Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Film myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.One way to start writing about Thai family saga How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies would be to say it is newly longlisted for a Best International Feature Film Oscar. But it may be more fitting to mention its box office performance — arriving in the UK as a commercial smash across south-east Asia. Because on screen too, almost every character has money on their mind. Grandma is Mengju (Usha Seamkhum), first seen sizing up potential cemeteries. (Seamkhum is superbly flinty in what is, at 78, her first acting role.) The obvious joke about funeral plots ripples through the story. The comedy is not quite so dark that her dysfunctional family have murderous plans — but elbows are still sharpened in a tale of everyday avarice. As soon as bad medical news gives Mengju only months to live, a jostle begins to inherit her Bangkok home, led by gamer grandson M (Putthipong Assaratanakul). Still, just as movies are more than their box office numbers, so the cynicism is merely the first layer of something more poignant. A sense of Thai real life sings out in everything from congee street vendors to a line of shoes left in lieu of their owners in a queue. But family dramas are universal, and director Pat Boonnitipat skilfully blends tones too. The hard edge gives way to something softer, but the emotional pay-off is earned.★★★☆☆In UK cinemas from Boxing Day
