Will the movie send people running to visit old parents or grandparents living by themselves? Yes. Is it unpretentious tearjerker? Yes. Is it beautiful? Yes. Does it stay rent-free in your head long after it ends? Yes.
Should it make millions or billions (no pun intended)? Yes, but through word of mouth only.
But should “Lan Ma” (or How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies) win an Oscar? No.
Why not? Because if you love it because of the screenplay or storyline, getting that kind of “rewards” defeats the whole purpose of the film, or what it tries to convey.
Being shortlisted for Oscar nominations in the Foreign Film category is no surprise. The movie is very cultural, and is quite beautiful and touching at that as well. Also, the film deals brilliantly with a subject that is supposed to be very simple but has been made complicated by humans somehow: Love and kindness.
“Lan Ma” ticks all the boxes. The acting is exceptionally great. Scenes and props are realistic yet magnificently shot. Plots are neither overreaching nor full of clichés. The use of symbol is properly minimal. Bad guys have good sides and good guys have dark sides.
(If you haven’t watched the movie and want to watch it without a spoiler, this line is as far as you should read. The following, to some, can spoil it.)
The encounter at an old lady’s shop, where two women talked about their cancers, showcases one of the most outstanding braveries ever put on films, without bombs exploding, gunshots being fired, or buildings collapsing. The characters mentioned their terminal illnesses as if they were asking each other where they shopped the day before.
Expressions of love in this film are rightly demonstrated, generationally and culturally. Old Chinese persons may sound “rude” to children if you are a westerner, but they love them. And young and old persons show love and care differently.
The storyline is, in fact, what happens routinely to a large number of Asian families. But to take something so simple and make it touch so many souls is no easy task.
Suggestions of love that is taken for granted are not force-fed but they can be seen from start to finish. The pomegranate, the bank book or the traditional Chinese tomb. In one scene, the grandma said she did not want an elegant tomb for herself, but that she wanted it because it would enhance the status of those coming to visit.
The bank book represents an Asian adult’s way of expressing love. It’s not hugs or kisses that signify love, but doing what you can to provide security to the one you care about.
In one scene, the grandma said the bright side of a son not coming to visit her was that his absence “told me he was all right.”
The movie opens at a graveyard site and ends at the same area. The character development has been completed when we see the graveyard for the second and last time. The hero no longer plays video games or uninterestingly dumps all the petals hoping the wind to help spread them.
One of the best lines in the movie is said by the young hero’s mother. “Actually, it’s good that you and I didn’t get the house,” she said. “Being a giver feels much better than being a receiver.”
This is why “Lan Ma” probably should not get an Oscar. The film is currently a big giver. Why should it become a recipient all of a sudden?
The movie is about unannounced, unadvertised yet sincere love, about doing the right thing for the right reason, and about kindness that expects nothing in return.
Should we all recognize it? Yes. But would it be unfathomably ironic to give the film a reward that, apart from reflecting recognition, is too associated with commercialism and “Doing a good deed with an aim for glory and possibly wealth”?
Should How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies, a film that promotes the virtue of not doing the right thing for the wrong reason, be promoted the Oscar way?
That sounds like a million-dollar question.
