How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies is a Thai that follows M (Putthipong Assaratanakul), a university dropout low on both money and luck. When he finds out that his grandmother has stage 4 cancer with a year left to live, he sets out to take care of her in the hopes of inheriting an inheritance.

This film didn’t become on my radar until a few days ago when I was offered a screener of the film. After some research, I wanted to review the film immediately as I saw that it was going to become available in major areas this weekend. It will be available in certain theater in the U.S. this weekend. If you are located anywhere in Southeast Asia with a Netflix subscription, you can watch it there now as well. The title of the film certainly made me question what I was about to get myself in. What I got was a heartful, intimate, and earnest tale of the importance of taking care of those who took care of you.

The major theme from start to finish is how we live life and how we go on after someone important in our lives have passed on. There’s a sweet & enduring dynamic between the leads who plays grandson and grandmother. You can understand the grandson’s motives. Even though he is trying to get something out of it, he still deeply cares for his family. You can also understand the grandmother and why she has become bitter. When the grandson finally breaks the news of her diagnosis to his grandmother, that’s when you can see where there is trust built there and when they begin to become closer.

Assaratanakul delivers one of the best performances of the year. I completely understood his intentions from start to finish. In a way, I could easily identify with him and I think other viewers will too. The relationship that he builds with his grandmother, played by Seamkhum, really brings a lot of heart to the film with Seamkhum also delivering one of the best performances of the year.

Director & co-writer Pat Boonnitipat has a clear vision of what this story needs to be, and what better way than to really connect with the actors. It’s clear how comfortable he makes his on-screen talent. Even at 2 hours for its runtime, he wastes no times getting from plot point to plot point. It goes to show how effective he is at creating characters and drama.

As for the technical aspects, the cinematography invites you into the landscape the story takes place in. I found the scenery and color grading to be very surreal. The score has a deep and meaningful tone to it that helps elevate the emotional tone its going for. While the editing is strong for the most part, I did find one continuity error that bothered me more than it should. I think it bothered me as much as it did, because it could have been avoided. I was still trying to understand the characters when I caught notice of it, so that did distract me a little.

While this film is clearly one of the best of the year, this is also one of those movies that you need to see at least once in your life. Much like Perfect Days, this film significantly had an impact on me and want to be a better person. Those are my favorite kind of movies where a film from another part of the world can resonate with people universally. That being said, I don’t know if I could stomach another watch unless I was fully prepared, knowing what was to come emotionally. This is certainly one that I think everyone needs to add to the top of their watchlist and seek it out ASAP.

Overall, How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies is a heartful journey of finding yourself through your family. Every character has a complex background with motivations that set them all up for meaningful arcs from beginning to end. Putthipong Assaratanakul & Usha Seamkhum delivers two of the best performances of the year that will leave you feeling emotional by the end. I can’t wait to see what director Pay Boonnitipat does next. Most importantly, this may win best movie of the year.

VERDICT: 4.5/5 (Amazing)