Worth: $18.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Tsai Chin, Hsiao-Yuan Ha, Wai Ching Ho
Intro:
…delightful…picaresque dark comedy…gorgeous without being too glossy, almost like a silent film with minimal dialogue, mostly relying on non-verbal cues and music.
A fortune teller with gnarled hands reads Grandma Wong’s fortune. Spotting an auspicious sign that she excitedly interprets as “carps jumping over a dragon gate,” the soothsayer (Wai Ching Ho) tells her client to keep an eye out for the dragon gate as that is a clear indication that her fortune is coming. Grandma Wong (an extraordinary performance from Tsai Chin) puffs on her cigarette with a sceptical scowl.
Set in present-day New York City’s Chinatown, we are immersed in the life of our main protagonist, gaining glimpses of Grandma Wong’s daily activities—morning prayer at the home-shrine of her late husband, exercising at the local Y, shopping for fruit and veg at her neighbourhood market, celebrating her birthday with her son and his family, and so on.
Recently widowed, Grandma Wong is pushing 80 and determined to live life as an independent woman, despite the concern of her family. After her local fortune teller’s exciting forecast, Grandma Wong makes a beeline for the casino to cash in on her predicted fortune. She lands on the wrong side of luck – or does she? Suddenly, she attracts the focus of local Red Dragon gangsters. She seeks protection from members of a rival gang named Zhongliang, and purchases the services of a discount bodyguard; Big Pong (an endearing performance from the hulking Taiwanese actor Hsiao-Yuan Ha). Invariably, Grandma Wong finds herself in the middle of a Chinatown gang war.
Big Pong proves more than just her bodyguard. In fact, we get more of a new best friend / grandson vibe than anything menacing. Throughout this charming comedy, the characters are colourful without being reduced to broad caricatures. Grandma Wong’s rivals, in particular, are goofy and not too menacing – and certainly no match for our wily and quick thinking grandma who, at one point, defeats an attack with hair spray. She’s no-nonsense and practical.
This delightful story is co-scripted by Angela Cheng, and filmmaker Sasie Sealy presents a central character whose recalcitrance is immediately relatable and somehow endearing, at least for anyone who can recall a time when they felt grumpy all day long no matter what happened. As the picaresque story unfolds, this dark comedy fluidly switches from English to Mandarin (also Cantonese, at times) as effortlessly as the family’s three generations bilingually converse. The cinematography by Eduardo Enrique Mayén is gorgeous without being too glossy and the movie is sensitively filmed, almost like a silent film with minimal dialogue, mostly relying on non-verbal cues and music. The cartoony comedy violence does turn quite dark in the third act, ultimately providing a satisfying outcome.
Well-worth seeing, Lucky Grandma is the feature debut of TV director Sasie Sealy (whose student film was rewarded with the Student Visionary award at Tribeca Film Fest in 2008).
