The director of a Thai film which has audiences across Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia reaching for the tissue boxes with its tear-jerking relationship study of an ailing grandmother and her grandson says he is grateful for the viral social media response which shows his film is “resonating” across the region.
How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies has gripped the hearts of Southeast Asians since its weekend release in the region – many of whom are filming their before and after reactions on TikTok.
More than three million Indonesians have watched the film since its May 30 release, while it has so far taken over US$9 million at the Thai box office, in the biggest cinema release of the year. The film first opened in Thailand in April.
In Singapore and Malaysia, audience members have set themselves “try not to cry” challenges, during a film which touches on death, age and love across the generations, and have posted the weeping results of their failure on TikTok and Instagram.
“Everybody has a family, I think that is why this film resonates to that very deep feeling that we can all relate to,” director Pat Boonnitipat told This Week in Asia.
“Thailand and Singapore are so different in many ways, but when you go deep down we react to a story in the same way,” the 33-year-old added.
“I’m very thankful for people posting their videos and I’m very fortunate to see the faces of the audience, this will be a part of how I make the next one.”
Pat’s debut feature film is a family drama about a grandson seeking an inheritance from his elderly grandmother, but their relationship deepens as the story unwinds, touching on issues of ageing Asia and cross-generational love, choice and duty.
Singaporean Nicholas Teo, a full-time content creator, posted his reaction in an Instagram story, to the first cinema ticket he had bought in four years.
“My grandma raised me. We played cards, we cooked together, she gave me money; our relationship was pretty much mirrored on screen,” he told This Week in Asia. “Unfortunately, she passed last year, which hit me hard because I felt like I could do more for her before she left,” he said.
He said many Asian cinema-goers might be able to relate to the relationship dynamics between the protagonist and his grandmother.
“Navigating these spaces is ultimately a tough task and seeing the right and wrong choices we could make would probably hit us twice as hard cause it’s relatable,” he said.
The director said he was delighted the “key chemistry” between the family members had caught the emotions of Southeast Asia and beyond, especially given the context of grandparents and grandchildren in the region.
“We are taken care of by our grandmother and grandfather … we tend to have that very pure feeling with that generation,” he added.
Pat is among a new generation of Thai filmmakers scoring on streaming platforms and in the cinema.
While Thai filmmakers are learning how to translate their country’s complex cultural and political circumstances to international audiences, he says the industry needs still more financial backing to flourish.
“Filmmaking is a very expensive form of art … it’s very difficult for a filmmaker coming from a country that is kind of poor,” he said. “Inequality in society is very high, and you can see that reflected in our films … we have very good films and very bad films.”