Directed by Chayanop Boonprakob, The Red Envelope is a sweet and entertaining story about a boy named Titi, whose spirit had been wandering in the mortal world because he had unfinished business to complete there. Titi’s grandmother took it upon herself to find a way to help Titi’s soul move on to the next life. So let’s find out what happened in the film, and if Titi was able to get reincarnated.
Spoiler Alert
How did Menn get married to Titi’s ghost?
After Titi’s untimely demise, his grandmother used to have nightmares where she saw her grandson dying a painful death. She wanted to get rid of those nightmares, and so she went to a shaman to ask him about what could be done. The shaman said that, because her grandson had been hit by a car and had died in the most tragic manner, his spirit was still wandering the mortal realm, and he was not able to get reincarnated into human form. He said that she needed to conduct a ghost wedding for Titi, but she couldn’t just choose anybody of her liking. He told her that she needed to take the hair and nails of a dead person and put them in a red envelope, and then just drop it at any spot. He told her that the person who found that red envelope would be the right groom for Titi, who would help him get reincarnated. Meanwhile, a petty criminal named Menn, who was serving time in prison, was made a police informant. He was told that if he was able to get incriminating evidence against a drug kingpin known as Big Joe, then he would be acquitted of all charges, and he wouldn’t have to serve time in prison. After many failed missions, the police officials had realized that Menn didn’t have any potential and that he could never be a good agent.
Menn, apart from wanting to be acquitted of all his charges, had another reason to work for the police. He’d taken a liking to an officer named Goi, which really pushed him to make an impression and work hard. Nobody knew about it, but Menn wanted to impress Goi and one day serve in the police force alongside her. But Menn was a clumsy guy, and he ended up ruining everything he was a part of. To make things even worse, he picked up the red envelope that Titi’s grandmother had left in a public space. Menn made it very clear to everybody that, firstly, he was not gay, and secondly, he was never going to marry some ghost. But Titi’s grandmother warned him and said that luck would never favor him if he didn’t marry Titi. Menn realized that there was truth to what she was saying, and that if he didn’t marry the ghost of Titi, his already miserable existence would become even worse. Menn resigned himself to his circumstances and finally married the spirit of Titi. He was petrified when he started seeing Titi’s ghost, who, it seemed, had moved into his apartment. Menn tried getting rid of the ghost, but he couldn’t, as there was something pulling Titi back from being reincarnated.
Who killed Titi?
Titi realized that if Menn could help him find that one thing that he needed to achieve reincarnation, then probably he could leave the mortal realm and stop bugging him. Titi and Menn went to the former’s boyfriend’s house, as they felt that talking to him would probably give Titi closure. Titi felt that his boyfriend, Din, would be grieving, and he was shocked when he found out that he had already started hooking up with other people. Menn suggested to Titi that if they could find the man who had hit him with his car, Titi would get closure. But it was not an easy task to find him. Titi remembered that he was recording something when the car had hit him, and so there was a possibility that the video might still be on his phone. So Titi and Menn went to the former’s house, and it was there that Menn came to know that Titi’s father had never approved of him being gay. It hurt Titi more than anything to find out that his father couldn’t accept him for who he was. Anyways, Titi and Menn did find that video, and though the face of the person driving the car wasn’t visible, Titi saw that he wore limited edition shoes that only a handful of people in the country owned. Titi and Menn went to the exact spot where the former had died, and they saw a few cargo truck parked right opposite that place. Every cargo truck had a camera installed inside it, and they believed that they could probably find out who the driver was through the footage. One of the trucks parked there belonged to the same man whom they had seen at Din’s house. They followed him in order to break into his truck, but that entire operation led them in a different direction altogether. That man, Rambo, worked at a local boxing club, and it didn’t take Titi and Menn long to figure out that the real owner of that club was none other than Big Joe, the drug kingpin Menn had been searching for for a very long time. Also, Titi and Menn found out that the boxing club was just a front for the drug operation. Titi saw that Big Joe was wearing the same limited edition shoes that the driver was seen wearing in the video. That’s when the great reveal was made: the mafia whom Menn was after was the one who had accidentally killed Titi. Big Joe didn’t even try taking Titi to the hospital, he just left him on the road. If he’d taken him to a hospital, he probably could have been saved.
Were Menn and Goi able to catch Big Joe?
Menn was extremely happy, and he realized that finally he could prove his worth by telling the police that he had found Big Joe. He collected some circumstantial evidence and went to the police station to tell Goi and the others about it. But such was his bad luck that the video he had recorded was without sound, as his phone was broken. Menn didn’t give up, and he figured out that Big Joe and his entire team hid the drugs inside the boxing gear. So every boxing glove and sandbag that was used in the gym had drugs in it. Menn and Titi also found out that Din was working for Joe and later realized that he had hidden the fact that he was straight and not gay from Titi. Menn felt sorry for Titi, as he had been used in the most cruel manner by the one person he was ready to leave everything behind for. Din just wanted Titi to pay for his condo, which was why he pretended to be gay. The silver lining amidst all the chaos was that the police force was happy for the first time with what Menn had been able to accomplish. They decided to raid Big Joe’s compound and seize all the drugs that were there. But to Menn’s horror, nothing was found in the boxing gear, and moreover, Big Joe asked the police to compensate him for all his losses. Menn didn’t understand how that could have happened. He decided to enter the boxing club on his own and find out where they had hidden the drugs. That’s when he came to know that somehow they had been tipped off about the raid, and so they had hidden all their stuff beneath the boxing ring, in an underground room. Menn gave a call to Goi from there and told her that he had found the illegal stash. Goi arrived at the scene, and that was the point in The Red Envelope when it came to be known that she was the mole who was leaking all the intel to Big Joe. Goi said that she wanted to earn money and that that was the only way she could make that happen. She said that even if she caught Big Joe, she wouldn’t get anything out of it. But when Big Joe asked Goi to kill Menn and put an end to the matter, she had a change of heart. She didn’t want to kill him, as she probably liked him too. Big Joe didn’t like that his orders weren’t carried out, and so he shot at Goi and decided to kill her and Menn both. But before that could happen, the police arrived at the scene and took charge of the matter. Though Goi was injured, she managed to survive, and she even killed Big Joe and saved Menn’s life. Though I don’t think that Goi and Menn would ever end up together, I believe Goi proved that she was a true friend to him.
Was Titi able to get reincarnated?
Even after Big Joe met his fateful end, Titi’s spirit couldn’t escape from the mortal realm. In fact, Titi was on the verge of losing his powers, and he grew so weak that even Menn couldn’t hear his voice, as he had entered the bodies of many people during all the chaos to help out Menn, and that took a lot of energy out of him. In fact, when Menn was being taken to the hospital, the ambulance got stuck in a traffic jam, and it felt as if Menn would succumb to his injuries. At that moment, Titi entered the body of every driver whose car was in front of the ambulance and made sure that they moved their vehicle aside. But as a result of that, Titi’s spirit grew weaker, and Menn had no clue what else he could do to help his cause. Titi’s father blamed himself for the death of his son, something which Titi was not aware of. Titi had assumed that he couldn’t accept that he was gay, which was why he’d asked him to not marry Din. But his father has found out the kind of man Din was, because of which he’d dissuaded Titi from marrying him. Before he could tell the truth to Titi, he met his fateful end, and the guilt-ridden father could never forgive himself.
In The Red Envelope’s ending, Menn asked Titi’s father to say whatever he wanted to his son, and that’s when the man broke down. He told Menn that he loved his son and he would want to be his father in the next life too. Probably that was what was stopping Titi from leaving the mortal realm. He felt deprived of love, he felt that his old man never understood him, and he also believed that his father hated what he’d become. Once all those misunderstandings were cleared up, Titi’s spirit left for its heavenly abode and probably got reincarnated as somebody else. Menn was never able to become a cop, but he gained a lot in the process. He now had a family who loved him unconditionally. Titi’s father even told Menn that he would have wanted a husband like him for his boy, which was in itself a huge compliment for him. Menn kept Titi’s dog, Tormor, with him, as he knew how much he loved it, and he knew that Titi was out there somewhere judging his fashion sense and getting annoyed at how dirty he kept his place.
