DEEP, a secret project, is a new Thai movie that was just released on Netflix on July 16. Of course, as soon as it was released, it immediately became the number 1 most popular movie on Netflix.
With content sparked by the current reality that we cannot escape: sleep deprivation, whether it is sleep deprivation to work, sleep deprivation to study, sleep deprivation to do research, or sleep deprivation just to have more time to live and do things, the question is, is this trade-off worth it?
The film is produced by Transformation Films Co., Ltd., written by Wisit Sasanatieng, Sita Likhitvanichkul, Apirak Somutkitpaisan, Kittithat Nokngam, Jetrin Rattanaserikiat, and Thanabodee Uewitaya, and directed by Sita Likhitvanichkul, Jetrin Rattanaserikiat, Apirak Somutkitpaisan, Thanabodee Uewitaya, and Adirek Wattalila.
Synopsis
DEEP, a secret project that kills. The film begins by showing the life of the character Jane , played by Care-Panisara Rikulsurakan. Jane is a female medical student who shoulders the burden of her family all by herself. With only her younger sibling and grandmother left in the family, she tries to be the most reliant on her family. Her family is not very lucky financially, so she decides to join the Deep project through a recommendation from her teacher.
The Deep project is a research project that requires volunteers to be experimenters with a simple rule: sleep deprivation = money, sleep = death. The project’s goal is to obtain queratonin (a substance secreted while we are awake, capable of stimulating brain-dead patients) from experiment participants. This experiment is divided into 3 levels: the higher the level, the harder it is to collect queratonin, but the returns are also higher.
Joining the Deep project this time made Jane meet Win , played by K Lertsittichai, a young medical student who loves partying more than studying in the classroom. Win himself doesn’t think joining the Deep project is difficult for him because he usually parties so hard that he doesn’t sleep. The next person is Sin, played by Fern-Supanaree Sutthavijitwong, a famous internet idol or a celebrity in the Faculty of Medicine. But in reality, Sin wants to study in the Faculty of Communication Arts and knows that he didn’t always want to study medicine. But his family wants him to study medicine because they see that Sin is very smart and everyone in his family is studying medicine.
The last one is Peach , played by Kit-Krit Jirapattananuwong, a nerdy male medical student who is addicted to games. His life consists only of studying and games. Peach has many friends in the game, many people play games with him, but in the real world, he doesn’t have any friends at all.
Of course, joining Deep in Level 1 was easy. They received a reward of 100,000 baht each, which was worth waiting to be contacted again to join Level 2.
The use of the money shows the different lives of the four people. Jane uses it to pay off her family’s debts, Win uses it to buy expensive jewelry, Sin uses it to get beautiful, and Peach uses it to buy a game console and many accessories that he wants to enhance his gaming experience.
During this time, we will see scenes of the four of them talking together or hanging out because they have the same goal: staying up all night to earn money. In addition to seeing the friendship that has formed, we will also see the love that has developed between the characters Win and Jane, and Peach and Sin (even though it is a one-sided love).
This time, joining the Deep Project at level 2 doesn’t seem so easy because the quertonin they need is secreted too slowly, plus they have hallucinations that bother them all day long. They decide to plan to do activities together to make the quertonin secreted as quickly as possible. Of course, everything doesn’t go as smoothly as they thought because Sin goes into shock and faints after learning Peach’s secret that he has kept for a long time.
After finishing Deep Level 2, everyone started to fear death, so they didn’t want to continue to Level 3. Furthermore, the relationship between the four people seemed to get worse from all the events that had happened, whether it was Win who was rejected by Jane after confessing his love, or Sin who was afraid of Peach after learning Peach’s secret.
After the friendships of the friends break down, the film expands to show us their family lives more clearly. Jane, whose parents have died, has to keep thinking about taking care of her grandmother and bothering her younger sibling who comes home late every day. Win is angry at his father. He thinks his mother died because he didn’t try to help her. Sin’s grades are getting worse and he can’t stand the pressure from his family who wants him to study medicine. Peach is hated by Sin after that.
The story doesn’t end there. When an unexpected event happens, they have to come together again to join the Deep project at level 3. And the reason for joining this time has changed. Because they don’t do it for money anymore. Of course, this time it’s harder, longer, more stressful, more painful, and more scary.
What we learned from this story
DEEP Secret Project, Sleeping Deadly This story reflects the working life and struggles with the education system of Thai teenagers today very well. Mostly, a child does not only have to deal with the pressure of studying, but also has the burden of family, society, and his own future as he wants to be.
“Money, if you don’t die, you can find it again.”
This sentence is a sentence that is used to teach along with saying that “Money can’t buy happiness”. Of course, the person who can say these sentences must have never been close to death because of having no money. In the current situation, money has become the main factor in life. If you don’t have it, you will die. Therefore, many people choose to risk their lives for money.
The teacher said this sentence to Jane when he saw that Jane’s studies were getting worse and Jane looked very haggard because Jane joined the Deep project. For Jane, the huge debt from renting the house would kill Jane more than working hard to earn money until she looked haggard like this.
“Level 1 = 100,000 baht Level 2 = 500,000 baht Level 3 = 1,000,000 baht”
In case you weren’t aware, you’re all on a Deep Project now. That big job where the payoff increases with the difficulty, number of tasks, and requirements you’ve worked on all along. Think about the first homework your professor gave you compared to your last, highest-graded homework. Or the first assignment your boss gave you compared to the one you were given after a year on the job with a pay raise from last year. It’s not much different from a Deep Project, is it? That’s why your queratonin levels at Level 3 increase much more slowly than at Level 1.
“Because people always yearn for things that they lack.”
Surely everyone must know the jigsaw game. If we put pieces that do not match the empty spaces, it will not fit. Plus, the resulting picture will be messy, right? In the same theory, people are always attracted by what we are missing. Win fell in love with Jane easily because Win is someone who lacks warmth in terms of family. He has a complex about his father not trying to help his mother, which always causes him to resist his father. Therefore, it is not strange that he shows it in the form of behavior that is addicted to going out and partying with friends because he wants to escape from the loneliness that he feels when he is alone in the world. Until he meets Jane, who loves her family and always puts family first. She carries the burden of the family no different from being a mother in this family. Jane is like the jigsaw piece that Win is missing.
The movie doesn’t just show the couple Jane and Win, but also the case of Peach secretly loving Sin. Peach has no social life in the real world, is not successful in socializing, is just a nerd that no one knows. On the other hand, Sin is loved, popular both in the social world and in real life. Sin knows how to socialize and is always loved by others. And this may be the reason why Peach is so crazy in love with Sin.
“The impact of hard work doesn’t just affect us.”
In the story, after Jane joined the Deep project at level 2, June, Jane’s younger sister, felt the change in her sister. Eventually, the two of them fought, even though the fuse that caused the fight was because June was just worried about her sister. The biggest impact that happens to a family is when we work so hard that we forget about family. If we say that work only affects the person doing it, it wouldn’t be true because the family can feel those things as well.
“In collaboration, failure is the collective responsibility, not the individual’s.”
In Deep Level 3, all four of them are required to join in order to save Jane’s younger sister from dying. Of course, this requires a principle of working together. But before reaching that point, the film shows us the humanity that will never put its hand in danger for the benefit of others. The conflict when encountering problems or obstacles that make the work tend to go in a worse direction. The more pressure there is, the worse the situation gets, we will start to see only the shortcomings of others and bring them up to avoid our own faults. Sometimes, we come to our senses only when someone is hurt or has already lost something.
“Teamwork with friendship is quality teamwork.”
Even though bad things happened between the 4 characters, their friendship helped them come together as a team to get through the difficult task of Level 3. Friendship helps make the teamwork more complete in their work. Having a common goal and helping to achieve it without considering who gets the credit for which part in the end is the greatest and proudest achievement.
When the movie concludes at the end, we can clearly see the changes that have happened to the characters after going through all the stories. The admin would like to give the example of Win, a child who has a complex from losing his mother and his father who is not what he expected.
“Even if I can’t, I’ll try.”
This is what Win said to his father when they had a fight. He still blamed his father for his mother’s suicide because he didn’t try to help her. Win said that because he really felt that way until the same thing happened to him. The event that no matter how hard we try, it doesn’t always mean that we will succeed. It made Win change his mind about his father. Resistance turned into understanding. At this point, he just started to open his mind to see the other person’s point of view.
Conclusion
DEEP, a secret project, sleeps to death , shows the way of life of everyone nowadays in a straightforward manner. The story shows us the power of money, interspersed with stories of family and friendship, which are just as necessary in our lives as money. Life is reflected through the growth of the characters, and the characters themselves reflect the diversity of people in society that we have to meet every day. If you want to finish your work without sleeping, or think that sleeplessness is normal for people these days, go watch this movie now. You will not make a mistake before going to bed next time.
“And in the end, everyone would rather sleep soundly than sleep like the dead and never wake up again.”
You can watch this story at DEEP, the secret project, sleeping like the dead.
