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Not content with consistently making TV and digital audiences bawl their eyes out for the past few years, Thai Life Insurance has today released Opportunity, their latest tear-tugging emotional rollercoaster of a short film – and what will surely become their latest viral hit.
If you are not dabbing your cheeks and feeling all fuzzy inside after watching you are devoid of emotion or the person who roots for bad guys in movies.
Thai Life has become synonymous with heart-wrenchingly brilliant cinematic TV spots in recent years, that have received widespread international praise, plaudits and virality.
#FollowTheFather (4.9 million YouTube views), Street Concert (8 million) Unsung Hero (28.9 million) and Garbage Man (4.1 million) are short films you will have surely seen, and if not, then click the titles, switch to HD and prepare your tear ducts for sprinklers and cheeks for a dousing.
While it’s rare for an insurance company to incite such emotion from audiences, Thai Life has reached deep connections with audiences through genuine, honest emotive storytelling that people anywhere can identify with. These emotional narratives are in harmony with one of the brand’s core beliefs, “Value of Life”.
In Opportunity, the theme is overcoming adversity: bravery, strength and doing right by others. It’s an everyday hero tale, of the type the brand has become renowned for. You watch this rooting for the female lead and genuinely wanting the best for her.
The film starts out with our hero, a smartly dressed middle-aged woman, thanking an employer for her job interview. His reply, “How do you think opportunities arise?”
And so the film narrative is set: Opportunity, hence the film’s title. We learn of our hero’s back story. We see her coming from two very different worlds – privileged and underprivileged.
In the first instance, we learn that she is a self-made woman and created her own opportunities in life by “looking sharp”, “having ability”, “diligence” and “attentiveness”.
And then the viewer is asked, “Or do opportunities arise when you have never had them before?”
Then we learn the real path our hero has taken to create her own opportunities in life. And it’s a mighty sad tale.
She is kicked out of her home with her child and forced to live on the streets, only for her little boy to tragically die in her arms. Overcome with grief she mourns on gritty Bangkok streets.
One day while sitting under a bridge – dirty and downbeat – a little homeless boy coughing in his mother’s arms stirs our hero from her reverie. She looks at the salapao (pork bun) she is holding, squeezes it gently, and thinks of all the suffering, hatred, loss and pain she has been through. She has a revelation. She remembers the Buddhist philosophy of finding true peace and happiness by letting go of the past. She now knows it’s her duty to save the little boy and mother from her same fate – to create opportunities for others. She hands her only food to the hungry boy.
And so begins her new life quest. To help others. So she picks herself up and does whatever she can to find work. Her persistence pays off and after landing an interview at an insurance firm (we assume Thai Life) she gets the job.
In the final scene we see our main character desperately running in a hospital juxtaposed with scenes of a dying boy being denied a life-saving operation because his mum doesn’t have insurance papers present.
Needless to say our hero arrives in the nick of time to save the day and pleads with the doctors. At this point we were bawling our eyes out.
This short film packs a powerful punch in just five minutes with superb acting, beautiful cinematography and music.
Check out Opportunity and share it with your chums, colleagues, parents, grandparents, cousins, distant cousins, neighbor, or even that guy who works in the store down the street. Share it with anyone because everyone will love this story.
Take a bow Thai Life. You only made us cry, yet again.
Follow Thai Life Insurance on Facebook for more emotion in your newsfeed or visit their website here.
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