‘6ixtynin9’, starring Davika Hoorne, is the new Thai-language Netflix series. This darkly comedic crime thriller follows a similar premise as the Lalita Panyopas-led 1999 film. The writer-director Pen-ek Ratanaruang could only explore the lead character considering the film’s expected length. In this new series, we see other characters’ arcs where actions, consequences, and fate are intertwined to create a confounding, albeit messy, drama. Besides Hoorne in the lead role, the series also stars Amorneak Micheli, Jade Apivich Rinthapoln, Mine Thanaporn Rattanasasiwimon, Man Trisanu Soranun, and Dave Tha Thep Chaichanbutr in crucial roles.
*Spoilers ahead*
6ixtynin9: The Series (Season 1) ‘Netflix’ Recap:
What is Netflix’s ‘6ixtynin9: The Series’ about?
‘6ixtynin9: The Series’ on Netflix is about ‘Toom’ Monruedee Sanphan (Mai Davika Hoorne), who suddenly loses her job due to an economic crisis. With little to no savings in her hand and a volatile job market, she wonders how she is going to survive. On the same day, she receives a box outside her apartment door that completely changes her life – for better or for worse. The series follows her journey and how she deals with these changes.
Episode 1
Toom works in an insurance company and is fairly good at her job. One day, her boss, Tong (Jade Apivich Rinthapoln), invites all the employees into a room for a Zoom interaction. Due to an economic crisis, the company needs to downsize. Tong is assigned to fire the employees through a lucky draw.
Toom happens to be one of the employees who get laid off. It doesn’t even matter if she was recently an ‘Employee of the Month.’ She returns with a box to her room number 6. Since the elevator is out of service, a man helps her carry her box. He stops by for a glass of milk and talks about a friend who recently lost his job. That’s why he believes Toom is lucky to have one. It hurts Toom that she cannot even share the truth.
Toom goes to the supermarket to buy groceries. But owing to her unemployment, she resists buying as much as she was used to. She returns home and even considers killing herself in that state of misery. But she kills that thought instead. The next morning, she finds a box outside her door. Before going back inside her room, she adjusts the room number. Maybe because of a loose screw, the sign reverted and showed ‘9’ instead of ‘6’. She opens the box to find a tremendous amount of cash. So, she walks outside to see if someone’s there. No one is. So, she decides to keep it back outside.
Rapper Tud / Teddy (Foei Patara Eksangkul), who lives in one of the neighboring rooms, bumps into the same box. So, Toom awkwardly takes it back inside. She calls her friend Fon (Alice Pakonsorapat Aujanasarun) to ask what she will do if she gets that much money. But she only talks about it like a riddle. Meanwhile, the men who made a wrong delivery – Noi & Bum, knock on Toom’s door. These gangsters expect her to return the box. But she lies that she doesn’t have it. So, they break in and try to find it through her stuff. That’s when her survival instinct kicks in, and she kills one of them. The other gangster almost chokes her to death. But she fights back and kills him as well. As a result, she has two dead bodies in her room.
Episode 2
A small-time drug dealer, Pued (Tor Torphaong Kul-on), who works for Sonny (Dave Tha Thep Chaichanbutr), gets caught by the police. The officers expect him to cooperate with them to catch Sonny. Tud is one of Sonny’s clients, who calls for him for an order and throws tantrums. Meanwhile, Kanchit (Amorneak Micheli) runs a business selling fake passports for those in need and those who can pay a huge sum for them. Basically, he benefits from people’s neediness in emergencies. An army official comes to meet Kanchit at his place. He inquires why Kanchit’s employees are participating in anti-establishment protests. This man expects Kanchit to take a step against them to appease their bosses.
Kanchit sent Noi & Bum to deliver the box to room number 9. Since it did not show up where it was expected, Tong threatened Kanchit. Now, Tong expects the money at the earliest. So, Kanchit speaks with his three men about where the box might be. He even asks whether they would run away with that much dough in their hands.
Meanwhile, Toom’s friend says she will take the money if she really finds it. Despite whatever Fon says, Toom goes to the police station to file a murder report. But suddenly, she decides to walk back home and clean the signs of any possibility of murder. She decides to send some money back home to her mother and to call it compensation for her work. Then, she decides to go to Helsinki and looks for a way to quickly get a passport.
Sonny’s men catch Pued and bring him to their boss. At the time, Pued was wearing a wire. Sonny kills Pued to make an example out of him not to betray. Two of Kanchit’s men come into Toom’s building to find their co-workers. They enter room number 9 but do not find Noi & Bum inside. Sompan, who works for Tong, notices them and calls his boss. By that time, Samrang (one of Kanchit’s men) happens to notice the reversed sign for room no 6. So, they walk in to find traces of their colleagues. They find both Noi and Bum dead and inform Kanchit about it. While they sneak into Toom’s room, she meets Kanchit to get a fake passport.
Episode 3
The investors for Thanachat Insurance Company (where Toom worked) gather to discuss whether they should shut down the company. One of the members abstains from voting, and so they decide to continue running their business. But that means there won’t be enough funds to pay the promised remunerations to the laid-off employees. The company head orders Tong to do his dirty work – to give only a few employees a part of their promised pay.
Meanwhile, Tom learns how expensive it is to get a fake visa. She purchases some boxes that can fit in a single person. Once Samrang and the deaf guy leave Toom’s room, Sompan walks in to look for cash. Right when he finds it, Toom also walks in. So, he hides in her wardrobe. She starts packing Noi & Bum inside the boxes. Suddenly, she senses someone’s inside her wardrobe. Before she could check, John (Man Trisanu Soranum) walks into her apartment. He wants to use her balcony to get into the next apartment to see if they are using drugs. Instead, he ends up finding a dead body in her room. He also senses someone’s presence inside the wardrobe. By the time he can open it, Sompan shoots him dead and also gets killed himself.
Later, Jim (Mine Thanaporn Rattanasasiwimon), who lives in the apartment right below Toom’s, knocks on her door. She asks for a portion of fish sauce. Toom does not let her in and promises to bring it to her place. Samrang and the deaf guy return to Kanchit with Toom’s ID card. So, Kanchit suspects Toom is spying on him. Meanwhile, Toom brings the sauce to Jim’s room, who is having a meal with two of her friends. That’s where she learns that the police officer who walked into her room is Jim’s partner. So, she suddenly walks out. She drives to the market to buy more boxes. Tong calls her and invites her to a café. He hands 50k Baht to her, but she refuses the envelope. He asks if she has won a lottery or something. She cryptically answers Yes.
Episode 4
Sompan’s associate – Subin, calls Sompan but cannot reach him for obvious reasons. So, he walks into apartment no 9 but finds no one. Then he notices the reversed sign for six and walks inside. He notices John and shoots his dead body a couple of times. Then, he informs Tong about it. Before leaving, he also shoots Sompan’s dead body twice. Toom arrives with new boxes, which raises the society officer’s suspicion. Jim offers to take the boxes to her room. Then, she shares a story about a killer who ran after murdering a few people. Jim assumes Toom’s work-from-home job is prostitution, and Toom does not object to that assumption.
Jim’s friends snoop into Toom’s apartment to see her dragging John’s body out. It makes them conclude that John hired Toom for sex. So, they tell Jim creative ways to get revenge on John for cheating on her. Meanwhile, in the afterlife, John refuses to accept death and considers the coming day special. Since the counterperson refuses his request to return to life, he cuffs her to make his way back to life. Later, Sompan rescues her and offers to grant a wish of his. He wants to get to live until the Thai football team qualifies for the World Cup. While Toom prepares to leave for Helsinki, John returns to life and gets out of the box.
Episode 5
John walks out of Toom’s room and notices Tud speaking on the payphone. He eavesdrops on Tud, asking for drugs to be delivered to his room no 7. Meanwhile, Toom walks into Fon’s house to find her lying on the floor. Fon died by suicide after Orn left her. In the afterlife, Fon tries to make the counterperson believe she has died. But because of Toom, Fon gets to live her life again. After Fon’s recovery, Toom drops her at her house. But Fon insists on going to Toom’s place since she does not want to be left alone. Toom does not like that since she already has plans to drop the dead bodies. But eventually, she lets Fon tag along.
With Fon’s help, Toom drags all the boxes out and brings them to a nearby lake. Then, she starts sinking them into the water. They won’t have books as she claimed, right? Fon wonders. So, she insists on knowing the truth. Toom can think of no other option but to open one of the boxes. Then, she gets Fon back in the van and drives away. Right after, Sompan wakes up from the lake and walks back. He cleans himself and calls Subin, who considers it a sick joke. Didn’t he ensure that Sompan is dead? So, Sompan cannot really speak his truth. While Kanchit plans to poison rapper Tud, Tong drives to Toom’s building with Subin and Sompan.
After the lake, Toom decides to drive back to her room. Her flight to Helsinki is at midnight. To get the passport before that, she makes a stop at Kanchit’s place. But Kanchit’s pawn threatens to shoot her since his boss wants to see her. Right when he holds Toom at gunpoint, Fon walks in and gets shot instead. Then, he drags Toom outside and makes her drive him to where the cash is. He keeps a gun pointed at her head. But, out of nowhere, a song on the radio makes him emotional. It reminds him of the last days of his mother’s life that he spent with her. In his vulnerable moment, Toom decides to snatch the gun from him. Quickly after, a shot gets fired in the car.
Episode 6
Sonny’s men go to a pit to bury Pued’s dead body. The police hear their conversation and decide to head to Toom’s building with their teams. Jim walks into her room to find John sitting there. She seduces him and invites him to bed. Meanwhile, Tong arrives at the building with Subin and Sompan. Then, Sonny arrives with his men, and Kanchit arrives with his. Sonny and Kanchit share the same elevator but do not know they are connected in some way. The police teams arrive and plan to enter the druggist’s room through the next room. The building manager has keys to all the rooms in case of emergencies.
Kanchit arrives in room no 9 to meet Tong. He brings photos of Tong’s meeting with Toom and accuses him of setting him up. Tong clarifies that Toom is nothing but a past employee from his insurance company whom he had to fire. But Kanchit does not believe that. While Kanchit holds Tong at gunpoint, Sonny poisons Tud with rat poison in drugs. Kanchit brings Tong to Toom’s room to check for cash. Soon after, Samrang and the deaf guy hold Tong at gunpoint. Subin and Sompan do the same to Kanchit. Soon after, they hear a knock on the door. The lieutenant comes inside and considers Kanchit as the resident. He asks for permission to go to the next room.
6ixtynin9: The Series (Season 1) ‘Netflix’ Ending Explained:
Does Toom manage to go to Helsinki with the money?
The police officers use Tong’s room to enter the next one. One of their teams arrives in Tud’s room from the front door to find Sonny and his men. Another team arrives from the window and holds each other at gunpoint. By this time, Toom drives the van after killing Kanchit’s man. She goes back to Kanchit’s house for her friend. Then, she brings Fon’s body to her car and drives to her place. She drags Fon to her room and tries to make it look like a suicide. Then, she calls the police to save her life.
The Mexican standoff in both Toom’s and Tud’s rooms ends in the deaths of most of them. Toom returns to her room just then to see this bloodbath. She takes her bag of money and decides to leave with some of her belongings. Meanwhile, Jim cuts John’s penis and grinds it as her friends suggested she should do. Amidst all this gore, Sompan rises from the dead because the Thai football team did not make it for FIFA just then!
The police arrive at the scene of the crime. They realize that a shootout happened in the room of Tong’s past employee. Toom hears this on the radio. She reaches the airport to see a bunch of police officers. So, she suddenly cancels her plan to take the flight. She drives to a motel for a good night’s sleep. But the thoughts of her loss of innocence cannot let her fall asleep. She leaves the motel room with her bag and throws it in a lake. Then, she burns the passport she received from Kanchit’s place. In the morning, a local passerby gets hold of this money. Meanwhile, on the news, we learn how the voices of protestors are constantly being silenced by the authorities.
6ixtynin9: The Series (Season 1) ‘Netflix’ Review:
‘6ixtynin9’ creates an invigorating blend of social commentary with a suspense thriller. While the characters fight the high stakes in their respective journeys, we hear a background of people protesting against injustices. Whether that real-life protest in this fictional world or these gangsters fighting against one another, it all boils down to the aspect of wealth disparity and growing uncertainty in all their lives. Remember, it all started with an employee suddenly losing her job. She was considered easily disposable and was reduced to being a number on a card being discarded from her job.
It also hints at the growing hopelessness in today’s younger generation. Toom was a star employee and was still fired. So, are talent and hard work immaterial in the modern world to achieve success? We get a window into this inquiry through Toom’s chaotic journey. The direction finds a fine balance between the show’s dark comedy moments with the gore and the thriller. One moment, we see something obscene, and the next thing we see is the funniest sadistic joke. But these tonal shifts do not feel off or jarring any of those times. Overall, 6ixtynin9: The Series becomes a highly intriguing addition to the Thai-language catalog on Netflix.
