Daniel Nico Laudit says he doesn’t cry easily. He decided to test his resolve recently at a Manila movie theater and documented the experience for his 4.5 million followers on TikTok.
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Before the screening, she filmed herself dancing and smiling and told the camera: “Me before watching ‘How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies.’” About two hours later, he uploaded a very different version of himself: wiping away tears in a bathroom.
“I went straight to the bathroom after watching the movie because I wanted to cry out loud,” said Laudit, 24, a content creator. He cried some more when he returned home.
Reactions like Laudit’s have made the film, shot in Bangkok mostly in Thai, a huge hit across Southeast Asia. In the Philippines, it sold out on opening day, theaters had to add more showings to meet demand, and one chain began handing out disposable tissues to moviegoers. In Singapore, it topped the box office from June 6 to 9. In Indonesia, it drew millions of viewers. In Thailand, it is the highest-grossing title of the year so far.
The plot revolves around an unemployed and aimless young man, M, whose only ambition is to stream his online games. He volunteers to take care of his maternal grandmother after discovering that she has stage 4 cancer. His motivation is not family duty; rather, he hopes to inherit her house.
After M moves in with his grandmother, he develops a closer understanding of the complicated characters that make up his Thai-Chinese family: Chew, his long-suffering mother, who feels that only she can take care of her mother; Soei, the useless younger uncle who borrows and steals from the grandmother; and Kiang, the older uncle who is worried about his daughter and his materialistic wife.
“It talks about what we all have in common, which is family,” said Pat Boonnitipat, the film’s director.
This part of the world is “familiar with many generations living in the same house,” said Pat, 33. “I think that kind of upbringing creates a unique feeling in memory.”
The film explores the tensions that arise in a family in the face of the impending death of a head of household and the gender biases that persist. In one memorable line, Chew says: “Sons inherit the house, daughters inherit the cancer.”
The grandmother, or Ah Ma, played by Usha Seamkhum making her acting debut, is gruff and not given to sentimentality, although viewers are soon able to see that beneath that tough exterior, she deeply loves her family members and feels alone. Many viewers said they loved the chemistry between Usha and her co-star Putthipong Assaratanakul, who plays her grandson. Putthipong is famous in Thailand as a television actor and pop star.
In Manila, Ruby Ann O. Reyes, vice president of corporate marketing for SM Supermalls, said employees at her company’s movie theaters handed out disposable tissues during “tear-jerking parts.”
Ian Jeevan, 27, a financial consultant in Singapore, said the film reminded him of his relationship with his grandmother. He posted a video on TikTok of himself looking emotional, with the caption, “Running to hug my grandma right now!!”
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