An explanation of the film.

This was a befuddling movie for the most part. I have a theory about what was going on... it's just a gist, and I might be wrong, but will share what I think anyways.

I think that the island was symbolic of the Garden of Eden in the Book of Genesis in the Bible. Many of the locals called it "paradise". The transgression was the ingesting of the potion - which is akin to Eve eating the forbidden fruit and forcing her husband to partake in the "magic" drink also. The tempter (the snake in Genesis) is the young Thai waitress.

So, after drinking the magic drink, the two start losing their humanity and decency. This is evidenced by their public and risque sexual conduct. Their newly awakened, uninhibited, and destructive sexuality leads to their downfall. Neil ends up destroying his wife, and burying her. This was no hallucination. The island is a reality that mirrors all the darkness and light in a person, and Christine's and Neil's core natures were finally exposed.

Important point to note:

Christine found Neil ogling the Thai waitress, and since he had invested time looking at someone who was not his wife, the devil (symbolized by the waitress) noticed that and approached them, offering the drink. Neil clearly had a wandering eye, which led to his downfall.

Another major point:

We see that Neil keeps trying to capture things with his camera. He is a photographer by profession. This means that he is always chasing stories and images. When you look at something or try to capture it with a camera, you are investing that thing with meaning. You are clearly drawn to it. It then starts to grow, take on a particular force and energy and starts to influence and control you.

This is how Christine and Neil go down the rabbit hole and get trapped by this island. They are not cognizant of the universal laws at work... And they end up getting destroyed. They become slaves to the island and its whims and wants. Even the waters surrounding the island become menacing and threaten their lives. Nature is clearly trying to teach them a lesson.

"Death of Me" is essentially a moral tale. It's about love (isn't everything ultimately about love?) and the importance of devotion and monogamy. It's about the importance of working at love, something that Neil wasn't interested in doing. There are so many other things that this movie is about, though.

I enjoyed the morality/ fable-like aspect of the movie very much. If I was Thai or if there were subtitles for the Thai dialogue, I think we all would have gotten a lot more out of this film.

I'm going to ponder this movie some more. It was full of tension... and the Thai melody that kept playing throughout the film was very haunting.

If you have an interpretation of pieces of the plot that I have not mentioned, I would love to know your take on it. There's so much to dig into with this one.