The Unseeable

Plot

Set in 1934 Siam, the story involves a young pregnant woman named Nualjan who's searching for her missing husband. She comes to stay in the spooky rural mansion of a widow, Runjuan. The overgrown property is managed by the stern caretaker Somchit and inhabited by a number of other people, including another young woman, Choy, who becomes Nualjin's friend, as well as an old woman, a little girl and a man who is seen at the back of the property, digging a hole. Near end of the movie she discovers that all people in the mansion are dead. And she also is one of them.

Cast

Origins

The Unseeable marks a change for Wisit Sasanatieng, who made his mark with the colourful western, Tears of the Black Tiger and the romantic-comedy, Citizen Dog. With his third film, Wisit was restrained by budgetary concerns from the stylizations of his first two films, but in doing so he was able to make it an homage to films of the 1930s and the stars of that era, including Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. Thai pop culture influences come from illustrator Hem Vejakorn, who wrote a series of 10-satang graphic novel ghost stories in the 1930s and '40s. The reference was so striking that the Barom Khru Foundation, which claims to supervise Hem's works, issued a statement warning Five Star Production to not violate the copyright of Hem's work. However, Wisit said the film was not an adaptation of any of Hem's works but was generally inspired by Hem's style.

Festivals and awards