Ziam is a raw, adrenaline-pumping Thai Action Horror film which plunges an audience into a depressing, dystopian, post-climate-change, resource-poor Thailand. The location used in the film forms the fascinating background of the advancing doom in the society, and it provides an added pressure on the action to rise to another level of a nerve-twisting race to survival of Singh an ex-Muay Thai champion who was reduced to a role of truck driver as he tries to face not only the zombie apocalypse but also the resulting man mayhem. The sentimental heart of the story is how Singh loved Rin, his girlfriend who is a doctor, with such a strong affection and how the two had to desperately fight through the hooch to get her out. The raw use of the resilience in the expression of apocalyptic despair sticks well, such that a strong expression of hope in the desolation continues to remain.
The movie does well when it comes to the action scenes where the viewer gets to see the martial arts talents of Singh as it offers both the traditional Muay Thai MMA with much more vile and grotesque fight scenes. These are claustrophobic and visceral moments and we see that the person needed that desperation and resourcefulness to survive without firearms, only with bare knuckle fighting scores of the living dead and other humans that are out to kill. It is a chaotic state the direction successfully reproduces through close and motion shots and a beating score that leaves the adrenaline level high. The gloomy but viscerally powerful design of production also helps to demonstrate a Thailand on the edge, to give a sense of added strain and verisimilitude to the apocalyptic setting.
And what touched me the most was the themes of sacrifice and love despite the turn of destruction offered by the film. The fact that Singh was willing to put all his life on the line in a last, dramatic confrontation so that Rin and Buddy could make it out also touched me because it showed that there could always be some sort of human connection no matter how bleak the situation remained. Ziam is an action movie with a human touch, ultimately having an imparting and uplifting effect, one of hope and survival, despite the world being on the verge of extinction. It is an intense, ferocious slice of reminder that bravery and love can produce some of the brightest light in even the darkest moments.
