Operation Undead was previously reviewed for the 23rd edition of the New York Asian Film Festival. The film is currently available on Digital, and will be available on Blu-ray & DVD exclusively through Amazon’s Manufacture-on-Demand program on March 25.
The zombie genre is a little more fascinating, lately. Again, I’m not the target audience for this category, but I love good fun and spectacle where it is. That’s where I give the kind of due credit Muay Thai Chaiya director Kongkiat Komesiri so earns for his latest feat, Operation Undead.
Set during Thailand’s involvement in World War II, the film immerses itself in a millieu of absolute terror that goes beyond the expectant horrors of war. Back room politics and skullduggery are at the center of it all as a Japanese scientist’s prototypical experiment gets unleashed unto a Thai battlefield, endangering nearby villages in the process.
The weapon in question, Nobu (Assanai Yungyuen), a Japanese soldier infected with Fumetsu-A44 – a biological weapon that grows contagious with the host’s bite – effectively turning victims into other reanimated hosts. Such is the terror that awaits a squad of young and ornery Thai junior soldiers soon sent off to battle, only to be met by the ravenous Nobu in the midst of their desperation.
Central to the film’s main story is the family drama and upheaval between brothers, junior soldier Mok (Awat Ratanapintha) and older brother and Thai army corproal Mek (Nonkul). Despite the grievances of their widowed mother whose husband also died during military service, Mek stands beholden to a stronger sense of duty as opposed to Mok who doesn’t share his brother’s values.
The stakes for Mek couldn’t be greater, either, as he is now an expectant parent alongside field nurse and fiancé, Pen (Supitcha Sangkhachinda) who is pregnant with their child. In addition, it isn’t long before Mek learns of the notorious bio-weapon from the far East, and the mission at hand involving Captain Nakamura (Seigi Ohzeki) and his Destroyer Task Force: Apprehend the Fumetsus alive for further study.
Operation Undead is keen on conveying the experimental processes through vignettes recording the study of the weapon on Nobu and a pack of rats. This especially works to the story’s benefit in lieu of Mek’s realization of the possibility that Mok was shipped out with his squad to the same territory where Nobu struck instead of going AWOL like he initially planned.
What Mek doesn’t know is Mok, now entrenched as one of the infected by Fumetsu-A44, is taking on a whole different evolution. This is when the movie dives further into the murky and elusive world and network of the “Fumetsus,” who are more than just rampant and voracious, flesh-hungry zombies.
Unlike the kinds of zombies still employed in most horror movies to this day, Komesiri’s Fumetsus still communicate with one another, and atop their beastly and decrepit demeanor and unsightly veneer lies beneath echoes of the people they once were, and a lingering sense of morale depending on which infectant.
Mok’s crisis of conscience comes in a series of moments throughout the film after spotting Nobu in one of his own. It is a key area of self-discovery for Mok as he and the other Fumetsus find themselves pitted against Nakamura and his men. Going forward, it is not long before Mok and the other Fumetsus consider the potential conspiracy at hand, one that threatens to not only put innocent villagers – including their own family members in the crossfire, but also to extend the bloodshed beyond the region.
If you’ve seen 2010’s Warm Bodies or read the novel it is based on, you can get an idea of Komesiri’s approach to zombie lore sans rom-com aspects. I haven’t seen a lot of films of this kind take on the zombie genre to this extent, which makes Operation Undead not only rare, but also equally entertaining and interesting as one of the darkest tales of redemption I’ve ever seen.
Obligatory to the formula here is Komesiri’s attentiveness to macabre levels of zombie violence. One Japanese soldier is seen sitting perched on a toppled tree to get an overview of the area he and his men are scouting. In a seperate shot moments later, the soldier is seen sitting in the same position with the top half of his face revealed to be that of a Fumetsu caught mid-meal. Furthermore, bodies are immolated or mutilated by either requisite bullets or huge-as-shit harpoons, limbs are seen scattered if not torn apart from their owners, rib cages are ripped out, and barring the more dramatic context here, a Fumetsu armed with a sword slices open a woman’s throat. Matters of CG use here can be debated, but the VFX are tolerable and don’t take away from the enjoyment, particularly with scenes involving fire and explosions.
Komesiri’s Operation Undead is not for the faint of heart or anyone with a soft stomach. Agreeably though, and beyond these points and any genre absurdities one might deem relevant here, the movie is certainly an ambitious accomplishment by a director who has already garnered some promise in the past decade or so, which makes me wish I had better access to the Khun Pan trilogy, which I have heard only cool things about.
Operation Undead was reviewed for the 23rd New York Asian Film Festival which runs from July 12 through 28.