Lucky Grandma
Directed by: Sasie Sealy
Written by: Sasie Sealy & Angela Cheng
Starring: Tsai Chin, Corey Ha, Michael Tow, Woody Fu, Yan Xi, Mason Yam, He Jun Miao, Wai Ching Ho, Lyman Chen, Clem Cheung
Comedy/Drama - 87 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 18 May 2020
Written by: Sasie Sealy & Angela Cheng
Starring: Tsai Chin, Corey Ha, Michael Tow, Woody Fu, Yan Xi, Mason Yam, He Jun Miao, Wai Ching Ho, Lyman Chen, Clem Cheung
Comedy/Drama - 87 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 18 May 2020
New York City’s Chinatown neighborhood looks cramped - an area where everybody not only knows your name, but who your auntie is and where you come from back in the old country. There is the guy advertising knock-off Prada, mahjong parlors, and there is a charter bus making what must be a weekly run to the casinos in neighboring states. If Grandma Wong hit it big on one of these casino trips, the neighborhood would know. Early on, we marvel at her haggle over $2 vegetables.
Grandma Wong (Tsai Chin, Now You See Me 2) can haggle like only someone who's been practicing the art of bartering for 80 years can. It’s second nature. So is the omnipresent cigarette between her lips, her stooped over shuffle, and an expression which tells the world, “I don’t have any use for you either.” Grandma Wong’s doctor / therapist / fortune teller declares her luck is in. All of the stars, signs, incense sticks, and tarot cards proclaim it won’t get better than this. And it works! Grandma cleans up at roulette, craps, and poker…until she loses it all.
Grandma Wong (Tsai Chin, Now You See Me 2) can haggle like only someone who's been practicing the art of bartering for 80 years can. It’s second nature. So is the omnipresent cigarette between her lips, her stooped over shuffle, and an expression which tells the world, “I don’t have any use for you either.” Grandma Wong’s doctor / therapist / fortune teller declares her luck is in. All of the stars, signs, incense sticks, and tarot cards proclaim it won’t get better than this. And it works! Grandma cleans up at roulette, craps, and poker…until she loses it all.
Riding home penniless on the bus, her seat mate dies in his sleep and his duffle bag stuffed full of cash literally falls into her lap. I suppose we never know what shape our luck will arrive in. The dead man was a mob accountant and they want their money back. Grandma Wong has been around long to know her Red Dragon from her Zhongliang gang. She hires a discount heavy from one gang, Big Pong (Corey Ha), and claims ignorance why anyone would want to threaten a harmless old lady.
Sasie Sealy’s Lucky Grandma presents itself as more left field than it really is. Every character has an idiosyncratic, oddball eccentricity just to have them. Grandson David is in a hip-hop/twerk duo called Sl@vicWong, which is on screen for a whole 10 seconds and is then never heard from again. Big Pong is a big softy underneath his Bigfoot exterior - the least shocking character development of the year. Gangster Little Handsome (Michael Tow) proves he feels no pain by slicing a gash in his tongue. Is this his usual schtick? Does he maintain a wound which never heals to carry on this parlor trick?
Sealy earns authentic style points by filming in Chinatown’s streets and stores and hiring locals as extras. However, the plot unfolds in such a laborious and derivative manner. The unique setting is offset by the boilerplate “fish out of water” situation. A woman whom the world has written off and forgotten about getting mixed up with gangs, money, and gunplay is not as wry as the trailer leads us to believe. I’m pretty sure Estelle Getty already did this however many decades ago. Chin gives a hilarious and empathetic performance, we’re all pushing for her to win and maybe prove something to herself and the world along the way, but the film’s last third slams home with such a thud, it’s challenging to feel anything more than indifference.
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