Come Here

Thailand, 2021, 69′

Anocha Suwichakornpong

Apinya Sakuljaroensuk, Waywiree Ittianunkul, Sornrapat Patharakorn, Bhumibhat Thavornsiri, Sirat Intarachote

Four friends in their mid-twenties go to Kanchanaburi, west of Thailand, on a trip. They visit the World War II memorial site of the ‘Death Railway’, built to honor tens of thousands war prisoners who lost their lives here.

At night, back at the raft house, they are drinking, smoking weed, and talking randomly. Once in a while, someone would act out a scene from a play – it turns out they are all actors in the same theatre company.

Running parallel to this narrative is the story of another woman who finds herself alone in the middle of the forest after her friend mysteriously disappears. The four friends in the raft house say something that might allude to that woman, but it is not certain. The woman finds a natural stream. She drinks, washes her face, and then goes into the water. Her face begins to transform into another person’s.

It’s getting late, all the friends are intoxicated. Some pass out in the bedroom. Only two are left by themselves. Romance is in the air.

Fireworks go off, one after another, high up in the night sky. Each of them begin to wake up and they all stand still, watching the beautiful fireworks shooting up the sky and disappear one by one.

Anocha SUWICHAKORNPONG (1976, Thailand) is a scriptwriter, director and owner of production house Electric Eel Films. Graceland (2006) became the first Thai short film to be included in the Official Selection at Cannes Film Festival. Mundane History (2009), her feature film debut, won a Tiger Award in 2010. Her short film Thursday also had its world premiere at IFFR in 2015. By the Time It Gets Dark (2016) was her second feature film. Krabi, 2562, a mischievous blend of documentary and camp co-directed with Ben Rivers.