“Happy Old Year” as the most anticipated Thai film, we should have been able to watch in Indonesia in the last week of March, but due to the increasingly widespread Covid-19 pandemic in Indonesia, the film was forced to experience a fairly long delay. The story itself is very simple, but the excesses it creates are very imprinted and will not disappear with time.
Jean (Chutimon Chuengcharoensukying), a young woman wants to reorganize her house into a minimalist style office. His house, which used to be a musical instrument shop, has long been closed since his father left them. He will dispose of all the items in his house now, including his own personal belongings. But he faced a very complicated problem when he found some items that came from his past, and they could not help making them go back to their unpleasant past. Best Movie Site
Jean, who works as an interior design, together with her friend, Pink, will rearrange Jean’s house, because her coworkers want her to have a decent office for work. But the problems at Jean’s house are very complex. Jean, who lives with her brother and mother, is having a hard time telling her mother that she is going to throw away everything, even though her brother does not mind this.
Pink himself also discovered that the CD he had given some time ago to Jean was actually going to be thrown away. From there Pink gave input so that goods given to Jean should be returned to the person giving. The idea is actually good, but it creates new problems.
When Jean finds a camera and a photo of his ex, Aim (Sunny Suwanmethanont), he feels guilty about wanting to return the item, because his ex was at that time just left when Jean went to school in Sweden. Finally Jean sent it via package, but to his surprise, the package was rejected and returned to him. Intrigued by this, Jean desperately went to Aim’s house, to return the item and apologize. But apparently what Jean has done to Aim has an impact on other things and hurts himself and others psychologically.
Can Jean let go of her past and look into the future that she lives now? The film that uses this mixed plot starts from when Jean’s house is neatly arranged into a minimalist Stockholm-style office that he planned from the beginning. When interviewed by a media, he seemed depressed when asked tips on how to get rid of something. A facial expression that immediately takes us back for a moment when the house is still a mess. Movie Review
From there it will be clear how a job that is actually easy for everyone to do, but when a sentimental feeling for an item arises, we will stop for a moment, and remember our past memories of that item, both sad and happy. That’s what Jean feels. But for director Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit, who had previously directed Chutimon Chuengcharoensukying and Sunny Suwanmethanont in “Die Tomorrow” (2017), this simple sentimental story was the strength of the film as a whole.
The narrative structure of “Happy Old Year” is fairly neat, with the division of acts describing important moments in the film. Indeed, the film runs rather slowly, but every detail of the items belonging to Jean, Aim or his brother are clearly shown. Even a photo of the past that his sister found, when they were both still small with her parents, became a narrative that was entertaining and pleasing to her, but not to Jean.
Emotional emotion that was shed by accident, made the character of Jean completely wrong. The selfish side because he insisted on wanting to make his home a minimalist style office, regardless of his mother or whoever it was. On the other hand, he forgot that he threw away personal items, not as easy as he had imagined. All the feelings that are in the item he will throw away forever. And the empathy that has been lost is now radiating strongly in Jean’s face, especially when all his things have been thrown away. Unfortunately everything is too late. Top Movie
For those of you who are curious, the film that had entered Netflix Thailand, hopefully you can watch it, when the cinema is open later.