Meat Grinder 2009

But Siriwimol Charoenpura portrays a woman shaped by a brutal childhood, subjected to severe abuse—beatings and even being held underwater—that left her with a disturbed, neurotic edge. In adulthood, she takes over the family’s struggling beef noodle shop from her mother, Duangta Toongkamanee, and becomes the steady force for her younger sister, Bua, Jiratchaya Jirarajagit, while also grappling with debts left by her husband, Prawit, Anuwat Niwatawong, who abandoned them for his mistress.

One day, while pushing her noodle cart, she is swept up in a violent student protest that is dispersed by soldiers. In the chaos, she meets Atthapol, Arucha Tosawat, a sympathetic young man who helps her through the turmoil. That evening, But discovers the body of a student hidden in the storage compartment of her cart. Desperate, she preserves the body with herbs and uses the flesh to make noodles, a gruesome choice that unexpectedly revitalizes her business and draws Atthapol into a growing, complicated bond with her.

As her fortune shifts, the two become closer—Atthapol becomes a regular customer and offers steadier support and care for her. But the fragile balance is threatened when Prawit’s creditor Mogul and his henchman arrive to collect a debt. But invites them into her home, murders them, and uses their remains in her cooking, a shocking escalation of her severed moral lines.

The next day, while But is away, Prawit and his lover Aio return and drown Bua. Upon discovering her sister’s body, But is engulfed by grief and tortures her husband and his lover in a secret room until they die. Atthapol visits and finds But crying over Bua, unsure if she’s still in touch with reality.

As But’s business continues to thrive, she encounters Aoi’s fiancé—Atitaya Shindejanichakul—who is searching for Aoi and grows suspicious of But. She murders him as well and again uses his flesh in her noodles. A growing jealousy toward Atthapol’s closeness to Nida deepens her fury, and she kidnaps and tortures Nida, and during an attempted escape, Nida discovers a dead body.

But captures Nida again, nails her hands to a table, and prepares to kill her, but Atthapol intervenes. But confronts a painful misunderstanding, believing that Atthapol has never really loved her and only cares for Nida, though Atthapol’s true love for But remains. Distraught, But flees to a bridge, where Atthapol pleads with her to surrender as the police close in. Haunted by her sister’s voice urging her to kill Atthapol, But falters, suffers a breakdown, and jumps into the river. The police later suspect Atthapol of involvement in the crimes. Yet But survives and secretly returns home, where she finds her mother smiling while butchering human flesh.