With a fun sense of wit that stems from a strong leading performance from Tsai Chin, writer/director Sasie Sealy crafts a great feature debut with a healthy mix of dark comedy and crime drama.

The film follows Grandma Wong (Chin), a mean-spirited, chain-smoking Chinese grandmother who lives within New York City’s Chinatown. After a meeting with a local fortune teller (Wai Ching Ho) who tells Wong that she has good fortune coming her way, she travels to the casino to bet the last amount of money her husband has left her after he passed. While things go well at first as Wong starts to rack up a fortune, she eventually loses it all on a bad bet. Feeling rotten about losing it all, Wong’s luck quickly turns around when a bag full of money lands in her lap. However, this money has a lot of baggage that goes with it that lands Wong in the middle of a gang war that could put her and her family in danger. Continue reading Review: Lucky Grandma