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Tsai Chin is a Chinese actress you might recognize from You Only Live Twice, Casino Royale and Memoirs of a Geisha but she stars in Lucky Grandma, a film directed by Sasie Sealy. Chin plays the titular Grandma, who is called that by just about everyone she encounters. After seeing her fortune teller who predicts she will come into a great deal of luck the surly Grandma goes on a casino trip and manages to win over and over again (using the traditional lucky number 8 in Chinese culture) before she over plays her hand and loses everything. On the bus trip back to the city another elderly passenger has a heart attack and dies in his sleep while sitting next to Grandma. She discovers he has a duffle bag filled with cash, and sensing it must be her luck disguised in a different form, takes the bag home with her. Unfortunately the money belongs to a Chinese gang in New York who track Grandma down to retrieve it.
Enter Big Pong, who Grandma hires as security to protect her from the dim witted gangsters stalking her. For fans of The Farwell, this movie has a similar feel of the older traditional mainland Chinese culture clash with newer Asian-American values and systems, but that is about where the similarities end (I guess them both being comedy/drama is another common thread). Grandma is distant, mean and uncaring. We don’t get a ton of information as to why she is this way other than she hasn’t gotten over the death of her husband. We see the struggle of elderly people wanting to maintain their independence and not rely on family who think they are completely feeble. She does end up seeking help from a rival gang when she hires Big Pong (Hsiao-Yuan Ha) and the two have terrific chemistry with the diminutive Grandma yelling and chastising the hulking Pong.
The film is very low budget, but that doesn’t stand in the way once it has a more action oriented third act, in fact they go through some creative ways to get around the fact that Grandma runs slower than a snail. Chin and Ha both deliver standout performances and you’ll be talking about this Nai-Nai like you were after seeing Shuzhen Zhao’s in The Farewell.
Lucky Grandma was seen during the 2020 Cinéfest Sudbury International Film Festival. Thank you to the festival for the press pass. Lucky Grandma is currently available to stream or purchase.
