Cycles of survival

Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit's latest film Human Resource captures the stagnation of the working class

- TATAT BUNNAG

There's no complete answer to the questions you might have after watching this film. Instead, it opens up space for everyone to bring their own answers and share them, to debate together," said Nawapol "Ter" Thamrongrattanarit when speaking about Human Resource, his first feature-length film in nearly four years.

His return to filmmaking feels less like a comeback and more like a quiet continuation of Nawapol's longstanding fascination with the emotional and psychological toll of modern working life. Human Resource operates as a series of metaphors for the sad, monotonous and repetitive loops that define the everyday existence of ordinary office workers — people who move through their days fulfilling responsibilities, suppressing personal desires and daydreaming about financial security that may never materialise within their lifetime.

Fren (Prapamonton Eiamchan) works in HR at a well-known advertising agency and faces the exhausting demands typical of office life: chaotic work hours, employees who disappear without warning and the constant pressure of recruiting replacements. Outside of work, her doctor advises her to reduce stress because she is pregnant — news she keeps largely to herself.

Fren's professional and personal lives slowly consume her, especially her relationship with her husband Taym (Paopetch Charoensook), who dreams of building an ideal, upwardly mobile family. Yet, Fren seems to carry the emotional burden of everything around her, caught between social expectations and a system that increasingly diminishes human value. Carrying a new life while quietly doubting the future becomes a central, unspoken conflict within her.