Sick Nurses

Sick Nurses (Thai: สวยลากไส้ or Suay Laak Sai) is a 2007 Thai horror-comedy film, written and directed by Piraphan Laoyont and Thodsapol Siriwiwat.

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Plot

In a run-down, suburban Bangkok hospital, young Dr. Tar (Wichan Jarujinda) and seven nurses have been running a scheme to sell dead bodies on the black market. But one nurse, Tawan (Chol Wachananont), has found out that her boyfriend, Dr. Tar, has been having an affair with her sister, Nook (Chidjun Rujiphan), is tired of the body-selling scam, and is ready to call the police.

However, before Tawan can take action, the doctor and six resident nurses at the hospital, strap Tawan to an operating table, kill her and then wrap her in a black, plastic garbage bag. They then dump her in the trunk of the doctor’s car, where her corpse will be kept on dry ice until it can be sold.

All the woman have their own obsessions and weaknesses, which are preyed upon in the days that follow, when Tawan's ghost returns to kill each one of her former co-workers.

Cast

• Chon Wachananon as Tawan
• Wichan Jarujinda as Dr. Taa
• Chidjan Rujiphun as Nook
• Dollaros Dachapratumwan as Jo
• Kanya Rattanapetch as Ae
• Ocha Wang as Yim
• Ampairat Techapoowapat
• Ampaiwan Techapoowapat

Release and reception

Sick Nurses was released in Thailand cinemas on June 14, 2007, where critical and box-office response was muted.

Bangkok Post film critic Kong Rithdee characterized the film as exploitive and complained that the film's general release was allowed by the same Board of Censors that had earlier in the year banned director Apichatpong Weerasethakul's drama film, Syndromes and a Century, because of what the board said were objectionable portrayals of medical professionals. "What's more saddening than seeing bad exploitation movies is the double standards of the people who have power. Unfortunately we have both of them right here in Thailand," he wrote.^[1]

In July 2007, at a workshop discussion on censorship in Thailand, producer Prachya Pinkaew revealed that the Board of Censors had in fact called for cuts to be made in the film, asking that a scene in which a medical cross symbol falls off the hospital building and kills a character be altered to eliminate the killing, because the censors believed that was a bad association for the symbol.

The film was shown at the 2007 Hawaii International Film Festival in the "Extreme Asia" section, where it received a positive review from Variety, which called the film "slickly executed".^[2]

As of 2007, the film has been released on DVD only in Thailand, with no English subtitles.

References