“The Cave" is a Thai action thriller film released in 2020, directed by Tom Waller and starring actors Jim Vonni, Arpa Pawillai, Eoin O'Brien, and Ron Smooenburg. The story is based on the 2018 Thai teenage soccer team "Wild Boars" trapped in the Sleeping Beauty Cave The plot tells the story of 12 players and coaches who went to the Sleeping Beauty Cave in northern Thailand to explore after completing training but were unfortunately stranded in the cave due to heavy rain.3G3%7BM3D7BBW(4Y%7BH(MOJ3.png?1653544724842)
The warmth and hope that exists in the world
I have always felt that there is a special magic in documentary films or true story adaptations, where the creators document an event in detail through images, or from a certain perspective to the events that have happened in history, then the data we get from reading paper books or browsing the Internet, but also to give the audience a deeper understanding of the overall context and the causes and consequences and a sense of reality. "The Cave", which is a realistic reproduction of the rescue operation of the Thai soccer team trapped in Sleeping Beauty Cave, is such a work for me.
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The presentation of “the cave ”plot
I believe that everyone should still remember the 2018 "teenage soccer team trapped in the Sleeping Beauty Cave" which attracted global attention. At that time, due to the rainy season, 13 players and coaches of the Wild Boars team were trapped in the Sleeping Beauty Cave in northern Thailand for more than two weeks after entering the cave on 6/23 because of the heavy rain that poured into the cave. Although the process resulted in the accidental death of former Thai Navy SEAL Petty Officer Shaman Kunan due to lack of oxygen (Sergeant Pakbala also died in 2019 due to a blood infection caused during the rescue), in the end, all the trapped team members and coaches were rescued safely one after another on 7/11, which still achieved a miraculous feat in the history of cave rescue.
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However, it is hard to imagine that less than two years after the whole incident, "The Cave" can bring this great rescue operation to the big screen, so that fans around the world, who could only learn about it from news reports at that time, can understand the scene in detail through the images presented in the movie, and understand that this simple rescue mission, which seems to have known the location of the trapped people, can be completed by diving in and bringing them out. They will be able to understand the difficulties and hardships that the rescue mission had to face and solve, and admire the whole operation and the greatness of all the people involved at the time, whether they were operating at the scene or supporting and encouraging people behind the scenes.
The Cave's highlights
For me, "The Cave" is a rather subtle and peculiar work of film and television, although the film is shot from the perspective of a documentary, just quietly recording the whole process of events, but perhaps because the rescue operation itself is so thrilling, even though "The Cave" is so straightforwardly focused on restoring the real situation, and we all know the outcome of the event in advance, but The whole movie presents the difficulties encountered by the rescue team and the anxiety they have to race against time, which still makes the audience worry about whether the children inside can be successfully rescued.
Therefore, although it is undeniable that the plot of "The Cave" is a little lacking in ups and downs and unexpectedness, behind the atmosphere of expecting the rescue operation to be successful soon, the most fascinating and moving part of the whole story is that after the unfortunate incident of a dozen children being trapped in Sleeping Beauty Cave, the team had to face a lot of difficulties because of the lack of light, full of murky water and After the unfortunate incident of the dozen children trapped in Sleeping Beauty Cave, the most immediate reaction and subsequent kindness of the people around the rescue operation became difficult because the team had to dive in the narrow cave, which was poorly lit, full of murky water and rugged.
The Cave's recreation of real events
"The Cave" is a reconstruction of the events, focusing on the people who participated in the rescue operation and gave their support, whether it was the patrol members who found the Wild Boars' sneakers and bicycles outside the cave on the night they were trapped, the manufacturer who brought a high-powered turbine pump from a long way away when only a normal pumping motor was used to lower the water level, or Jim Warny, Tan Xiao Long, and many others who came from all over the world to help with the rescue operation. With the cooperation of these people and the Thai military, it was possible to accomplish the nearly impossible task of getting the children out of the cave one by one by diving, from the initial uncertainty of the children's lives to the certainty of their safety.
However, in addition to the above-mentioned people who provided substantial help in the rescue operation, "The Cave" also deepens the tension of the whole story by devoting some space to people who are not directly related to the rescue, such as the farmer who watched his crops being submerged by the water pumped out, but did not ask for any compensation and only hoped that his children would be rescued soon, and the monk Khruba, who was the maid of Princess Nannon of Sleeping Beauty Cave in his previous life. Bunchumm, came to the scene to hold a blessing ceremony for the stranded children to resolve the princess' grudge, and because all of them worked together in their way for the common goal, the story of "The Cave" is all the more moving.
The core of “the cave” movie
As stated in the film, "The Cave" is a story of heroism and sacrifice. Even though it encountered many difficulties and procedural obstacles due to the complexities of the scene, the sense of accomplishment and relief that people felt at the time when everyone relayed the coach lying on the stretcher from the cave was conveyed to the audience through the film. This is also the case, watching the real people come out at the end to share their thoughts on the rescue process, as well as running the end credits, many of the important characters are bracketed after the "Himself", which not only gives the film in the presentation of the real story of the persuasive power but also shows the "cave" the entire work for The Cave" is a representative of the "Sleeping Beauty Cave rescue operation".
Conclusion
"The Cave" does not only let the audience understand the whole rescue mission process, but also shows us the warmth and hope that exists in this world through the efforts of these people who originally had nothing to do with the soccer team, which I think is the most important core of the whole movie from beginning to end. Diver Vernon Unsworth (Vernon Unsworth) said, "None of us are heroes, we just do what others ask us to do and do the best we can." Perhaps behind this miraculous and great action, in the end, what is told still lies in human kindness, a seemingly simple, but the precious thing that deserves to be mentioned again and again.
