Review of ‘New Abnormal’ – Structural Violence in Pandemic Era Thailand
By Deepesh Vasudev

In “New Abnormal”, we are shown snippets of a life that is unfortunately not
abnormal at all. At face value, the scenes in “New Abnormal” are familiar
and show the absurd nature of our current lives; but hidden in these
vignettes, violence is present. Not only physical but structural violence,
where the unique circumstances of society in pandemic era Thailand invoke
violence on its people.
There is, of course, physical violence towards the end of the film with a
protest being squashed by the police, which is different from structural
violence where there are no signs of obvious and direct bodily harm.
However, structural violence is present in the details, where the violence
is being committed by an actor unintentionally, or without the presence of a
physical actor at all.
Structural violence might exist mainly as features of systems and policies,
but it is often linked to physical violence. The student, in his dire need
to soothe his mental state, orders bubble tea minutes before the curfew,
causing the delivery driver to meet with an accident. The scene ends with
him trying to count the number of bubbles and put it back in the tea, which
moves towards the next instance of the structural violence, poverty. The
delivery driver is more focused on the delivery than his own physical
wellbeing. He needs to make the delivery, to get paid. Then we meet the poor
man, who cannot apply for financial assistance because he has no smartphone
to access the website, an instance of structural violence. His predicament
of being poor in conjunction with government policies neglecting the needs
of those without internet access, led to him being robbed of his right to
financial aid.
This section of the poor man and the delivery driver, who needs money,
starts and ends with L-cuts, where the audio from the previous shot is still
playing well into the next shot. This is done to show how the student, who
ordered the bubble tea, and the government, who have created the plan for
the remedy grant, have committed violence against the delivery driver and
the poor man. However, they are unaware and disregard the violent acts
surrounding them, despite being caused by them.
The filmmakers also undertake two stylistic choices to present the reality
of this violence in a fictional story. There is no camera movement, all
shots are still. They are reminiscent of pictures which, just like
vignettes, seem to capture a certain moment in time. Then there are a few
characters like the student and the poor man, who speak towards the camera,
to the viewer, which is like an interview in a documentary. These stylistic
choices, which diverge from standard narrative film styles, might seem
absurd at first, but are intentional to suggest that the characters are not
actors at all, but real people caught in real predicaments. The real
violence of pandemic era Thailand is portrayed through the absurdity of the
film. This violence is absurd because it can be easily avoided. In the end,
the film will make you question the structures around us, and make you
ponder, are they set up to benefit us all?