May 13, 2025
by Carla Hay
Directed by Thu Trang
Vietnamese with subtitles
Culture Representation: Taking place in Vietnam, the romantic comedy film “Money Kisses” features an all-Asian cast of characters representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.
Culture Clash: Two working-class sisters, who live together and are heavily in debt, decide to have the younger sister date two young billionaires to possibly help with their money problems, and the sisters get unexpected results.
Culture Audience: “Money Kisses” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and people who like breezy romantic comedies that have some emotional drama.
Some of the slapstick jokes are corny, but “Money Kisses” is mostly charming based on good performances and a few surprises. This romantic comedy (about a working-class woman who dates two rich men) is not about gold digging but about being authentic. Some of the movie is utterly predictable, while other parts take a few bold risks.
Directed by Thu Trang, “Money Kisses” was written by Nhi Bứi, Đồ Hóa Trà, Hô Thúc An and Đồ Như Thư. The movie takes place in an unnamed city in Vietnam, where “Money Kisses” was filmed on location. Alternate titles for the movie are “Billionaire Kisses” or “Nụ Hôn Bạc Tỷ,” which means “Billion Dollar Kiss” in Vietnamese.
The movie begins by showing the relationship of two sisters who live together in the house that they inherited from their deceased single mother. The two sisters have opposite personalities. Older sister Thúy Kieu (played by Thu Trang), who is in her early 40s, is hyper and impulsive. Younger sister Thúy Vân (played by Thiên An), who is in her mid-20s, is calm and meticulous.
Kieu works as a golf caddy at The Dalat at 1200 Country Club and Private Estate. Van works in a small stall selling bread that she makes in the sisters’ house. This small business was started by the sisters’ mother. It’s important to Van to continue this legacy.
Van’s dream is to study how to be a pastry chef in Paris and come back to Vietnam to open her own retail bakery. Kieu’s dream is to buy a condo with her boyfriend Đạt (played by Huy Khánh), and they have already made this investment at a complex under development called the Dream City Project. Đạt urged Kieu to invest in this complex. He takes Kieu for granted and keeps dangling the possibility that he will propose marriage to her.
The movie first shows the two young billionaires whom Van will end up dating at the same time. Nhât Quang (played by Lê Xuân Tiền) is a Harvard University graduate who is the heir to a chain of supermarkets called El Flaminco. Tú Henry (played by Ma Ran Đô) is the heir to a tourism corporation.
Quang and Henry, who have opposite personalities, are friends and rivals. Quang is very straight-laced and likes to wear business suits. Henry is a partying playboy who likes wearing leather jackets and jeans.
Near the beginning of the movie, Quang and Henry are seen racing each other on an expressway. Quang is driving a black Ferrari, while Henry is on a custom-made motorcycle. Around the same time as this race, Van is making a bread delivery on her moped.
Van narrowly misses getting into an accident when Henry almost crashes into her and nicks a mirror on the moped. They stop and have a brief, tense conversation. Van is annoyed but Henry is immediately attracted to her.
Van’s delivery is at the country club where Kieu works. Van is in a rush because the near-accident has caused her to be running late. In the reception area, she nearly runs into Quang. He’s immediately attracted to her too.
At work, Kieu is considered a little bit of an oddball misfit by the rich people she has to serve. She’s also clumsy and has a tendency to fall down. The movie doesn’t reveal right away that Kieu was born with one leg slightly shorter than the other. She’s very insecure about this disability but tries to not let this insecurity show.
One of Kieu’s co-workers is Phương Suói Vàng (played by Huỳnh Phương), who is a somewhat stereotypical “flamboyant” best friend. Quang has a business manager/friend/hanger-on named Trong (played by Tiến Luật), who is constantly asking to borrow money. Trong is not impressed when he first sees Kieu and thinks she looks “pitiful.”
Not long after Van’s fateful encounters with Quang and Henry, the sisters get very bad news: The Dream City Project was a scam. Not only did Kieu invest all of the sisters’ savings in the Dream City Project, she also secretly mortgaged the house and used that loan money to invest in the Dream City Project. All of that investment money is now gone.
Van is crushed by this betrayal when she finds out. She argues with Kieu about what they should do to solve this problem. One thing the sisters agree on is that they don’t want to sell the house, which is the biggest connection that they have to their mother.
On the suggestion of Dat, the two sisters visit a loan shark named Phi Den (played by Hoàng Phi), who makes an unreasonable offer: Pay back ₫ 1.3 million (which is about $501,000 in U.S. dollars in 2025) by the end of the month, or else he will take possession of the sisters’ house. Van and Kieu don’t want him to have the house, which is worth a lot more than ₫ 1.3 million, so they have to figure out a way to get the money before the end of the month. Phi Den is a violent thug who leads a gang of hoodlums, so going into business with him can be dangerous.
One day at the country club, Kieu sees a young female co-worker suddenly quit her job because she is now dating a wealthy guy whom she met at the club. Kieu then gets the idea for Van to start dating a wealthy guy who could possibly help relieve the sisters’ debt. She doesn’t expect Van to do anything sexual but just be an attractive companion.
Van, who is somewhat introverted, doesn’t really like the idea, but she goes along with it out of desperation. Kieu arranges for them to attend a golf tournament charity party, where many of the country club members are attending. Predictably, Quang and Henry see Van (this time, she’s dressed up and looks like a beauty queen) and their interest in her goes up considerably. As already shown in the movie’s trailer, Quang and Henry both start dating Van at the same time.
“Money Kisses” eventually reveals which suitor Van prefers. There are some hijinks along the way as the deadline approaches to pay back the money to Phi Den. The sisters also have some drama that goes back to their childhoods, when Van used to be bullied for having a disabled sister. Kieu’s insecurities have a lot to do with Kieu thinking that Van looks down on her for being the “screw-up” sister.
One of the reasons why “Money Kisses” works as well as it does is because the co-stars have terrific chemistry with each other. Thiên An and Thu Trang are entirely believable as sisters, who have their ups and downs but never really stop loving each other. The movie doesn’t follow convention of the older sister being wiser than the younger sister. In “Money Kisses,” the older sister is less responsible and not as emotionally mature as her younger sister.
“Money Kisses” starts off with a string of almost manic slapstick comedy scenes, but the movie gets better and more realistic as it goes along. The story isn’t entirely focused on which of the billionaire boyfriends will end up being Van’s choice, if she makes that choice at all. (Watch through the movie’s end credits to find out how this love triangle ends.) The bigger and more important story is about having the courage to face hard truths about one’s self-worth and identity.
Thu Trang Entertainment released “Money Kisses” in select U.S. cinemas on May 9, 2025. The movie was released in Vietnam on January 29, 2025.
