How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies, known in Thai as , is a 2024 Thai comedy drama film directed by Pat Boonnitipat (in his directorial debut) from a screenplay written by Pat and Thodsapon Thiptinnakorn. It stars Putthipong Assaratanakul and Usha Seamkhum in their debut feature film roles. In the film, M (Putthipong), a university dropout low on money, volunteers to take care of his terminally ill grandmother (Usha) in the hope of pocketing her inheritance.
Development on the film began in 2020 after Thodsapon completed the first draft of the screenplay, which underwent several revisions after Pat was hired as director. Putthipong and Usha were hired soon after the screenplay was complete. Principal photography took place in Bangkok, with filming locations including Talat Phlu. Upon release, How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies went viral, spurred by a social media trend where viewers posted videos of themselves crying after watching the film.
How to Make Money Before Grandma Dies was first released in Thailand on 4 April 2024, by GDH. It grossed an estimated $73.8 million worldwide, becoming the second highest domestic grossing Thai film of 2024, the highest worldwide grossing Thai-language film of all time, and broke box office records in several countries across Asia. It received praise from critics for its direction, screenplay, cast performances, music, and heavy emotional weight. The film was selected as Thailand's entry for Best International Feature Film at the 97th Academy Awards and became Thailand's first submission to advance to the 15-film shortlist, but was not nominated.
Plot Mengju "Amah" Saejiu and her adult children Sew, Kiang, and Soei celebrate the Qingming Festival with Sew's son, M, a university dropout and aspiring video game streamer. She tells her family she wants to be buried on a big plot, which costs millions. Hospitalized after a fall, Mengju is diagnosed with late-stage colorectal cancer and is predicted to die in a year; her family decides to keep the diagnosis hidden from her. After M's wealthy paternal grandfather dies, most of his estate is left to his primary carer, Mui, M's cousin and online content creator. M then volunteers to become Mengju's carer, hoping to inherit her estate.
Before moving in, M lists Mengju's Talat Phlu house for sale. He initially struggles to curry favour with her, finding her demanding and unfiltered, and questions the morality of his decision but is convinced by Mui to continue. M tells Mengju of her diagnosis, who gradually accepts M's care, and he helps her sell congee. During a weekly family gathering, Mengju reveals that M informed her of her cancer. All of Mengju's children suddenly suggest methods to help care for her, which raises M's suspicions about their motive; thus, M increases his efforts as her primary carer.
Kiang, a wealthy stockbroker, arranges for Mengju to live with him and his family, offering to pay M to care for Mengju, but he declines the money. Mengju also declines to move in with Kiang, and she grows closer to M. Later, she finds out Soei stole ฿200,000 hidden in her kitchen to help cover his ฿1 million gambling debt. After confronting Soei, M gives him a silver belt from his grandfather to pay off his debt, then lies to Mengju, saying Soei is "out of town on work". One day, Mengju encounters a respondent to M's sale listing of her house, whom she turns away. She then gives M a reserved pomegranate and encourages him to develop more self-reliance.
Mengju takes M to meet her brother, who inherited millions upon the passing of their parents, and asks for money to purchase the plot. Her brother refuses and it is revealed that Mengju was their parents' carer until they died. She tells M she hopes a large burial plot would bring their family together by visiting her gravesite. After her doctors tell M that continuing treatment would be futile, he lies to her that she will instead receive treatment "based on her symptoms". Kiang asks Sew for the deed to Mengju's house, but she gives it to Soei, per Mengju's wishes. M angrily reacts to this and moves back home.
M learns that Sew, unlike him or Sew's siblings, did not want anything in exchange for caring for Mengju. Mui offers M half of her expected inheritance if he helps care for her dying aunt, but he refuses. Soei sells Mengju's house, fully covering his debts, and moves her to a nursing home. He attempts to repay M, who refuses. M moves Mengju into his home. He also confronts Soei and Kiang about their inaction in caring for Mengju. After Mengju dies, M receives a call from a bank, telling him that Mengju put aside money in his name since he was a child after he said he wanted to "buy her a new house". M empties the account and buys a big plot for her burial, which everyone attends.
Cast Putthipong "Billkin" Assaratanakul as M, a college dropout. Paachan Hiranprateep plays a young M. Usha Seamkhum as Mengju "Amah" Saejiu, M's 79-year-old maternal grandmother who is diagnosed with late-stage stomach cancer. Sanya "Duu" Kunakorn as Kiang, Amah's eldest son. Sarinrat "Jear" Thomas as Sew, Amah's daughter and M's mother. Pongsatorn "Phuak" Jongwilas as Soei, Amah's youngest child. Tontawan "Tu" Tantivejakul as Mui, M's paternal cousin. Duangporn Oapirat as Pinn, Kiang's wife. Himawari Tajiri as Rainbow, Kiang's and Pinn's daughter. Wattana Subpakit as Amah's brother. Sumalee Suteeratham as Agong's sister. Phichai Prommate as Agong. Buppa Suttisanon as Ngek.
Production
Development Unlike most GDH films, (including those produced by its wholly owned subsidiary production company Jor Kwang Films), which are usually developed by producers or directors, How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies was pitched by GDH screenwriter Thodsapon Thiptinnakorn in December 2020. Thodsapon's idea revolved around a ten-page synopsis inspired by caring for his grandmother during the COVID-19 pandemic and the family conflict over the lack of inheritance given to her daughter or caregivers. Producers Vanridee Pongsittisak and Jira Maligool worked with Thodsapon to make an "accessible and entertaining" slapstick comedy featuring only the grandmother and grandchild under the working title The Chinese Family, but this was later judged to have "lost [the] original charm" of Thodsapon's treatment.
As such, after Thai Chinese director Pat Boonnitipat was hired, he worked with Thodsapon to adopt a more emotionally-driven narrative for the film: Pat had previously worked with GDH on Project S: The Series (2017–2018) and Bad Genius (2020). He incorporated elements from his own life to develop the final screenplay: his maternal grandmother, who helped raise him and with whom he still lives, was diagnosed with late-stage breast cancer in 2004. Pat and Thodsapon ultimately worked on the screenplay for four hours a day, five days a week, over two years (which largely included hours-long conversations about their respective families and lives): during this time, the screenplay evolved to include other characters beyond the grandmother and grandson.
Pat later stated it took him eight months to learn how to write for film compared to television; How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies is his feature film debut. He spoke on the process, saying, "It is much harder to be precise making a film [compared to] TV, which uses coverage—shooting a lot of material and then deciding later [what] to use. For film, every shot [must] be intentional, to make the most out of every moment." During a February 2024 promotional interview at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, Pat argued that his previous television projects required "controlling" and guiding the audience's emotions and reaction, which he felt left the projects with a lesser "depth of feeling": for How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies, he abandoned this in favor of approaching the film wanting to make the audience "reflect about themselves". Reflecting on the experience, Vanridee commented that the film's development during the pandemic was uncertain but liberating, stating, "We just focused on telling the story as honestly as we could [and] somehow, that very personal approach allowed the film to travel farther than anything we had done before."
In an interview with Resonate, Pat revealed that most of the film's early development and pre-production was spent developing the film's characters: the grandmother was partly based on Thodsapon's grandmother while the mother was modelled and named after Pat's mother. Pat and Thodsapon also assigned their respective real-life anecdotes to inform the film's other characters and plot points. Despite these changes, Pat centred the audience as the film's ultimate target, saying, "my main goal was to keep the feeling [that] we're striving for something that could make you feel that it's your [life], not 'my' [film]". He also stated that this informed his decision to retain some of the comedic elements from the film's early screenplays. Pat stated that his grandmother directly opined on the screenplay after he moved back in with her when writing, while the other characters were based on his Cantonese-speaking mother's family, describing the representation of those characters in the film is as "exactly the same [as my own family], even the dialogue". This was echoed by Phuak, who said some of the film's dialogue "mirrored" his life and was a "reflection" of his past. The writers revised the screenplay to include themes on contemporary Thai family dynamics, specifically related to western and Asian attitudes regarding extended and nuclear families.
Casting
Putthipong "Billkin" Assaratanakul was cast in his debut lead film role, alongside acting debutante Usha "Taew" Seamkhum. Putthipong was the producers' first choice but Pat disliked his initial audition: Putthipong was hired following a second audition, after taking a long break from acting to attend acting classes. Pat immediately wanted to cast the then-78-year-old Usha after her audition, with his assistant director discovering her through a modelling agency Usha was signed to after participating in a seniors dance competition in 2019.
Speaking on hiring Usha, Pat stated "I wanted the [film's] acting to be natural [and] ideal way to be natural is to find someone who has never acted. [Usha] didn't have any pre-concept of acting. She believed in the story [and] became an actor. It's her gift and it's very charming". Usha was ultimately cast after a screen test with Putthipong, with the producers also wanting a first-time actress for the role. Usha was hesitant to accept the role due to fears over not remembering her lines: she ultimately wrote out her lines by hand to help with active recall during filming. Usha and Putthipong grew close during principal photography, with Usha stating, "I felt like I was with my own grandson. We got along so well, [filming] was so entertaining and comfortable".
Putthipong said that the film required "detailed and focused acting" compared to his appearances in the television series My Ambulance (2019) and I Told Sunset About You (2021): he had to lose weight and alter his natural walk and speech patterns to portray his character in the film. Putthipong also claimed to have declined numerous other film and television projects in favor of How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies. In an interview with The Review Geek in August 2024, Pat said he catered the screenplay and the character to fit Putthipong. This included using a year's worth of acting workshops, in place of standard rehearsals, between Pat and Putthipong to finalize his character prior to filming. The remaining cast was then rounded out, which included the feature film debut for Tontawan "Tu" Tantivejakul.
Filming