Movie Title: 13 game sayawng (13: Game of Death)
Director: Chookiat Sakveerakul
Date Released: October 5th, 2006 (Thailand)
Date Seen: October 29th, 2012
Language: Thai
Part 1 – Spoiler Free Quickie Review
I love me a good how-far-would you go kind of movie. This wasn’t it. The movie gave the impression that a guy will have to complete challenges to win money, each a bit more horrible than the last. That sounds cool right? It does. But alas, that is not what this movie is. This movie is a series of horrible actors/actresses, a lot of annoying people screaming and crying, and a number of people who can’t stand up to those that abuse them (This annoyed the crap out of me).
I think the main reason this movie is so disappointing is the whole challenges aspect. I honestly thought that the 5th challenge was the worst out of all of them. This is because as time goes on, rather than giving him the ‘do this, or you’re out of the game’ choice, they just kind of trick him into doing things. So it’s not as cool as watching that mental debate you have with yourself. Like, is it really worth $2000 to make a couple of kids cry? (yes, that’s one of the early challenges, but is in the trailer so not really spoiling anything). I wanted to see the struggle that this man goes through. But he doesn’t really have any of that.
The actresses were the worst part about this movie. There are a couple of characters that I just wanted to slap in the face they were so annoying. There’s an annoying office intern (no one likes those anyway) who is basically brown nosing the whole time and just needs to shut up. I don’t like her. The also just random extras the people got were HORRIBLE. So horrible it was hilarious. They were so bad though, it did keep me entertained longer.
So in short, don’t watch this movie. You’ll just be disappointed. The challenges are stupid, the characters are annoying, and it’s just a bore.
Part 2 – In Depth Spoiler Ridden Review/Synopsis
The movie opens with a scene of a boy, in a boyscout uniform, watching an old woman try to cross the street. Some people push by her and cause her to drop her bags and fall over. The boy tells the person on his cell phone to “hold on”, and helps the old woman up. He keeps walking her across the street, but at some point drops his phone. He helps her across the street, then darts back to grab his phone… and ends up getting hit by a bus, number 203.
The next scene, Phuchit Peungnathong (Krissada Sukosol) is seen reading the boys obituary, at what looks like a school. He is visiting to talk to a music teacher about buying Yamaha instruments for his department… the professor explains that he is already planning on buying some instruments from another Yamaha salesman. Sad day. We see Chit all sad in his car, but talking to his mom about how he needs to work overtime since promotions are coming up and he might get to be a supervisor, etc. Mom also asks about Chits maybe girlfriend, something, Maew. Chit says he will say hi for her, but his face is clearly sad. At home, Chit listens to a CD – probably one by Maew since the mom says something about her being a famous singer now.
The next morning, Chit’s car is being repossessed. On the bus, Chit sees an intern and talks to her about how he liked the CD she made for him. At work, everyone is talking about how awesome Prame (the “other” salesman) is. Chit confronts Prame about going to the school, when Prame knew that the school was one of Chit’s clients. Prame just gives him the stfu look. About that time a woman comes and tells Chit that Sonboom, their boss, wants to see him. Outside the office, a woman is seen running out of Sonboom’s office crying. Uh oh. Chit goes into the office, and long story short, they’re firing employees that don’t generate any money for the company. Sonboom does at least give Chit the chance to resign on his own…. Chit goes back to his desk, sees some bills on it, then just goes and sits in the stairwell all upset. The intern from earlier, Tong (achita Sikamana), brings him some cigarettes. His phone rings about that time, and Chit answers it – it’s his mom asking for another 800 Baht for his sisters school registration. He asks what happened to the money he just sent her, and apparently the sister used it to buy a new phone. Mom promises she’ll pay him back and so he agrees. While sitting in the stairwell, some flys start bugging him – and then Tong’s phone rings again. The number says that Tong has won a chance to win a great prize. He was selected out of a group of people who “really needed help”. Chit keeps demanding to know who it is, thinking it’s a joke, or that they have the wrong person. The phone-voice starts saying every single detail about Chit – even down to how he’s annoyed about the fly buzzing around his face right at that very instant.
The phone voice says to turn around – and there is a newspaper. If Chit can kill the fly with the newspaper, then he will win 10,000 (about $325US) Baht instantly. If he cannot, then the game show will never contact him again – and hangs up. Chit grabs the newspaper, and after only a couple of moments, he kills the fly. Almost instantly his phone buzzes – it’s a text saying that a deposit has just been made and he now has 10,500.13 Baht in his account (so damn, he did have like nothing left in his account). He is shocked. Then is phone rings. The phone man asks how Chit feels – Chit says he feels like he needs to know who the phoneman is. The phone man says, first another game. This one is worth 50,000 Baht ($1628 US). All Chit has to do is easy – now take that dead fly, and eat it. Seriously? That’s all? I would have swallowed it in like a milisecond. No problem whatsoever. But it takes Chit a while – he even goes back to his desk and stares at it for a while. Tong walks over just in time to see him shove it in his mouth – she asks for her cigarettes back and asks what he put in his mouth – he says licorice. She is skeptical. But then walks away as Chit’s phone rings again – first with the account balance text and then the phone man. Now the phone man explains the game – if Chit can complete 13 challenges (of which he has completed 2) then he will get 100 million Baht ($3,256,800 US). Of course he flips out. The phoneman keeps explaining the guidelines. After each challenge, an increasing amount will be automatically deposited into Chit’s account. If Chit fails to complete a challenge – ALL the money will be withdrawn from his account and the game will end. There are three other ways to end the game though – 1. If Chit says to stop the game. 2. If someone finds out Chit is playing the game, or 3. if Chit tries to contact the game “people” or find out who they are, the game will end. The phoneman says everything will be revealed at an appropriate time. Then Chit has to press “1” to accept these rules or “2” to stop the game. He hesitates for a moment but obviously (or else there’d be no movie) he presses 1. He is then transferred on the call – honest to god waiting music comes on, and then a womans voice says welcome to the game. For the next part of the game, he will have to leave this building. If he has any final words to his colleagues, he should say them now and then leave. He looks around, finds Prame in Somboon’s office – punches him, and leaves. A good punch too. Doesn’t say anything but looks extremely satisfied. Back on the phone, we see Chit walking out of the building saying “ok. I’ll see you in 10 minutes.”
The next location is like a school or a daycare or something. The challenge is simple – for 100,000 Baht ($3256 US) – he has to make at least 3 kids cry. He tries just shoving one kid – but he takes it as a game and starts wrestling with him. Even some teachers walking by think it’s cute. Then he accidentally steps on a kids toy – who starts crying. He then takes another kids toy, and like the whole group start to cry. The teachers come out and are like “what’d you do!” Chit runs out…. The women teachers (the WORST actresses EVER. EVER EVER EVER) send a security guard after him. In a police station, we see Prame reporting a crime – he wants to sue Chit for tons of money. Then the two horrible acting teachers come in to also report a crime (apparently making children cry is a crime in their minds). They point to Prame saying that the “man” looks just like Prame, and dresses the same. Then another man comes in, who appears to be a begger, and a bystander said that a man demanded the beggars money, then the beggar resisted, so the man beat him, took the beggars money and ran – and he also was dressed like Prame. Tong has a “hmmm” face on… (she was with Prame to report the crime).
Chit is seen counting the beggar’s money. His phone rings and the voice says that they are inviting Chit to lunch and a shot at the 5th challenge. He goes to a nice restaurant and a man is seen waiting for him. He sits Chit down at a table, and then a woman is seen pushing a cart with a covered plate that says “5” on it. The music makes it sound like the woman is pretty – but oh my god, she was HIDEOUS. Be warned. You see a cute body, but then butter face x100 happens. She puts the covered plate in front of him, then leaves. The phone rings and says for the 5th challenge, and for 500,000 Baht ($16,284 US) that he just has to finish this meal. He has all the time he needs. We see Chit pull it up and draw back repulsed by it – then finally he opens it. It’s poop. Nasty. HE sees a flashsback to when he was a kid, and some bullies calling his mom a whore, and him seeing some poop. Weird. He asks what happens if he refuses – and obviously, then he’ll lose all the money he already has and the game will end. At the restaurant – Tong, Prame, and Sonboom walk into it. Tong is the only one who sees Chit – and sees him scarfing down the plate as fast as he can. He finishes, see Tong, and just runs out. He throws up outside – and then his phone rings again. This time is a little girls voice. It says that he did very well on that last challenge, and asks how he is feeling. Chit says to just tell him about the next challenge. The phone voice says that is good – because Chit’s phone is dying. He’ll need to trade his phone for a riddle. Chit needs to find their assistant and listen to him – he’s at the bus stop. Alone. And then hangs up.
At the bus stop, there is a crazy man. Like SUPER SUPER crazy. But he’s awesome. Basically he thinks he’s a king and the bench at the bus stop his his throne, etc. HE won’t listen to any reason from Chit about the phone – so Chit “offers” the phone to the crazy man, as a gift, from a distant land. The man asks where it came from – Chit says “uhhhh eBay” – and the crazy man says AH! From Lord eBay! This is a tool to talk to God. At 13.13, God will come. At 13.13, God is coming – on chariot number 6. About that time, Tong, Prame, and Sonboom come out of the restaurant – and Tong heads over to the bus stop. She gets there just as Chit boards the bus that has pulled up – at 13.12 pm – and is bus number 6. At 13.13, a phone rings, in the back of the bus – some guys pull it out of the seat, and Chit takes it from him – then these guys start to beat Chit up. The bus driver stops the bus suddenly, and some people run off, now Chit is left with just the guys trying to beat him up and the bus driver. He begs for the phone and the guy says that if Chit boys to his feet, then he’ll give Chit the phone – and when Chit does, he kicks the phone out the bus – so it breaks. Then Chit says “it’s on wuss” – and actually manages to beat up the 4 guys on the bus. Yes, he takes a pretty decent beating as well. It ends up with both Chit and the main douche guy getting thrown out of the bus while it’s moving. Main douche guy attacks Chit with a butchers knife – and Chit manages to best him with…. a pigs leg. Hilarious. He is so angry he almost kills the douche then with the butchers knife, but bystanders beg him to stop. Then as he starts to walk away, a phone rings, from in the now unconcious douche’s pocket. Chit finds the phone – and a card that says “6” on it. The phonevoice says that Chit just did much better than expected – and that he just broke the record for the most viewers. Chit says “people are watching” and the voice is like “well, duh, game show, remember?” The voice then tells him for the next challenge he must first walk for 3 bus stops.
Back at his old office, there is a news report on about how police are looking for Chit. While this is going on, Tong reads the note left in her CD case, from Chit but it’s not translated so idk what it says. She then just decides to google his name. It brings her to a website, which I’m guessing says “13: game of death” or something similar, since it’s the title of the movie and the page says “13 (and stuff)” in scary font and colors. She keeps doing some hacking or something – trying to get on the website. Then she gets a request for an “intruder” on her desktop….. it’s really just a remote access request but I’m guessing it’s poorly translated on foreign computers. So the remote access person gives her the password to the site. We also see a snoopy toy in the background turn its head and start watching Tong. Clearly this has a camera in it. Creepy.
After walking his 3 bus stops, Chit finds a house. It appears no one is there – but suddenly a TV starts playing. It’s a news story about the man who lives in this house, Chew. He built this fabulous house, and it even has an indoor wishing well. He let this house go to shit after his wife died and is left in the house alone, crippled (he’s super fucking old), and being neglected by his family. After the tape ends, Chit’s phone rings. The female phone voice says she is going to give Chit an opportunity to go a good deed for this challenge. Chew, the old man in the house fell down the well…. 10 days ago…. Chit has 10 minutes to get Chew out of the well then call his family to go pick him upl. If he hurries, Chew might still be alive. Shocker, Chew is not. His body is a disgusting bloated mess. Chit tries to carefully climb down into the well, but ends up falling pretty much right on top of the gross body. It actually looks so fake it’s hilarious. But still gross. Chit throws an arm that has apparently fallen off of the body out of the well, then ties the rest of Chew onto his back and starts climbing up. There is one hilarious part of the body falling in the perfect position to creep Chit out. He tells the body to stop creeping him out, that he’s trying to do it a favor. Right as chit gets to the top of the well, Chew starts falling backwards…. there is a struggle and Chit has to use Chew’s arm to grab his phone – he calls the family, the grandson kind of just hangs up the phone, then the annoying family takes for ever to answer the phone – and finally the son of Chew gets it in his head what has happened… and so he rushes to his fathers aide… literally downstairs. So they were living in the house and didn’t even check on him. Damn. The family asks Chit how he got there, he said he just saw the story on TV and wanted to stop by. He goes to leave and takes a cigarette and smokes it outside.
Outside, Chit sees Maew – his like kind of now famous exgirlfriend. He keeps saying how she should give him another chance, that now he can afford to buy her things and give her all that she wants. She says she’s heard it all before – and even if Chit had all the money in the world, he couldn’t make her famous. Then her current boyfriend runs up to her…. It’s clear that he is abusive. The way he is grabbing her arm and talking to her it’s obvious. She is turning away but I guess he’ll make her famous… as Chit walk away his phone rings…. the phone tells him to look around for an object with the number 8 (the challenge number) on it (a chair)…. then a person with the number 8 on them (the abusive boyfriend)… and then knock them out with the object. Chit asks why the phonevoice didn’t just say that in the first place and they respond “well, that’s who the script was written….”. He obviously does this one super quick. Maew kind of screams at him to stop – but he keeps hitting him… because dear god this guy won’t go down. Seriously, he thinks he has the abusive guy knocked out like 3 times but he keeps getting back up. Chit tries to explain to Maew, but like any battered woman, she runs straight to her man….. Chit does though help her carry him to a taxi….. the taxi man doesn’t want to drive him, because “he’ll stain my seats” so Chit just steals the taxi. In the taxi Maew gives him the WTF man speech – and he just says “Did I ever beat you like him!?!?”
Back at the office, it is now closing for the night – but Tong has finally gotten into the website… and can see all that Chit is doing. She writes down the password and leaves. On her way out she hears the police report about a man matching Chit’s description stealing a cab. She goes home, and asks her questionable-gender-sibling (I think it was a man, but dressed like a woman… and if it was a woman, damn girl, you ugly and have a very low voice). The sibling also mentions that Tong’s dog has gotten out, but it’ll come back, like always.
At the hospital, they rush the absuive guy off, and then Chit stands in the waiting room watching a police report on TV… as his phone rings… and police are seen pulling up to the hospital. Chit answers his phone and is given challenge number 9 – he must find their assistant in the hospital, while evading the police. If he is caught by police, then the game is over. But every minute that goes by they will give him a hint to finding their assistant. The first clue word is 8. Like any normal person, Chit goes to floor 8. Like an idiot, he takes the elevator. As the doors open on the8th floor, there happen to be a gaggle of officers standing there. A chase ensues and Chit ends up running down to about the 5th floor. Chit gets away by laying on a stretcher outside of the morgue. One guy starts pushing the cart – and then Chit jumps up and runs off. The man, a bit ridiculously starts yelling about how it’s a zombie. The phone rings and gives another clue – the number 0. We see the police officer in charge getting a phone call from his boss. The boss says that he thinks the police guy is overreacting a bit, and the policemen could be working on other cases. The officer states that he thinks arresting Chit will lead to something much bigger – and yes, he has evidence to back it up. So the boss voice says he’ll give the officer some leeway. We don’t see the boss, just his hand, smoking a cigarette with. Then we see Chit get his final clue word – 5. He finally connects that it’s a room number – 805. Like a dumbass, he takes the elevator back upstairs, but this time no cops. He finds the room, after walking past a nurse, and in the room finds a VERY old woman. Downstairs, the cops are seen talking to the zombie guy, and then the nurse comes downstairs. The cops barge into room 905 but of course he’s already gone. We see him pushing the old woman out of the building. They almost get stopped, but the old woman gives the “my nephew came to pick me up!’ story. And since chit had his glasses off, just like Clark Kent/Superman, the guard couldn’t tell it was Chit. The main police officer guy gets a phone call from his captain – and has to call off the search. Aw sad. He then looks outside just in time to see Chit loading the old woman into a cab.
In the cab, the phone voice tells Chit his next challenge – simply do what the old woman wants. Chit asks if anyone else is going to get hurt. The voice says not to worry, that the old woman is a non-violent type. They stop at (maybe?) her old house. She complains that the clothes are all wet from the rain – the least he can do is help her hang them back up. He starts fixing the broken clotheswire, and only after it’s finished and up does he notice why it was so difficult to fix – the wire is razor sharp, one, and two, it extends all the way across the road…. and oh shit, a car is coming. OH NO ITS A GROUP OF MOTORCYLCES. You know where this goes. They all die. Duh. But it’s actually hilarious and so badly done, CGI wise, that it was great. One guy has half is skull missing and you can see his brain…. it’s beautiful.
So the phone rings, and tells him that he has finished challenge 10 and even won a bonus prize – two tickets to the country of his choice. This time the phone voice is a little girl – but Chit yells at it “are you even human you little shit?!” and then he throws his phone off into the distance. About that time, guess who pulls up in their random gender siblings car? Tong! She gets out and begs to know why the hell Chit is doing all this. She says that she can help him – and he pushes her down. Then the phone starts ringing – and the old woman has brought it to him. The phone voice tells him that they are sorry, but Chit has broken rule number 2 (someone found out he is playing the game)…. but luckily, they had a vote and the viewers love Chit so much they’ve agreed to let him continue. So he has another chance. He must complete a challenge though (number 11) first. He will find a samurai sword amongst the bodies. He can either kill Tong, to stop her from interfering with the game. Or he can kill the dog, as a warning to make her stop. Either one is acceptable. Not choosing one will result in ending the game. The voice also says that “then you’d be a murderer… but if you complete the next three challenges then you’ll be a free and wealthy man.” He kills the dog. He then yells at Tong to get the fuck away from him and that’s what she gets for interfering. She screams that she will stop him no matter what. He gets back in his cab and drives off. The phone rings and the male phonevoice tells him that that was a stupid choice, he should have gotten rid of the problem. Chit says he couldn’t because he’s still human… the phone voice laughs and says “ha! but you still got 40 million baht!”
Tong goes to the police, who don’t believe her story really. They especially question the fact that how the hell did she know to go where the clothesline was. She said the website told her where it was. The police officer tries exactly what Tong did – googling the name, even typing in the address that Tong wrote down, but nothing came up. The police man informs Tong that the only surviving person from the crash just died – and that now Tong is the only witness that places Chit there. Tong asks about the old woman and the police man says there wasn’t an old woman there, when they got there. He asks if there is anything else – and then she notices on his desk, it’s a paper with the number 13 on it, just like all the other game numbers. Uh oh. As she walks outside, there is a commotion. Some villagers are bitching about other villagers that came into their town and slaughtered a cow with a samurai sword. THe same sword that Chit had. She asks where they live – and go there. She pulls up and sees the cab parked outside the cow pen. One cow is all cut up and bloody and gross. Tong follows a trail outside and sees… i’m not sure what.
We then see chit going into a building, with blood everywhere and chewing on what looks like part of the cow. He finds a key in it, or had a key, or something. It’s unclear. But he uses this key into a lock that says “13” in this building. I’m guessing it’s the building that Tong is staring at. Anyway – inside the room, a giant wall starts showing a movie – and it is Tong doing all of his challenges. As he watches the recap of the challenges, Tong has made it to the building and comes across the room. She walks up, right as the tape is about to end, but some man comes up behind her and hits her with cloroform. Then the lights brighten to reveal a platform. On it, is someone in a chair, in a straightjaacket, with a hood on, all bloody. We can see a knife on a table next to them. He unhoods the person – and we don’t see who it is.
We flash to Tong, waking up on a couch, and seeing a boy, who looks young, like 18 or so, in a chair. He apologizes if his men were rough with her. But, he thanks her for finding a flaw in their system – the ability to hack into it. He explains that this is one of his many games, this is an online reality show. She asks what he means – and then he points to his video monitors. We see Chit unvealing the man in the chair… not sure who it is. Tong is clearly upset with the game and screaming that this is wrong and how can they screw with so many peoples lives… and that it’s against the law. The boy just laughs and says “the law?! we own the law.”
We then see Chit pick up the knife and then see flashbacks of who this man is – Chit’s abusive father. We see scenes of basically every challenge that happened today. A scene of the abusive father beating young Chit with a chair (8), him holding Chit’s dead dog (11), him breaking his toys and making Chit cry (3)… no poop eating though, so still unsure why that one was there. Just to be disgusting, I guess. Tong demands that the boy stop this – but he can’t – he’s just one part of the game, and we see like a chat room going on with varoius people. Probably each doing a respective part of the game. Then as Chit starts to bring the knife down, he sees flashbacks of good things his dad did – like stopping some bullies from making Chit eat poop (ok, that explains that one), and buying him toys, and being fun as a family, and putting the dog to sleep because it had rabies….
Chit then makes a stabbing motion, and we see the knife go through something and come out the back of the chair. Woo so he stabbed him probably. Tong says, “ha, you didn’t win then… he did” to the boy. Then we see some emotional flashback with his mom and he asking why his mom stays with abusive dad, and she says because he gave her the best thing ever in her life… her son, Chit. And we see Chit now, in the room say, I’m sorry, I can’t do it. Turning towards the chair we see Chit just dug the knife into the corner of the chair without hitting his dad. Then a screen pops up that says “congratulations the winner is…” and suddenly Chit has a OMG face…. and looks down…. he has a knife through him. His dad has stabbed him through the chest. Behind his dad, it changes from “the winner is…” to the dad’s name (Mr. John Adams), and we see Chit fall to the floor dying while his dad celebrates his victory. So again, just like the other battered woman in the movie, everyone fails at standing up to their abuser. So chit deserved to die for being an idiot, in my opinion.
In the room, the boy explains to Tong how the real disgusting part about this is all the people watching and starts showing her the webcams of all the people watching and says that’s the true disgusting part. He walks off, as Tong screams about how crazy this all is, with his cat (a-la Mr. Evil), and leaves her there. Tong wakes up a while later on a park bench. The main police officer is seen pulling up and walking up to her…. for what? Who knows or cares the movie is over.
Overall: 3/10
Don’t watch it. The challenges were stupid, and it just lagged on and on and on…. The acting was horrible… and no. Save yourself the time. The only reason it got a 3 was because it was shot well, and I did like the premise – I just thought it wasn’t well executed or completely developed… and the end was so weird.