goes far, but he also discovers a lot about his family and himself.
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Pat Boonnitipat is best known in his country for being behind television series, such as “Bad Genius”, a story again with characters too interested in making money. In his debut feature, the Thai director helps write the biographical memoir of screenwriter Thodsapon Thiptinnakorn’s grandmother. The film, already winner of several festivals, including the Asian Film Festival in New York, offers an afternoon of reflections on the family through a universal story, with which anyone would find themselves crying a relief.
Pat Boonnitipat is the director of “How to be Millionaire Before Grandma Dies.”
“Initially, I was motivated to remember things I had forgotten about my childhood,” explains director Pat Boonnitipat. “One thing I remember is the image of my grandmother as a motivation to make the film. She always spends her afternoons sleeping on her couch or looking out the window, as if waiting for something. When I take a photo of her, she looks very alone. But, then, everything changed if her favorite son called on the phone to ask her for something, somehow, she would become very energetic. That’s when you realize that’s not their default mode. She’s just not that interested in her own life. He does everything for his children,” he adds.
“How to Be a Millionaire Before Grandma Dies” is a Thai fiction winner of Best Film at the Asia International Film Festival, and the Audience Award at the New York Film Festival.
The famous Thai singer Putthipong Assaratanakul becomes the superb grandson, and the emerging actress Usha Seamkhum makes her debut in fiction at the age of 78, after being discovered by the Thai director to be the most beautiful and stubborn grandmother. It seems that it is never too late to succeed. As Grandma Amah, she gives an honest portrayal of a mother with two three adult children, each with their families and with different personalities and values.
“With each actor and actress, I tend to use the same method, which is to try to get to know them and become quite close to each other,” says the Thai filmmaker when talking about his relationship with the film’s leading actors. “We became friends, and even a family. I learned a lot from Usha. With both her, Putthipong and actress Sarinrat Thomas, I always asked them how they felt about the text they performed. I wrote the script, but I needed to know how they felt it, and the response became a very sentimental concept, which we later worked on together.”
Pat Boonnitipat directs Thai actress Sarinrat Thomas in the film “How to Be a Millionaire Before Grandma Dies.”
Sarinrat Thomas, also present in the virtual interview, agrees with the director about his role in the film. She plays M’s mother, and grandmother Amah’s daughter. In this story, not only the grandson is important, because the matriarch’s older children are also concerned about cultivating quality time with their mother, and that leads to arguments and a game of egos. “I remember when I was about to start shooting, before I started to feel anything, Pat would come up to me and say, ‘How do you really feel?’ That’s interesting, because as an actress, you’re so significant that you can improvise or be creative, but at the same time, you feel like you’re a good listener,” Thomas adds.
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An important concept in the family plot of “How to Be a Millionaire Before Grandma Dies” is reflected in the benefit that people apply to, even when they love their loved ones with their souls. From the perspective of young M and his uncle Soei (Thai actor Pongsatorn Jongwilas), it is inevitable to reflect on the profit they aim for all the time. Of course, his feelings transcend, but his greedy attitude is very marked at the beginning of the film.
“Being a family is something very special”, confesses director Pat Boonnitipat. “It’s like you don’t have the opportunity to choose her. That is, to this family member, they gave it to you. It’s not like gaining a friend or a partner. You have to live with it, no matter what they are like. If they do well in life, that’s good for you. But, if not, it also becomes your problem. It means something to me. You just have to learn to live with it. You begin to learn to accept everything as it is. Because they love each other, but there are other things too, like economic terms, money, and things like that. Still, you can’t give up being family”, he adds.
“How to Be a Millionaire Before Grandma Dies” failed to surpass “Alien: Romulus” at the Chinese box office, but it did well at the end with up to $14 million in August. In countries in other regions, it is now available on Netflix. Its premiere, this week in Peru, precedes a few months before it can reach streaming in Latin America, although the platform on which this moving title about the family and the lesson of loving her forever.
