Film Review - Lucky Grandma (2019)

All bets are off as acting veteran Tsai Chin (The Joy-Luck Club, Memoirs of a Geisha) swindles a ruthless gang in wildly chaotic crime-ridden comedy Lucky Grandma.

Synopsis

Fast-paced and full of heart, laughs and wicked black humour set in the belly of New York’s Chinatown, Lucky Grandma tells the story of a cardigan clad, chain-smoking Chinese grandma who, in an attempt to get some cash, goes all in at a casino but lands herself on the wrong side of luck and the law. Having gambled away more than just chips after stealing money from a dead criminal boss, ‘Grandma’ hires a rival gangland bodyguard to protect her from a band of violent crooks who are hot on her tail and ready to reclaim the loot.

With a film career stretching back to the fifties, actor Tsai Chi starred alongside Christopher Lee in the cult favourite Fu Manchu film series, was a Bond girl alongside Sean Connery in You Only Live Twice, and starred in the ground-breaking portrayal of the lives of Chinese-American women, The Joy-Luck Club, but the revered veteran has arguably never been better than as the titular Lucky Grandma, in this frantic crime comedy written and directed by Sasie Sealy.

Review – Contains spoilers

The film starts with an old lady having her fortune being told, she is told that the 28^th October is going to be the most auspicious day of the year, she is going to be extremely lucky and it’s that day that sets the rest of the events in motion.

The old lady is referred to, by everyone in the film, as Grandma. I like that. It’s very endearing even though she comes across as a cantankerous, grumpy, chain-smoking, opinionated old widow!

Grandma has lost her husband and her son is worried about her trying to make ends meet, living on her own, in a small flat in Chinatown. He wants her to come live with him and his family, but she doesn’t want to give up her independence. The life events that start on the 28^th October soon make her change her mind and make her realise that she’s lucky to have such a loving family with the option to be in a lovely safe environment.

I found the film rather slow, and was expecting great things to happen at each turn in the film, but it doesn’t. It just plods along at the speed of an old Grandma!

“Knowing” that the 28^th is her lucky day she walks into the bank to withdraw all her savings. As she’s the 88^th customer that day she wins herself a year/lifetime supply of rice! Pretty lucky right!

She heads off to the casinos and can not lose a game! We sit and watch as Grandma’s chips increase and her fortune grows only to see her lose her entire savings on one last game of cards!

She’s broke, in shock and sits in silence on the coach home. Growling and staring out into space, some guy pesters her to move so he can sit next to her. We watch as he shoves his duffle bag into the overhead compartment and sits next to Grandma and nods off.

The guy, we later learn is a gangster, falls asleep and starts to rest on Grandma. She growls more, her favourite expression throughout the film, and pushes his head off her shoulder, this happens so often that in the end, Grandma checks his breathing and yep, he’s dead and as ‘luck would have it’ his duffle bag falls out of the overhead compartment when the coach slams on its breaks and the bag is full of cash! Of course, Grandma takes it home.

We follow Grandma though the rest of the film trying not to be killed by the gangsters by hiring herself a bodyguard from a rival gang.

There are some amusing moments and is a dark comedy but it’s slow and there is not much dialogue as it’s often us watching an old lady pottering about, growling!

The film just ends too, having gone through a harrowing time trying to stay alive, having her grandson kidnapped and being shot, the film just ends with how it starts, visiting her son and thinking that actually, this isn’t so bad and maybe I will live here after all!