Countdown

What would you expect if Jesus visited your apartment on New Year’s Eve? A sermon, a cake, or a blessing so that you can start your life over once the new year arrives? Perhaps not. The Jesus of Countdown warps all of the sacred images that are known to us. A character beyond anybody’s expectations, this Jesus – pronounced as He-sus – could be a joker, a psychopath, a Saviour or a reflection of your past. Bizarrely, Jesus this time is a drug dealer with a business card.    On the night of New Year’s Eve, three spoiled Thai flatmates – Bee, her boyfriend Jack, and Pam – call Jesus to deliver a special present to their New York apartment. It is their first and last call, the telephone number retrieved from a jigsaw of torn business cards left by a Thai friend. But the last digit cannot be found, so they have to guess. Gotcha.

At first it seems they have found the Jesus they were looking for. At 9 pm, Jesus does ring the doorbell. A thirty-something man with long hair and a moustache, he appears to be an American – with no accent. He is funny and friendly, so they hang out, chat and enjoy the night. Waiting for the countdown, Jesus pulls out a bible from his jacket.

The friends immediately boo – until the bible is opened.  The room is filled with smoke and laughter, until the doorbell unexpectedly rings again. In an extreme panic, Jesus rushes to the toilet, assuming it is the police. But it is only a pizza delivery boy. Jesus is not happy to be laughed at by everyone. And then the real countdown starts.  A tight, modern expressionism is evoked in Nattawut Poonpiriya’s directorial debut Countdown. Its plot might be reminiscent of many popular Hollywood thrillers but Poonpiriya smartly wraps it up with a sophisticated motif of duality – between Christianity and Buddhism, American and Thai beliefs, tension and drama. Things are constantly turned upside down.

At first, the man of god is shown in close connection with several sinful symbols – drugs, psychosis and cruelty. But his sudden switching of identity – to someone who happens to speak fluent Thai, also with no accent – reveals that Jesus is actually a man of justice. He has come to ask the three sinners to pay the debts of their own pasts. Jesus is indeed a karma caller.  The young director Poonpiriya knows how to find the right rhythm to move the film forward with tension, and plots the storyline unpredictably. Many times he teases the characters and the audience with unusual editing and camera movement. In a scene where Jesus beats and strangles Jack, threatening him in American English, the camera suddenly moves around Jesus – upward, downward, and then spinning around him in a circular direction.

Without warning, Jesus suddenly speaks fluent Thai. Like the three flatmates, we the audience are also confused who this Jesus is.  Conflicting feelings always fight against one another. We feel tense in most scenes, but suddenly we feel sad. We hate Jesus and take the side of the three flatmates, but then our emotions are abruptly transformed when their sins are revealed. Countdown is a film of surprises, which is well served by Poonpiriya’s clever use of film language and the superb acting of the lead performers. Thai-American David Assavanond seems born for the role of Jesus, equally convincing as a cruel psychopath and an upholder of justice. In this film, Jesus and Assavanond are modern Saviours in the new world order.