Lucky Grandma, 2019.
Directed by Sasie Sealy.
Starring Tsai Chin, Hsiao-Yuan Ha, Michael Tow, Yan Xi and Mason Yam.
SYNOPSIS:
When she steals a large amount of money from a dead criminal boss, a grandmother hires a gangland bodyguard to protect her from the crooks who come to reclaim the cash.
The influence of the Coen Brothers runs far and wide, although it’s just as often used as a somewhat lazy descriptor for any film that lives in the central portion of the Venn Diagram of crime and comedy. That middle segment is certainly occupied by Lucky Grandma, which sees an elderly widow become embroiled in the machinations of Chinese mobsters in New York City when she steals a bag of money from a bus. It’s an intriguing movie, but one that lacks the mischievous edge of the best of the Coens.
Grandma Wong (Tsai Chin) is told her “lucky day is coming” by a slightly sketchy figure in the opening scene. She takes this advice to heart and promptly hops on the bus to a local casino, where she quickly starts winning at a variety of games – largely just by betting repeatedly on the number eight. Her luck changes, however, and she leaves penniless. Hours later, she finds herself sat next to a man on the bus who has passed away in his seat, with a huge bag full of cash on his lap. Grandma pilfers the cash, but is immediately the target of sinister mobsters demanding that she return it. Unwilling to do so, she plays dumb and hires rival gang member Big Pong (Hsiao-Yuan Ha) as a full-time bodyguard.
There’s a real ace in the pocket of Lucky Grandma in the shape of its star. Tsai Chin is the perfect curmudgeonly anchor for the story, whether she’s glowering at people with pure, righteous self-belief or simply rolling her sleeves up and dealing with it when the film’s violent atmosphere inevitably explodes into bloodshed. It’s a performance that’s both fearsome – “when you’re my age, not much shocks you” – and fragile, with Chin willing to let the scared old woman show from behind the facade of defiance.
Indeed, Lucky Grandma is a lot of fun when it focuses on Chin and her relationship with Hsiao-Yuan Ha as her enormous, but sensitive bodyguard. He’s the epitome of arrested development, clamming up when he’s asked if he has ever been with a woman and proving completely incapable to deal with the consequences of the violence he inflicts. His relationship with Grandma Wong very quickly becomes more tender than a business deal – he, like just about everyone else, calls her Grandma – and many of the best scenes are the ones in which they simply sit, talking about anything other than their predicament.
When the crime machinations do, inevitably, have to kick into gear, director Sasie Sealy seems to flounder. Her action scenes don’t have the requisite nastiness and bite that the narrative requires, with much of the colourful flair of the early casino sequence abandoned by the time blood starts to flow. The plot, too, is schematic and played-out, with little in the way of surprise on offer, even as the stakes begin to rise.
There’s an uneven quality to Lucky Grandma, and it’s this that ultimately leaves the film as a slightly unsatisfying beast. The tone pinballs around too much and the final act coda tries to pile on the character depth and beats that should have been presented earlier in the story. Chin’s central performance, though, is a delight of the sort of don’t-give-a-shit brand you’d expect from a character who’s growing old disgracefully. It is well worth the ticket price.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Tom Beasley is a freelance film journalist and wrestling fan. Follow him on Twitter via @TomJBeasley for movie opinions, wrestling stuff and puns.
