It’s Granny theft auto
15
This hugely likeable crime comedy is set in modern-day New York but its unusual heroine wouldn’t look out of place in a Spaghetti Western. Debut director Sasie Sealy introduces Grandma Wong (Tsai Chin) cigarette-end first as she leans into a pool of light to cast her eyes over a fortune teller.
“Carps jumping over dragon gate!” shrieks the mystic while consulting some crescent-shaped wooden blocks.
“So auspicious!”
What our 80-year-old heroine thinks of all this is less clear. Like Clint Eastwood’s Man With No Name, it seems Grandma isn’t much of a talker.
This clever opening scene sketches out this flinty old scrapper’s character and predicament. She is “without shade in old age” after losing her husband and being left a pittance. After a life spent playing by the rules, she wants a payback.
Her son Howard (Eddie Yu) wants her to move in with his family but this old fighter dismisses his invitation with a shrug. Instead, she empties her bank account and boards a coach to the casino. As the chips pile up on the roulette table, it seems there may be something in that mystic’s reading.
But fate hasn’t finished with her yet. After losing all her money at cards, she finds herself sitting next to a dead gangster on the coach back to New York. A couple of improbable twists later, Grandma has a bag full of stolen cash hidden in her Chinatown flat and has formed a funny, touching double act with a giant bodyguard called Big Pong (Hsiao-yuan Ha).
You don’t get many 80-year-old leads in crime capers but Sealy gives her star plenty of room to shine.
After a life playing by the rules, our 80-year-old heroine wants payback