The Billionaire 2011

Pachara Chirathivat stars as Tob, known as Top, a high school student whose foray into real-money trading in an online game in 2002 drags his grades downward and sets an adolescent arc of bold, risky bets. The next year, he brushes aside his parents’ university advice and tries to launch a business reselling Chinese-made DVD players, spending his university tuition on questionable devices. In a daring move to fund college, he secretly sells his father’s precious amulet and even skips classes, arranging for a friend to record the sessions so he won’t miss out on opportunities.

As Top tests his aim, a trip to a trade fair leads him to a chestnut stall, and the spark of a new idea takes hold: a sweet chestnut business. He hires his uncle Tuan as a clerk and pushes the venture, but the mall over which they bargaining soon proves unwelcoming—the stand attracts no customers, forcing Top to renegotiate a new location. The early days are fraught with missteps: a forced dodge of a compulsory exam, the chestnut stand’s success later overshadowed by the smoke staining the mall, and the looming realization that his father’s business is drowning in debt while his parents contemplate moving to China where his siblings work. Faced with pressure from family and finances, Top makes a pivotal choice to stay in Thailand and push the chestnut idea forward.

Yet trouble compounds quickly. Painting the stain irritates neighboring stalls, the chestnut machine begins to fail, and the family home is foreclosed as debt mounts. On a date with his girlfriend Rin, Top tastes seasoned seaweed that she brings home and suddenly envisions a new path: a seasoned seaweed business. He pours himself into solving the practical hurdles of frying seaweed, even selling his computers to fund the venture. A rainy night changes everything when he returns to find his uncle Tuan collapsed and rushed to the hospital; the incident unexpectedly reveals a method to fry seaweed—moisture from the rain dampens a crucial piece of the process and unlocks a solution.

The seaweed venture starts to take off. The project is projected to earn around 1 million baht per year, and Top learns the depth of his family’s debt—his father’s debt stands at 40 million baht and the house is on the market. The prospect of China tempts him again, but the seaweed idea gains traction, and Top envisions selling to a larger chain. An initial attempt to partner with 7-Eleven hits a snag when the chain’s buyer—Pooh—tells him the packaging and format don’t meet the company’s requirements. After a breakup with Rin, Top refines the packaging and returns to Pooh, though Pooh is busy, and the packaging is ultimately noticed by Pooh’s team as they sample the product that has been left behind.

Eventually Tao Kae Noi—the brand name that becomes synonymous with seasoned seaweed snacks—wins acceptance from 7-Eleven. Top is tasked with setting up a factory that will pass a stringent sanitary inspection within a month. He seeks a bank loan, a scene framed in the film to illustrate the mountain he must climb; a banker rejects him, citing his youth and the fact that his parents are overseas, a setback that fuels his resolve. A threatening confrontation with a pawn shopkeeper who had once bought his amulet adds urgency to his push forward, and Top decides to proceed with a factory in an abandoned warehouse. The factory clears the sanitary inspection after he addresses a cascade of problems, and the first delivery to 7-Eleven is completed. With his parents invited to return home, Top realizes he has both paid off their debts and found a new path.

From there, Tao Kae Noi grows into a sprawling enterprise. The business expands to employ around 2,500 people, serves 6,000 7-Eleven stores, and reaches customers in 27 countries. It also gains a foothold in a seaweed farm abroad, including South Korea, and by 2010 the company reports sales of roughly 15 billion baht, crowning Top as Thailand’s youngest billionaire. The film closes with a vivid image of Top aboard a plane, content in his success and still immersed in the gaming hobby that helped spark his extraordinary journey.

• Pu: Poramaporn Jangkamol

• Tob’s journey is anchored by a family that includes Tob’s father and mother as well as the entrepreneurial threads threaded through his life, with supporting roles shaping the path from risk to resilience.

Notes:

• The narrative focuses on the arc from youthful experimentation to entrepreneurial triumph, keeping a neutral, informative tone while highlighting key turning points.

• The story is presented as a linear examination of ambition, obstacles, and eventual achievement, with emphasis on the events that transform a string of ventures into a nationwide, then global, seaweed brand.