‘Operation Undead’ Explodes With War, Gore, and Human Horror

War is hell. That’s no revelation, but it also shouldn’t surprise anyone that the sentiment isn’t specific to just your own country’s wars. Anytime people, predominantly young men from the lower/middle classes, are sent out to fight and die on battlefields anywhere in the world, the result is an actual hellscape for those on the frontline (and for loved ones back home). Operation Undead explores the anguish and terror from a perspective rarely seen on Western shores, that of Thai soldiers struggling to defend their homeland from invading Japanese forces in the earliest days of World War II. It’s an affecting and powerful look at the human toll of war, whether physical, emotional, or psychological, and it’s something you won’t soon forget. Oh, and it’s also overflowing with hungry, hungry zombies.

Mek (Chanon Santinatornkul) is a freshly minted sergeant in the Thai army, loyal to his country and excited at the news that his girlfriend is pregnant with his child. He proposes, but the happiness is overshadowed by an impending invasion from Japanese forces. His younger brother, Mok (Awat Ratanapintha), lacks such attachments and instead enjoys his freedom with friends, at least until he too finds himself caught up in the carnage of World War II. The enemy quickly gains the upper hand, but the two sides are forced into an uneasy truce when a biological weapon — a Japanese soldier infected and turned, for all intents and purposes, into a zombie — spreads to some of the Thai fighters, including Mok’s own unit.

As with vampire flicks and found footage-style horrors, it can be something of an uphill battle making a zombie film that stands apart from the shambling crowd. That doesn’t stop filmmakers from trying, though, resulting in a glut of gut-munching movies that more often than not get lost in the bloody shuffle. Operation Undead succeeds by delivering a terrific wartime drama and then doubling down with some thrilling, gory, and emotionally resonant zombie action.

Writer/director Kongkiat Khomsiri finds a touchstone of sorts in Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan, from a hectic beach assault to a family at risk of losing all of its young men to the finality of war, and he has enough of a budget to bring both action and quieter moments to vivid life before the undead arrive to shake things up. The gun battles are intense, and the cruelties doled out by the Japanese forces reveal pains still felt to this day, even as Operation Undead finds empathy for the Japanese soldier who became his country’s test subject. The zombies arrive in a familiar enough fashion, but Khomsiri quickly shifts gears on that front with a very atypical approach to the undead hordes.

While they can be easily caught up in pure homicidal rage leading to all manner of flesh-ripping and teeth-chomping, the infected retain some degree of consciousness. They remember their families and mourn their lost innocence, and Mok even feels guilt and disgust when he realizes he’s savaged and partially eaten a young child. One moment, something that could easily have slipped into silliness, sees Mok and his undead unit sing a song that reflects on all they’ve lost. These kids had dreams, but the war and the callousness of those in power have taken them away. It’s surprisingly effective given the presence of zombies, and it speaks to the sincerity of the filmmaking as well as the strength of the performances.

Like Bob Clark’s Deathdream (1974) before it, Khomsiri’s Operation Undead uses genre ideas and zombie tropes to explore themes about the vivid, heartbreaking trauma and tragedy of real-world war. The result is horror that hits hard with the realization that humans are ultimately and eternally the real monsters, but also in the simple truth that we can’t always protect the ones we love from powers bigger than us in situations where there are no real winners. Of course, on the off chance that none of those emotional, human moments matter to you, you’ll still get zombie beats bringing the gory goods — meaning, if nothing else, there are no losers on this side of the screen.

The 2024 edition of the New York Asian Festival runs July 12th to July 28th. Follow along with our coverage here.