Successor

Successor (抓娃娃, 2024) is a Chinese comedy to watch online on iFILM, co-directed by Peng Damo and Yan Fei. The setup is blunt: Ma Chenggang is one of the richest men in the city, and his firstborn — raised without hardship — turned out useless. His fix for son number two involves moving the whole family into a crumbling neighbourhood and pretending to be poor.

The boy grows up believing money is tight. He studies hard, eats frugally, doesn't complain. What he doesn't know is that the neighbours are plants, the tutors are actors, and his struggles are managed by his father's team. Shen Teng plays Ma Chenggang with dead-serious conviction, which is what makes the comedy land — and what makes the film turn darker as the boy gets older. It became one of the largest Chinese box-office successes of 2024. Stream Successor online on iFILM.