Arka Mukhopadhyay
Sometimes, a hole in trust is all it takes to destroy a family. Directed by Wisit Sasanatieng, the Thai original psychological horror movie ‘The Whole Truth’ spins the “peeping Tom” trope into a spine-chilling familial mystery. After their mother’s accident, siblings Pim and Putt are compelled to live in their grandparents’ for a while. Putt discovers a hole in the wall, which would let the haunting familial past seep back into the present. The final moments remain blurry as the titular truth eludes perception. If you seek to revisit the tale’s twist ending in greater detail, let us take you back to the house. SPOILERS AHEAD.
The Whole Truth Plot Synopsis
Pim and Putt live in their house with their mother’s cat, Latte. Pim is the leader of the cheerleading team at school. One night, Fame, one of Putt’s friends, spies on Pim while she changes clothes. Pim calls her mother to inform her about the incident. Their mother, Mai, has a high-profile job that requires the night shift. Mai gets in an accident on her way back, which leaves Pim and Putt in their grandparents’ care. The grandfather, Mr. Somphong, seems to be an uptight man, while grandmother Wan has dementia. Due to the severe brain injury, Mai goes into a coma.
As the doctor divulges, there remains only fifty percent chance of her waking up from the unconscious state. While strolling around the house, Putt comes across a hole in the wall. They try to bring the spot to their grandpa’s attention, but Somphong does not see any hole. The upset grandfather retreats to the bedroom upstairs, concluding that the kids are pulling a prank on him. However, the kids gradually come to know the history behind the hole. The mystery intensifies when Putt deduces that the room on the other side of the hole resembles their grandparents’ living room.
The Whole Truth Ending: Are The Grandparents Dead or Alive?
Somphong Chaiyawan, the grandfather, is the former head of the crime suppression unit. He goes to his old office to dig for more information on Mai’s hit-and-run case. The car in the collision is registered to Apiwat, a real estate tycoon. Somphong mistakenly deduces that the tycoon’s son Chaiyut was driving the vehicle at the time of the accident. However, as Chaiyut’s friend confesses the hit-and-run, the tycoon’s son gets away scot-free.
Frustrated with the verdict, Somphong decides to take the matter into his own hands. He brings out his old police uniform, goes out patrolling, and stops Chaiyut’s car in the middle of a tunnel. After getting the tycoon’s son out of his vehicle, Somphong pours the liquor bottle on him and sets him ablaze. In the final moments, Somphong receives a call from the officer on duty. While new footage has attested Chaiyut’s innocence in the hit-and-run, the police have discovered Chaiyut’s burnt body.
The officer asks Somphong to visit the police station for interrogation, while Somphong hears Wan screaming in the living room. The ghost of Pinya torments Wan, but Somphong sees a half-burnt Chaiyut in place of Wan. Somphong only comes back to his senses after firing a few rounds of bullets, and by that time, Wan is dead. After the act, Somphong realizes that he may have to pay for his heinous actions. He does not want the truth to come out and does not hesitate to put a bullet in his own mouth. When the bullet hits the wall, the hole reopens. By this time, both Somphong and Wan are dead.
Who is Pinya? How Did She Die?
Later in the story, Putt deduces that the hole can be a wormhole since the room on the other side looks exactly like their grandparents’ living room. Through the peephole, Putt sees his mother Mai, younger, pregnant, and with a baby in her arms. She looks for her daughter, whom she calls Pinya. However, neither Putt nor Pim has any idea who Pinya is. Their grandmother, who has been tormented by the noise across the wall for fifteen years, finally starts to spill the beans.
Pinya was Mai and Krit’s first child, and if she were still alive, she would be Pim’s elder sister. While Krit was painting and drinking in the morning, Pinya wanted to play hide and seek. Krit asked her to hide somewhere, and she locked herself in the spandrel. However, Krit forgot all about his daughter and passed out on the couch. Pinya stayed locked in the closet for a long time and died after drinking a bottle of rat poison.
However, that is not the whole truth, as the story suggests. Later, we find that Wan was not fond of Pinya due to her deformities, and she gradually poisoned her by tampering with the milk. Similarly, she attempts to poison Putt, but Mai comes to the rescue. We also come to see later that Wan locked Pinya in the closet. Her guilt is perhaps the reason for her dementia, and it is also probably why she has been hearing the noise for fifteen years.
How Did Krit Die?
Mai’s husband, Krit, had to pay for the wilful mistakes of Wan. Initially, Wan says that Krit shot himself from guilt. But in retrospect, we see through Wan’s lies. However, after Mai’s suspicion, we jump to the conclusion that it was Somphong who killed Krit. When Somphong enters the house holding the same gun that killed Krit, Mai is genuinely upset. However, the kids believe that some fragments of the truth are yet to come out.
Putt wants to know more about his father, and Mai brings out a painting of the family before Putt was born. She blames her parents for ruining the family, but is there an ounce of guilt in her lament? The hole, we deduce later, is the bullet hole that was created when Mai shot Krit. Although Somphong woke Krit up with his signature splash of alcohol on the night of Pinya’s death, it was seemingly Mai who pulled the trigger.
Is the Hole Real? What is the ‘Whole Truth’ of The Title?
Putt is the one to discover the hole. His sister can see the spot too, but Somphong denies seeing any hole. Later in the story, Putt takes Fame to his grandparents’ and shows him the hole. Putt peeps through the hole to find a vile child specter vomiting blood, but Fame cannot see the hole. He is still eager to play along, but when he peeps through the imaginary hole, something bashes his head on the wall. Pim comes back to find Fame bleeding through the nose.
The siblings look through the peephole again during the daytime to find creepy events unfolding on the other side. In a snippet, the strange girl crawls in the room, leaving a trail of blood. In another, Putt looks through the hole on the girl’s head, and in the next shot, we find the girl vomiting blood on a child. Pim deduces there must be something wrong about the room on the other side since it is still night there. The whole incident strikes them as supernatural, and Pim decides against going to the seemingly neighboring house. However, at night, Putt wakes up to find the ghastly girl caressing Pim.
Pim wakes up hearing Putt’s scream, and by the time she turns the light on, the specter is gone. However, the audience sees the spooky girl outside the siblings’ room. The following morning, Putt vomits blood, and he does not attend school. When grandma comes to give Putt his glass of milk, Putt shows her his drawing book. The last page of the book showcases a drawing of the girl with the hole in her head, the sight of which upsets grandmother. However, when Putt reopens the book after grandmother leaves the room, he sees no trace of the drawing.
When Somphong takes the law into his hands, Mai runs away from the hospital to rescue her children from her diabolical parents. Putt’s ailment worsens, and Wan confesses seeing the hole for fifteen years. Mai finds her cat, Latte, dead in the front yard on her way in. We know Latte drank the milk earlier when the glass broke. In the living room, Mai comes to the quick conclusion that Wan has been poisoning Putt. Somphong comes back, and Mai and the children escape the house despite his best interests. In retrospect, we see that the hole came into being from the bullet that killed Krit.
The hole perhaps symbolizes the void in the family. The voiceover at the end also reveals that the spot is a metaphor for truth. Truth is like a small hole camouflaged by darkness, but you can see it as light enters through the hole. The reality stays hidden in plain sight, just like the hole, and people like Somphong can never see the hole because he has been busy denying the truth all this while. The final scene reveals that it was Wan who locked Pinya inside the closet, bringing the titular “whole truth” out in the open.
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