One Wish Review: Are You Ready For The Vietnamese Version Of How To Make Millions Before Grandma Dies?

One Wish (PG)

Starring Thanh Hien, Dinh Y Nhung, Truong Minh Cuong, Quach Ngoc Ngoan

Directed by Ly Hai

After the Thai grandmother made us cry, here comes the Vietnamese version.

You'll probably sob less for One Wish than for How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies since, well, nobody conks out here. 73-year-old Madam Hai (Thanh Hien) is only temporarily injured in the leg when an accident happens at her roadside flower stall in a Vietnamese village.

Thing is, this family drama seems more calculative as a predictable, straightforward churn-out by the brain. Rather than something ironic and growing that’s coming out of the heart as in the Thai weeper.

 One Wish is like a travelogue going from place to place with various start-stop incidences. Each with the astute, observant old lady intruding into various homes — from a wealthy city apartment to a rural fishing port abode to others — as an unnoticed guardian angel.

This is the seventh instalment in Viet writer-director Ly Hai's — playing a lousy drunk husband here — Face Off film series that features different, stand-alone stories about Vietnam.   

But you'll likely still tear up when you see Madam Hai yearn poignantly for her one touchingly simple, unfulfilled wish. She longs for a chance to gather her far-flung grown-up children —three sons, two daughters — together for one big family photo instead of the pitiable cut-and-paste pic she holds lovingly to her heart.

Aw shucks. I wish I could introduce dear amah to Photoshop.

Basically, this heart-tugger is for folks who have forgotten to appreciate their mothers. But, of course, the deeper meaning is about how time changes both people and circumstances even for the most previously close-knit families. You know this used to be a tight cozy bunch via flashbacks sprinkled like Kodak moments.

In the early 1990s, Madam Hai, sadly widowed, works backbreakingly hard to provide for her kids who adore her. “When you grow up, who will take care of mum?” she asks. Every little hand goes up in the broken promise of childhood innocence.

FYI, the over-aging of the old gal from a younger actress in this flick is quite remarkable. As though somebody got the time span wrong. Just saying.     

Anyway, present-day Madam Hai misses her brood as they get on with their own families far away without time to visit until an emergency happens. Which turns out here to be a really inconvenient, burdensome one for everybody.

Lanh (Dinh Y Nhung), the daughter living with Madam Hai in her village hut, cannot take care of her wheelchair-bound mother since her own little girl suffers an ailment requiring a lengthy hospital stay.

Reluctantly, almost unwillingly, her bickering siblings draw lots in a group meeting on their mobile phones to see who can take turns to put their mum into their own homes and, hence, busy lives.

Director Ly handles this segment — a passing-of-the-buck to delay filial responsibility — realistically well. Anybody with a foot in either direction — take in or not take in an imposition — can relate to this.

Here, One Wish turns into a travel brochure that opens Vietnam to our eyes compellingly but not quite convincingly to our heads because the proceedings look too contrived. Each offspring conveniently has problems which need mum's angel touch to enhance her end-of-movie saintliness.

From a rich executive son in Hanoi to a fisherman-son to a farmer-daughter to a construction boss-son in Ho Chi Minh City, her separated children dwell in dramatically different houses, jobs and financial status so diverse it seems as if they've been chosen for a population census.

To preserve your discovery and enjoyment, suffice it to say that they are each an itinerant episode designed to milk the most out of dedicated, sacrificial parenthood as exemplified by the central figure of Madam Hai.   

Thanh Hien moves hearts as an endearing, knowing pioneer here whose calm disposition belies a strong determination.   

She underlines this Hallmark show crossed with a slice-of-life pic with discernible sentimental wistfulness.   

Yep, you'll probably cry. (3.5/5 stars) out in cinemas

Photo: Shaw Organisation