Sleep, one of the most wanted yet, the hardest thing to get in human life. Sleep helps us to boost our energy, and keep fresh for the upcoming events. But have you sold this precious thing for money? Maybe. However it can’t be given for money. However, in the present context, money can be used to acquire even the life of a man. Finally, it can be concluded that money can take us to depths that no one would even dream of.
DEEP, a 2021 Thai- film distributed by Netflix gives the message of the importance of sleep. The movie opens with a medical student standing on a balcony on the top of a building, trying to commit suicide by jumping off the balcony. Several students try to stop him; unfortunately, the young man jumps off as police and other relevant people arrive.
Fast forward to a day in the present, Professor Nichcha teaches her students the vitality of sleep; she emphasises how people go astray without three days of proper sleep. She gives an example of how she hallucinated that the lab rabbit was speaking to her during her restless days.
Jane
Soon, we are shown the main character, Jane a medical student from the same class that Nichcha teaches. Jane is an insomniac due to tension in her life, having experienced her parents’ murder. She and sister June go to live with their Grandma who has a heart disease. Jane’s thinks that by working 24 hours not even one second gets wasted. Therefore, her tight schedule starts with her going to college, returning home, studying till 2 am and then preparing food for the family restaurant.
However, she gets a letter regarding her grandma’s mortgage, which requires much money. Sandwiched between choices, she decides to give up her education. Meeting Professor Nichcha, Jane talks about dropping off. Knowing that Jane is a bright and talented student, Nichcha suggests that she joins an insomniac research by a German Pharmaceutical company to solve her financial issue. Jane learns that the project is named DEEP from the card Nichcha gives her.
Qratonin
Jane immediately visits the company, where she is introduced to the project by video. The project’s aim is to extract Qratonin at three levels. Qratonin is a fictional brain chemical, which keeps humans awake and can only be harvested when the subject is awake, meaning that Jane will have to avoid sleep for several days. This particular substance can be used to treat brain dead patients.
Jane is introduced to Dr. Hans Miller, the head scientist of the assignment. He talks with her how he wants to innovate the Pharmaceutical field with the uses of Qratonin. Miller explains that to juice out the chemical, the subject must be injected with a microchip in the back of the neck. At first she becomes suspicious but agrees after the offer of much money. Happily agreeing, she comes to know the suspense of the project after her microchip is planted, If she sleeps more than one minute the chip will automatically induce a heart attack causing the subject to die. Jane is agitated by this fact, when Dr. Hans Miller places a watch on her wrist. He defines the watch is to monitor the Qratonin amount harvested and also as a beep metre to wake up if the subject falls asleep, he also mentions to visit the company when the watch reaches 100% . She signs a NDA with the company.
Jane goes home, does her daily night routine, but experiences a slowing down of time. Bored and sleepy she goes to check her grandma. While she is checking on her grandma, they hear a car stopping and sees her sister June getting a lift from a stranger. Jane gets angry and confronts her sister. This results in Jane breaking June’s mobile phone. Frustrated June leaves her sister. Another day begins. We find Jane sitting alone in the school’s cafeteria when one of her colleague’s, Win approaches her. As soon as she sees him she hides her DEEP watch. Laughing, Win tells Jane how other students are also a part of the project. Win is a partygoer and therefore, has enrolled in DEEP. They are joined by two other students Cin and Peach. Cin is a Instagram beauty blogger, whereas Peach is an online gamer, who has a crush on Cin. They soon get along with each other. As their watches become 100% full of Qratonin, they decide to go and remove the chips together. After they remove the chips, Dr.Miller gives their money. Jane pays off part of the debt and buys June a new phone, While Cin goes to have a beauty remake, Win buys a new aquarium and a watch. Lastly Peach upgrades his Game Room.
Non-Non
With the ending of DEEP’s First Level they meet with each other at a Blowing Alley, where Cin confides in the other three that she has a stalker since the start of DEEP .She suspects it to be someone from the faculty . At the Blowing Alley they debate whether to continue with Level Two, Cin, Peach, Win and Jane all agree because they need money and create a group in social media named Non-Non. Non in French means ‘No’ while NON in Thai means ‘Sleep’. The four friends depart with Jane leaving early because of her grandmother.
As they enter their homes, we can see some traumatic scenes within. Win is angered by his father throwing his dead mother’s stuff, whereas Jane is interrogated by her sister regarding the money she used to buy the phone for her. At the same time we can see that Cin is pushed by her parents to do Medicine although she likes Communication. Cin is really stressed out by this fact which is why she decided to go for DEEP.
The next day the four go to the faculty. Once again, Dr. Miller explains the procedure for Level 2 that requires more sleepless nights. At first, the students are reluctant but proceed when offered much money. They get the chip planted and continue their daily work.
Disturbances
However, soon they start experiencing disturbances. It starts with Peach who falls asleep for few seconds when the watch starts beeping, Win gets hallucinations of corridor halls, during a basketball match he sees his dead mother killing herself with a gun, there too he hallucinates that a team member saying “No wonder his mother killed herself” to which Win responds by punching him only to be stopped by others. Similarly, Jane and Cin experience auditory hallucinations. Sleepy, the four students talk together at lunch. At lunch, Jane notices that Win is 10 percent higher in the level of Qratonin extracted. She draws the conclusion that it is because he exercises.
They decide to hold a party at Peach’s house. Soon, Win comes up with the idea of making drinks with stimulant pills, Jane opposes the idea at first as the pills may contain substances that causes strokes, but agrees when Win mentions that suffering a stroke rather than sleeping and dying is better.
After having the drinks they start dancing, under the influence of the drugs Jane kisses Win. Eventually, Cin visits Peach’s room to find out that he was her stalker. Shocked she passes out, with the help of Jane she is brought back alive at the last minute. With a near death experience the four students return their watches including the chips full of Qratonin. They decide not to continue with DEEP .With time they regain their lost sleep. At school Cin is confronted by Peach, who apologises for stalking her. Cin threatens to call Security.
Win approaches Jane, asking her to go for a Ed Sheeran. Jane coldly refuses saying that she isn’t interested. Jane sees a death of a student wearing the DEEP watch, which indeed alerts her about the dangerous side of the project. That night she checks on her grandmother. Jane finds her grandmother unconscious on the floor, using her medical knowledge she deduces that grandma has suffered a stroke.
Jane rushes her quickly to the nearest hospital. Jane is pressurised due to the amount of money her grandma needs, when June comes into the scene. Jane explains the problem to her sister, she places a brown bag on June’s hand. The brown bag has a DEEP logo on it. Jane shouts at her sister for enrolling in the program. She storms out of the hospital. Later at night, when she returns home, Jane finds the house empty. So, she decides to visit the company. Surprised, she finds Dr. Hans inserting a chip into June’s nape.
Blackmail
She confronts the Doctor regarding the dark side of the project and threatens to call the police if he doesn’t remove June’s chip. Dr. Miller blackmails her saying she has signed a NDA. He says to bring back her four friends into the experiment for level three in order to extract June’s Chip.
The next day Non-Non gather alongside June. Jane explains what the doctor wanted to remove June’s Chip. Cin refuses immediately, replying that four lives for one life is a bad bet. Peach refuses as well and both leave. Willingly Win stays behind with the sisters, telling them that he won’t leave them alone.
As hours go by, Cin goes back to her memory lane seeing how happy she was with the others. In the same manner, Peach also feels remorse about how henhe acted.
The next day, Win, June and Jane arrive at the company only to be greeted by Cin plus Peach who apologise about their behaviour the day before . The group participates in the third level. Professor Nichcha gives them her father’s lab to help them during the experiment. Nichcha injects them with a drug that keeps them awake.
Hallucination
Things move on slowly within the first few days, but quickly deteriorates when Cin experiences a hallucination of 100 pimples on her face and creates chaos. Which ends up with Win and Peach getting into a terrible physical fight. Frightened, Jane rushes to the principal’s office and finds CCTV camera’s recording all their actions. With undefined consciousness, she goes through several documents. In one of the documents she finds a recruiting document of an actor exactly like Dr. Hans Miller. Gradually the pieces fall into one place, All along Professor Nichcha was the mastermind of the game. Jane rushes back to inform the others, but is attacked by the Professor. When Jane returns, they have no choice because the lab is out of signals and Nichcha locks them in.
Later, we can see that Win falls down unconscious. The rest of the gang tries to revive him, with his watch beeping alerting them about Win’s life. They try their very best, only in vain. As Win dies, Nichcha receives a notification. She heads to the lab and brings out Win, but Win gets up and hits her on the head. Win has previously been injected with CCL, a substance that can cause immediate heart stroke for a few seconds. Hence, the students were able to trick Nichcha. After an awkward meeting it is revealed that the man falling in the opening of the film is Nichcha’s boyfriend who experimented with sleep deprivation, whose brain has been dead, but Nichcha used the harvesting of Qratonin to bring him back. She asks and apologises to them, telling them she never meant to harm the children.
Villain
But a villain is always a villain. Nichcha stabs Jane, with a chemical and she faints. Cin and Peach struggle to pull the Professor onto the ground, while Win and June give CPR to Jane. Eventually they are able to capture Nichcha and place her in custody and get Jane back. Maybe, Non-Non never got the money for Level 3, but they learned a better and suitable lesson for a life time that “it’s better to sleep like a rock, rather than wake up and never see the sun again.”
The film is officially directed by a set of Thai University students, who try to showcase the importance of sleep. It also shows the way greediness can travel beyond our lives. It maybe fictional but, never loses the opportunity to showcase the message Money is Evil.