Ziam is a martial arts action zombie horror film, directed by Kulp Kaljareuk, and the main cast includes Prin Suparat, Nuttanicha Dungwattanawanich, Wanvayla Boonnithipaisit, Johnny Anfone, Pimmada Boriruksuppakorn, Jason Young.
A zombie film with some martial arts? How will this not be fun, right?
My Thoughts on Ziam
Ziam kicks off where everything has gone to hell thanks to climate change and human stupidity, and most countries are starving. Thailand’s the exception, because a rich guy named Mr. Vasu (Johnny Anfone) has saved the country's food supply using lab-made nutrients, but only the rich get to eat. Everyone else is left to riot, starve, or scavenge through the ruins of what used to be civilization.
This of course creates huge gap between the rich and poor, and streets become lawless as a result. and it's basically all a bit grim.
Then we meet Singh (Prin Suparat), an ex-Muay Thai fighter now working as a truck driver. He’s out there dodging raiders and danger just to make deliveries. His girlfriend, Rin (Nuttanicha Dungwattanawanich), is a doctor who’s exhausted and wants to leave the city.
Then a government guy named Purish (Keerati Sivakua) is brought into the hospital after getting sick from eating fish. He dies, and then comes back.
And now he wants to eat people.
From there, it turns into a zombie movie. And I mean that in the most direct way. All the stuff about climate collapse, class division, and fake food kind of fades into the background. The movie stops asking questions and shifts into survival horror mode.
To be fair, the zombie twist is fun, and you can piece together where this is all going before the characters do. But it doesn’t go deeper than that. The story isn’t really interested in exploring why things happened or what it means. It's more like, "Okay, zombies. Let’s go."
And I'm all for that.
Anyway, when Singh hears something’s gone wrong at the hospital, he heads out to find Rin. Along the way, he ends up looking after a kid named Buddy, the son of a nurse. You’ve seen this setup before, tough guy stuck with a kid in a crisis, but it kind of works. Buddy can be a little annoying, but he adds something to the story and doesn’t feel completely useless.
The zombies themselves don’t look like your typical slow, grey walkers, either. These ones are more intense, with freaky mouths and sharp teeth that seem inspired by the fish that started the outbreak. There’s even a bit of humor with some of them too which made me laugh a couple of times, more so because I wasn't expecting it at all.
Singh fights them off with martial arts, and the action scenes are quick and sometimes a bit choppy, but there are some cool moments thrown in.
Singh himself isn’t the most layered character. He’s brave, strong, good at punching things, but there’s not much else going on with him. Rin is more interesting. She’s the one carrying the emotional side of the story, and her choices actually matter, and the movie could’ve used more of that.
By the time it ends, it doesn’t quite stick the landing. There’s a sense it’s setting up for a sequel, and I am sure if it does well on Netflix we will get another one.
Ziam is a film that starts with big ideas, drops most of them halfway through, but still manages to be a pretty solid time if you’re into dumb chaos.
It's nothing groundbreaking, but it has some action, some wild-looking zombies, and a few solid punches to the face. It's all fairly simple and straight forward, but it's zombies and martial arts, and sometimes that's all you need.