Ex-Bond girl finds fame again as ‘lucky’ grandma in indie film set in Chinatown
Let’s take a moment to sing the praises of Tsai Chin, whose signature role of Auntie Lindo in Wayne Wang’s “The Joy Luck Club” ushered in a career second act that, 27 years later, is still going strong.
Before that she grew up in Shanghai the daughter of one of the Peking Opera’s greatest stars, starred in a movie with Ingrid Bergman (”The Inn of the Sixth Happiness,” 1958), was David Hemmings’ secretary in Michelangelo Antonioni’s “Blowup” and a Bond girl to Sean Connery in “You Only Live Twice” in the 1960s (she also sat next to Daniel Craig’s Bond during that epic card game in “Casino Royale”) and had a distinguished career on the London stage.
And yet she never had a role like the title character in “Lucky Grandma,” the opportunity for a full-blown star turn that, at 85, she nails.
The independent film, which won the top award at the Napa Valley Film Festival in November, is available for streaming at virtual cinemas (such as drafthouse.com).
Wearing a perpetual scowl that would make Grumpy Cat look like a sunny optimist, Chin is Grandma Wong, an embittered, chainsmoking widow living in an apartment in New York’s Chinatown. Although she is barely surviving — her husband left her destitute, she discovered after his death — she resists the offer from her son to move in with his impossibly happy family, which includes his wife and three children.
One night on one of her regular casino visits, along with a busload of her fellow elderly Chinatown residents, she goes on an unprecedented winning streak. She can’t lose. But this is not that kind of movie. On the evening’s last turn of the card, she goes broke.
On the bus trip home, the man next to her dies in his sleep. He’s got a bag full of money, which she takes. A lucky winner after all, right? But it’s not that kind of movie, either.
The man was an accountant for a Chinatown gang, likely laundering money, and suddenly Grandma Wong is a target. She could give back the money and that would be the end of it. But she wants to keep it, so she goes to a rival gang and hires protection. Her bodyguard is a gentle, doughy giant, Big Pong (HsiaoYuan Ha, excellent).
Essentially, Grandma Wong starts a small gang war over her stubborn refusal to give up the money.
Co-writer and director Sasie Sealy employs a deceptively simple approach. “Lucky Grandma” isn’t a feel-good comedy at all, but has a parched-dry dark comic approach, keeping Grandma Wong at an emotional remove.
Gradually, Chin allows us to chip away at what makes Grandma tick. This isn’t a movie about money at all but is instead a search for the dignity and respect the elderly deserve in a world that too often chooses not to afford it.
Running time: 100 minutes Rating: Not rated