TORONTO, September 18, 2026 – The film A Letter to Grandma recently screened in Toronto. After the screening, Raymond Massey, one of the producers of Whatcha Want and also an actor, spoke with CCTVmedium about his reaction to the film and how it gave him a new understanding of Chinese history and immigrant experiences.
Massey said he initially chose to watch A Letter to Grandma partly because the screening time worked for him, and partly because he knew it was a Chinese film. After watching it, he said he was glad he made that choice. The film brought him into a part of China he was not previously familiar with and introduced him to a piece of history he did not know much about.
“The story was connected to a history I wasn’t very familiar with, so I found it really fascinating,” Massey said.
A Letter to Grandma begins from family memory and the experience of overseas Chinese communities, using personal stories to show family ties across regions and generations. Massey said the film’s themes of migration, family and identity made him think further about how Chinese communities have lived, settled and contributed to societies in different parts of the world.
Speaking about Canada, he specifically mentioned the connection between Chinese communities and Canadian history. “Chinese people are a very important part of Canadian history,” Massey said. Watching the film, he added, also helped him learn more about aspects of Chinese history and social experience that he had not previously known.
As an actor and producer, Massey has long been involved in film and television projects. During this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, Whatcha Want, a film he helped produce, also appeared at the festival. Watching A Letter to Grandma allowed him to experience again, from an audience member’s perspective, the role cinema can play in cross-cultural exchange.
Massey said audiences do not need to know all of a film’s historical background in advance. Relationships between characters, family emotions and personal experiences can themselves become an entry point for understanding another history and culture.
He also said he usually follows TIFF film descriptions and recommendations, and that A Letter to Grandma showed him how works from different cultural backgrounds can use specific characters and genuine emotions to bring audiences into social and historical experiences that may have been unfamiliar to them.
（LJI by Yuanyuan）
