Chompoo: Lost & Forgotten Review
Director: Nontawat Numbenchapol
Date Created: 2026-08-21 03:07
3.5
Chompoo: Lost & Forgotten Review: Directed by Nontawat Numbenchapol, คดีชมพู่: เด็กหายที่ถูกลืม, is a Thai true-crime documentary about the disappearance and death of a young child Chompoo in 2020. Instead of focusing solely on how the crime was solved and the people behind it, the documentary also looks at all of the things that developed as a result of the tragedy, excessive media coverage, rumours, mania and the strange way one of the individuals linked to the crime gained celebrity status. This makes the documentary quite unique compared to other true crime documentaries since this tragedy is just one of the aspects being covered.
Chompoo: Lost & Forgotten Review
Netflix documentary Chompoo: Lost & Forgotten is about a little girl who went missing from her family home in Kok Kok village in the Mukdahan province of Thailand in May 2020. Following the extensive search process, her body was found a few days later in the forest, 1.8 kilometres away from the place she had gone missing from.
The reason why the case is particularly shocking is that Chompoo was just three years old, and how she got to such an isolated place that she could not reach on her own is impossible to explain. Her body was discovered without any clothes, but there was no proof of any sexual abuse in the investigation process. From that point, the question should have been painfully simple: what happened to this little girl, and who was responsible?
In fact, the Thai documentary Chompoo: Lost & Forgotten highlights just how quickly the story escalated into a whole other kind of story. The village transformed into a place of interest for journalists, YouTubers and outsiders who dissected every aspect of the story and formed theories of their own. What made me uncomfortable was witnessing the way that the disappearance of Chompoo would almost overshadow the story itself. The reason behind all the hype was not to find out any more facts, but to form yet another theory or receive yet another reaction.
This is when the Netflix’s Chompoo: Lost & Forgotten becomes really uncomfortable to watch. The film shows how quickly a true tragedy can turn into entertainment with so many people getting involved through their screens. Chompoo’s parents were not only put under investigation, but they were watched by strangers who believed that they would be able to judge them based on their reactions to having lost their daughter. I thought this was very touching since there is no script for grieving. There is no right or wrong way to act when this happens to your child.
It only gets worse when compared with the fate of Chaiphol Wipha, better known as Uncle Pol. Unlike Chompoo’s family members, who were reduced to their role in the investigation, Chaiphol managed to become a kind of bizarre celebrity. He became popular owing to his looks, character, and ability to sing; there were people surrounding him and treating him like an entertainer. It can be seen in the documentary: this case has generated such a strong interest in the public, which has nothing to do with the fact that a little girl has died.
And this is definitely the moment which made me feel the most frustrated. It is absolutely understandable why so much time was spent on this phenomenon. Indeed, it is important to know how public opinion can distort the investigation of a crime. However, at times I really wanted to get back to Chompoo. I wanted to see more about the evidence, more about the investigation and more about the unresolved issues of her death.
The Netflix documentary film Chompoo: Lost & Forgotten has some information related to the evidence associated with the hair and the discrepancies in Uncle Pol’s testimonies, but I did not get all the information that would enable me to comprehend the case from an investigative point of view. The aspect that really disappointed me regarding the documentary is that there were few insights about the witness who said he had seen Uncle Pol in the forest. This is exactly the kind of testimony that I thought should have been looked into deeply by the documentary. In addition, there should have been more insights into the autopsy and the forensics.
On the other hand, the absence of clear-cut answers in this documentary does not make the film meaningless. On the contrary, one of the main arguments in it is precisely that the involvement of people in the matter contributed to the worsening of the problem to a great extent. This case shows how rapidly an internet user can transform suspicion into conviction and how easily a person can be either condemned or glorified without being aware of the whole truth.
That the case finally ended in a conviction does give the ending more weight; however, it still does not erase all that happened beforehand. Nothing can be done in the courts to erase the years of speculation, stalking, judgment, and pain endured by Chompoo’s family. And this is really the reason behind my ambivalence at the end of Chompoo: Lost & Forgotten documentary. I certainly felt bad for Chompoo and her parents, but I was also annoyed at all the things left undone in the true investigation.
Netflix Chompoo: Lost & Forgotten Review: Summing Up
Overall, there is no dearth of emotion in this particular case; there is plenty of emotion in it, but the thing that got me thinking after watching the documentary was what it had chosen to focus on, and what it seemed to have chosen to overlook. It certainly managed to be a very disturbing look at the obsession of the media and the judgmental nature of the internet in this case, but I would have liked for the documentary to devote more time to investigating Chompoo’s case.
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