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Hope Frozen Reviews

Cares less about what the outside world thinks about this unique decision than about the stew of motivations and justifications that drove the family to embark on their quest.

Full Review | Feb 3, 2021

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Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Hope Frozen: A Quest to Live Twice’ on Netflix, a Strange and Beautiful Documentary About Grief, Loss and Love

Where to stream:.

• Hope Frozen: A Quest to Live Twice
• Stream It Or Skip It

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Netflix documentary Hope Frozen: A Quest to Live Twice chronicles how a Thai family had their two-year-old daughter cryogenically frozen after she passed away due to brain cancer. The story made international headlines, but director Pailin Wedel goes deeper, spending significant time with the girl’s scientist parents and budding-scientist teenage brother, broaching wide-ranging topics from pragmatism to spirituality.

HOPE FROZEN: A QUEST TO LIVE TWICE : STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: When he was a kid, the aerator on Sahatorn Naovaratpong’s goldfish tank stopped working overnight. The fish were floating. His mother had him put the fish on ice, allowing them to revive half of them later. In 2012, Sahatorn, who owns and operates a “laser factory” in Thailand, and his wife Nareerat became parents for the second time. Their son Matrix always wanted a sibling, and is overjoyed upon meeting his baby sister, who they called Einz — Japanese and Chinese for “love.”

Einz was two when she unexpectedly fell into a coma. She had a form of brain cancer that’s essentially a death sentence. Multiple surgeries and rounds of chemotherapy followed. About a month shy of her third birthday, Einz died. But prior to that, the family contacted a company in Arizona called Alticor, who agreed to cryogenically preserve her remains. Sahatorn believes that science will be able to reanimate her someday, and in that idea he invests all his hope. He’s interviewed on many TV news programs about the technology and why the family chose this path for Einz.

We see the family visit Alcor; they grieve and pray at the chrome canister in a laboratory — where Einz’s brain is preserved — like one might do at a loved one’s gravesite. This family is wholly devoted to science, but also devout practicers of buddhism. Sahatorn and Matrix discuss how specific dreams affect their lives. Matrix, 15 years old when the film was made, is passionate and dedicated to scientific practices, but in honor of his sister, he has his head shaved and becomes ordained as a novice Buddhist monk. Matrix then travels to the U.S. to meet a scientist who won awards for freezing and reviving a rabbit’s brain, and faces a series of revelations about the technology his family used to keep Einz’s brain viable on a cellular level.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: The philosophical and ethical questions are indelibly burned into the subject matter, but as soon as Matrix and Sahatorn begin talking about dreams, you’ll feel the specter of Werner Herzog’s big-question documentaries in the room — Wedel’s tone and innate curiosity brings to mind Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World and Encounters at the End of the World .

Performance Worth Watching: Matrix is the heart of the movie — his scientific and spiritual journeys illustrate how he’s committed to understanding the nature of the human soul from both philosophical and rational perspectives.

Memorable Dialogue: “One day, if you wake up and watch this video, maybe hundreds of years from now, we want you to know we love you.” — Sahatorn records a video for Einz

Sex and Skin: None.

Our Take: Hope Frozen shows us where grief, science, religion, hope and despair meet — and it’s a cloudy place where the seed of absolutism can find no purchase. Except maybe the assertion that science will find a way, as Sahatorn at one point extrapolates, “We may have time travel by then,” showing unerring devotion to mankind’s ability to someday achieve what we now deem almost impossible. Most compelling is the Naovaratpong family’s holistic understanding of life; Western sensibilities posit science and religion as binary opposites, but for these Thai people, it seems as if the human soul is merely waiting to be discovered and explained by the rigors of science, in a day, a week or millennia from now.

Such is the film’s ecstatic truth. Ultimately, though, it’s more intuitive than informational. Wedel all but acts on the assumption that we’ve read some of the many news stories about Einz and pondered the ethical concerns, and therefore takes the story further; it took an internet search to find the family’s surname and clarify that Einz’s body wasn’t preserved, but rather, what remained of her cancer-ravaged brain. More on Alticor would be beneficial for context, too (it’s the same company that famously cryogenically froze baseball star Ted Williams). Such details don’t seem as crucial as Wedel’s exploration of the incalculable desperation incurred by devastating loss, or the subtle rumination on the nature of what makes us human: Suffering perhaps, memory certainly, a mind and soul and intellect indelibly.

Like his parents, Matrix doesn’t exhibit signs of extreme grief — possibly due to cultural differences — but instead, an ability to look progressively forward, with hope and inquisitiveness. In the film’s most subtly powerful moment, Matrix places a greeting card on the chamber containing his sister and it reads, “You are your own unique story.” What an odd sentiment that is, until you fully consider the goal of his quest.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Wisely, Hope Frozen sidesteps every opportunity to sensationalize this strange story. You’ll wish it was more factually thorough, but its willingness to tackle big questions is its strength.

Should you stream or skip #HopeFrozen : A Quest To Live Twice on @netflix ? #SIOSI — Decider (@decider) September 16, 2020

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com or follow him on Twitter: @johnserba .

Stream  Hope Frozen: A Quest to Live Twice on Netflix

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Hope Frozen: A Quest To Live Twice premiered on 15th September 2020. Directed by Pailin Wedel, the documentary takes us closer to the Naovaratpong family whose daughter is the youngest cryogenically frozen person, after her sudden demise due to brain cancer.

Grief, Hope, and Science!

Hope Frozen: A Quest To Live Twice revolves around the lives of the Naovaratpong family who decided to cryogenically freeze their daughter Einz (meaning love) who, at the age of 2 years, unexpectedly fell into a coma due to a fatal form of brain cancer that has 0% survival rate. After multiple surgeries and procedures, Einz lost her battle. But before her demise, the family contacted a company in Arizona called Alticor, who agreed to cryogenically preserve her remains for the future.

Cryogenically freezing refers to a procedure where an individual’s corpse or severed head is preserved at a low temperature (−196 °C or −320.8 °F) with the speculative hope that resurrection may be possible in the future with technological advancements and treatment availability. The Naovaratpong family took this decision in order to preserve their daughter today but to revive her someday in the future in a better world where there is a cure for her fatal cancer.

The family faced a lot of backlash from the media as everyone believed that the family stopped the child’s soul from reincarnating or trapped the soulless body of their child, and questioned their decision both in the name of science and religion.

The documentary in itself carries a lot of questions related to science, ethics, and religious philosophy. While I felt the plight of the parents and, to an extent, understood what they did and why they did so, on the other hand, their decision stopped them from moving ahead. A piece of them, which is physically dead, still remained in the hope of revival someday. The presence of undying hope and optimism is great but too much of anything can be painful.

While reading more about the whole scenario, I found out that Einz’s body wasn’t preserved, but rather, what remained of her cancer-affected brain. While Einz and brother Matrix shared a heartwarming bond, after her demise, he decided to progressively look forward with hope and inquisitiveness, and contribute towards science. While his decision is very strong and heartwarming, I felt there was a constant, unconscious pressure on him to do something for his sister, something that’ll take years of work with little to no success rate.

Matrix visits the chamber where his sister is kept and places a card on it that read “You are your own unique story.” The sentiment is both strong and odd and speaks volumes.

Stream It or Skip It

STREAM IT! Hope Frozen: A Quest To Live Twice is a story of hope, optimism, love, science, parenthood, and grief. The documentary isn’t exactly loaded with facts and figures but takes you closer to a family who are widely misunderstood and criticized. Definitely, a worthy watch!

The cultural code followed in the documentary takes us closer to the family and does not fancy the mise-en-scene. The simple making and close-knit storyline makes this documentary both heartwarming and heart wrenching. The narrative elements and balance allow it to interact with the viewers, giving them an insight into the reality and the world cryonics!

Hope Frozen: A Quest to Live Twice is now streaming on Netflix .

Read our other reviews  here .

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• Sep 16, 2020

Hope Frozen: A Quest To Live Twice documentary film review

Directed by #PailinWedel

Film review by Nathanial Eker

Netflix's new documentary film Hope Frozen is truly amazing. It somehow manages to take some of the most compelling and emotive topics (religion vs science, the sanctity of life debate, and the death of a toddler) and drain any and all captivation. This is a story that should grip us and leave us breathless. Yet after a promising start it devolves into a drab mess, defined by poor pacing and staggeringly inadequate storytelling.

It's difficult to imagine a premise more enticing than that of Hope Frozen . Einz, a two-year-old child from Bangkok is diagnosed with a fatal and incurable cancer. Her scientist father dreams of reviving her through the practice of cryonics, making Einz the youngest person ever to be cryogenically frozen. What follows is a discussion of whether preservation of the body is enough to bring someone back from death and how conservative Buddhist ideals of the soul and tabloid media attention can complicate things.

Writer-director Pailin Wedel poses a number of intriguing questions through the development of this seventy-five minute long documentary. Regrettably, they fail to address almost every one and simultaneously neglect to provide relevant information and context to allow the audience to draw their own conclusions. Bafflingly, the film begins with only the most rudimentary ex ploration of who Einz and her family are. They are reduced to mere players in a film that begs to pull on your heartstrings and inspire endless moral debate.

More infuriating is the lack of translation, not literally (the clunky and monotone voiceover work 'handles' that), but intellectually. Unfortunately for Wedel, most viewers will not be cryogenic experts and will thus require some level of explanation in lay-person terms.

And those voiceovers. Perhaps the single most effective way to destroy an emotive moment is to have a dry, uninspired western voice over the image of a distraught Thai mother attempting to verbalise her grief. Whoever decided that subtitles were 'too distracting' to include clearly didn't watch the first cut closely enough. This should be one of the most powerful documentaries put to film, but the voiceover trivialises the family's toil, reducing it to the level of a local news broadcast.

Hope Frozen owes almost nothing of its successes to its creators and most of it to the family themselves. Their struggle is real and their anguish obvious, even with the obstructive overlay of western monotony. The fascinating and controversial decisions by Sahatorn and his kin are clearly primed for a documentary that challenges cultural perceptions of death, science, and religion. Indeed, one of the most interesting discussions raised is that of futurism and whether anyone will care for Einz in the future should she ever be restored.

Other big questions like the realities of restoring memory and the existence of a soul are also raised but left mostly unquestioned. The film paradoxically crawls along with trivial scenes that add little, yet it also speeds through each new ethical dilemma like it's a race to the philosophical finish. A documentary of this ilk should be pretty simple in terms of structure, but Wedel makes bizarre editing decisions both temporal and physical at every turn that make for a whiplash-inducing tone.

At the very least, Hope Frozen undeniably encourages discussions around these issues and doesn't put forward a bias, which should be commended. From a technical point of view, the cinematography and music are passable though uninspiring, while the mise-en-scene is fairly well considered, characterised by a whiteness that simultaneously denotes both a suitably clinical aesthetic while also serving as a constant reminder of Einz' lost innocence.

Hope Frozen is not an ill-intended film. At its core it intends to be a time capsule that will even be given to Einz should she ever be revived. It is also admirably respectful of the family; even the voiceovers can be considered a way to broaden exposure of their plight. Sadly, sloppiness reigns supreme and the poor pacing and uninspiring clips chosen ultimately make Hope Frozen a chore to watch. It of course inspires a degree of empathy and debate, but I'd sooner recommend reading up on the topic yourself and watching unedited interviews with the family.

You're unlikely to get much of anything from this.

#NathanialEker

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They Didn’t Want Their 2-Year-Old to Go. So They Froze Her.

The new Netflix doc “Hope Frozen” tells the story of the Naovaratpongs, a couple who lost their 2-year-old daughter to a brain tumor—and made her the youngest person frozen ever.

Nick Schager

Entertainment Critic

T he loss of a child, or a sibling, is something people never quite get over. Even after the initial heartbreak, the pain continues to resonate, in somewhat reduced form, from a locked-away part of one’s mind (and heart) that’s best accessed only at sporadic intervals. Grief is a gnawing virus, and it must eventually be contained lest it spread and consume. Unavoidable and unbearable, it’s an inherent component of life that has the potential to destroy.

Hope Frozen: A Quest to Live Twice is a story about such grief, and the unique path upon which it set a Thai family. Directed, produced and co-written by Pailin Wedel, the new Netflix documentary (premiering Sept. 15) concerns Sahatorn and Nareerat Naovaratpong, and their son Matrix, whose clan expanded with the birth of the couple’s young daughter Matheryin. Nicknamed Einz, the newborn girl was an immediate cause for merriment, her arrival so celebrated that it brought Matrix to literal tears. In home movies, we see Einz develop from a smiling infant to a boisterous and perpetually cheery 2-year-old, playing, laughing and radiating an innocent joy that’s nothing short of infectious.

The Naovaratpongs’ happiness, however, was short-lived. After suddenly falling into a coma, Einz was diagnosed with ependymoblastoma, a rare and fatal brain tumor that no one has ever survived. Though she underwent 10 surgeries, 12 rounds of chemotherapy, 20 radiation treatments, and countless stays in the ICU, Einz succumbed to her illness before she reached the age of 3. That would be the end of her tale, if not for the fact that her father—a scientist by trade—refused to let her slip away. Convinced that he could give her a chance at a new life, he began investigating cryonics, the practice of indefinitely freezing and preserving human bodies (and, sometimes, just heads) in the hope that future technological breakthroughs will allow for subjects’ resurrection, and for their lethal maladies to be cured. Even with the understanding that he’d likely never see her again (since any reawakening would probably take place long after he was dead), Sahatorn made Einz the youngest person ever (as well as the first Asian of any age) to be cryogenically frozen.

Given that cryonics isn’t exactly accepted as a legitimate procedure by the mainstream scientific community, many viewed Sahatorn and Nareerat’s plan with skepticism, if not outright condemnation, especially once the story went viral and Sahatorn was asked to defend his course of action on a variety of TV talk shows. Hope Frozen , though, cares less about what the outside world thinks about this unique decision than about the stew of motivations and justifications that drove the family to embark on their quest. That journey took them to California’s Alcore Life Extension Foundation, a tax-exempt nonprofit run by CEO Max More which charges a minimum of $200,000 to freeze an entire body, and which makes no promises about how, when or if these deceased individuals might ever be resurrected.

Faith and science collide and intermingle in Hope Frozen , as Sahatorn and Nareerat grapple with their Buddhist view of reincarnation (and critics’ worries that they’re trapping the soul of their daughter in a stasis-bound body) and their conviction in science’s capacity to solve all problems—the latter of which is, of course, its own kind of faith. Sahatorn passes that pro-science dogma down to his son Matrix, who’s soon following in his father’s footsteps and assuming his dad’s dreams. At the same time, Matrix’s attempt to seek temporary solace from his heartache by becoming an ordained monk only further blurs the boundary between rational and religious belief.

Director Wedel evokes these intertwined forces through a combination of traditional non-fiction footage of Sahatorn and Matrix in their lab (and at Alcore), Nareerat showing off Einz’s favorite white dress while standing next to her crib, and misty dusk and dawn imagery of the forest treetops and foliage surrounding their home. Plentiful clips of Einz from before she fell ill, and while stuck in a hospital, convey an empathetic impression of this upbeat little girl, who touched her family’s life so profoundly that they refuse to simply let her go. Sahatorn says that what you’re witnessing in those videos and photos are traces of Einz’s soul, and to be sure, there’s a potent sense of the spark that clearly enlivened her, and by extension, those around her.

The ultimate question posed by Hope Frozen is whether or not Sahatorn’s hope for a miracle rebirth—however distant and fanciful it could be—is a healthy means of keeping her memory alive (and of coping with unendurable tragedy), or whether it’s a mistake that denies everyone finality and, thus, a chance to move on. Sahatorn states outright, “This is who I am. I can’t let go,” likens his late daughter to a machine (“It’s like we had manufactured a defective computer. So we have to put it on hold. We believe that the computer could work again”), and opines that she might not return to the land of the living until humanity has developed interstellar travel and time machines. For all his dogged optimism, it’s hard not to see him as a man who’s chosen to figuratively freeze himself—a notion that isn’t totally erased by the late revelation that he and Nareerat subsequently had another daughter (whom they named Einz Einz).

There are no easy answers to these issues, and to its credit, Hope Frozen doesn’t try to provide them, instead allowing Sahatorn, Nareerat and Matrix to explain the complicated thought process behind their unusual response to loss. After visiting a California researcher who successfully unfroze a rabbit’s brain—a breakthrough that suggests a remedy for Einz could be decades, rather than centuries, away—Matrix learns new information that seismically affects his own feelings about Einz’s cryonic prospects. Yet regardless of that late development, Wedel’s film is an open-ended portrait of placing trust in both scientific facts and the vast, unknowable unknown—all in an effort to contend with an anguish that, no matter what anyone does, can never be fully extinguished.

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Documentary Review: Hope Frozen (2019) by Pailin Wedel

Following a controversial story that flooded the Thai news not long ago, director / producer Pailin Wedel goes back in time to gently reveal a fascinating story behind the flashing news; a story that involves a family dealing in their own, personal way with one of the cruellest intimate tragedies, the death of their young child.

“ Hope Frozen ” is screening at the BFI London Film Festival 2019

Grieving is something very personal and subjective and science or technology cannot really help to alleviate the pain; however parents Sahatorn and Nareerat Naovaratpong have embraced science in search of hope. Their little 2-year-old girl Matheryn, nicknamed Einz, became ill with a very aggressive form of cancer and underwent a remarkable number of surgeries and treatments before sadly passing away on January 8, 2015. She was incredibly lively all the time through her illness and her father Sahatorn, who is a laser scientist and devotee of science in general, tried all he could to speed up the research on his daughter’s cancer cells and find a cure, just to realise that he was most probably going to lose the race against time.

At that point, he decided to cryopreserve Einz’s brain in hope that science could – one day in the future – find a cure and bring her back to life, making in this way her daughter the youngest person in the world to be cryopreserved.

Shortly after the head and brain of the little girl was transferred to the Arizona’s Alcor Lab, where will be preserved for the time being, the whole story hit media in Thailand and predictably the Naovaratpongs were suddenly under the spotlight. One of the main controversies is the religious conundrum as it questions how the Buddhist concept of reincarnation can possibly fit in this scenario. The family is accused by the fiercer commentators to have trapped the soul of their daughter in a limbo from where it cannot be send to a next life.

However, watching Wedel’s intimate account of this touching and somehow morbid story can make you think that the only trapped person is Einz’s older brother Matrix. The boy, who was 13 at the time of his sister’s death, embodies in fact all the hopes and dreams of his parents. They have already planned his life-mission to carry on the researches on Einz’s cancer cells (also frozen) and keep up with the scientific breakthroughs in cryogenic. Although a science enthusiast already, it is still a huge burden on his shoulders.

“ Hope Frozen ” is very non-judgemental and objective in narrating the Naovaratpongs’ struggle to grasp the reality, but the audience is bound to read various hidden subtexts according to their personal sensibility and catch different nuances. Shot over 2 years, and enriched by lots of material from the family’s home videos, the documentary shows all the shades of hope of the Naovaratpongs, but the impressive portrait that emerges is probably Matrix’s, as he is caught in the critical passage from childhood to adolescence.

Wedel’s gaze is respectful and doesn’t dwell into complex scientific concepts but the intrinsical intimacy of the subject makes it very close to voyeurism as we witness this profound distress. The family visit to the Arizona’s Alcor Lab is a hard bite to swallow as it really highlights the different defensive mechanisms of the father, almost excited by the high-tech scientific environment, and the mother in the most humanly deep pain.

Intriguing and poignant, “Hope Frozen” is the story of a family in search for answers but also an unsettling question-generator.

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About the author.

Adriana Rosati

On paper I am an Italian living in London, in reality I was born and bread in a popcorn bucket. I've loved cinema since I was a little child and I’ve always had a passion and interest for Asian (especially Japanese) pop culture, food and traditions, but on the cinema side, my big, first love is Hong Kong Cinema. Then - by a sort of osmosis - I have expanded my love and appreciation to the cinematography of other Asian countries. I like action, heroic bloodshed, wu-xia, Shaw Bros (even if it’s not my specialty), Anime, and also more auteur-ish movies. Anything that is good, really, but I am allergic to rom-com (unless it’s a HK rom-com, possibly featuring Andy Lau in his 20s)"

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Hope frozen: a quest to live twice, ความหวังแช่แข็ง: ขอเกิดอีกครั้ง.

Directed by Pailin Wedel

How far would you go to give your child a second chance at life?

A Buddhist scientist from Bangkok decides to cryo-preserve his daughter's brain. As scandal swirls around the family, they struggle to grieve a child that, in their view, is suspended between death and a future reawakening.

Nareerat Naovaratpong Sahatorn Naovaratpong Matrix Naovaratpong Max More

Director Director

Pailin Wedel

Producers Producers

Pailin Wedel Patrick Winn

Writers Writers

Pailin Wedel Nina Ijäs

Editor Editor

Cinematography cinematography.

Mark Dobbin Mark Oltmanns

Executive Producer Exec. Producer

Amanda Feldon

Composer Composer

Chapavich Temnitikul

Sound Sound

Akritchalerm Kalayanamitr

2050 Productions

Thailand USA

Primary Language

Spoken languages.

English Thai

Alternative Titles

Hope Frozen: A Quest to Live Twice, Contornando a Morte, Hope Frozen: si può vivere due volte?, En t'attendant : l'espoir figé, 희망을 얼리다: 환생을 향하여, Criogenización: Vivir dos veces, 冻结的希望, 希望永存：尋找二生二世, 雪藏希望：待日重生

Documentary

Releases by Date

15 jun 2018, 27 apr 2019, 17 sep 2019, 06 oct 2019, 08 dec 2019, 15 sep 2020, releases by country.

• Premiere Hot Docs
• Premiere 16 Watch Docs Film Festival

Switzerland

• Premiere 12 Zurich Film Festival
• Digital Netflix
• Premiere Sheffield Doc Fest
• Premiere BFI London Film Festival

79 mins   More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by tahra dactyl ★★½

sad or hopeful? i can’t decide.

Review by Lisa ★★★½

When their three-year-old daughter Einz is diagnosed with one of the most aggressive forms of brain cancer, the Naovaratpong family from Thailand look to doctors to save her. When they are unsuccessful, scientist and Einz father, Sahatorn, turns to Cryogenics to preserve their beloved daughter's brain. Wow, this was a tough watch!. The Naovaratpong families' buddhist beliefs contrast with their outright faith in science. Beautifully and respectfully filmed, Hope Frozen: A Quest To Live Twice is a fascinating look at a families longing to keep the memory of their loved one alive.

Review by kimchideluxe ★★★½ 2

Is this selfish? Or selfless? I honestly can't blame the parents for doing this. They believe that their daughter deserves a chance to have a life. Whether they are alive or not.

I am not sure if I would go this route but I don't have children so I am not sure what I would really do honestly.

Shows I'm watching this week: 90 Day Fiance True Detective Tokyo Vice The Elegant Empire On The Roam Masters Of The Air Expats Children Of The Cult

Review by Ken Rudolph ★★★½

A Thai couple lost their adorable 2-year old daughter to a fatal brain cancer. This intriguing, humanistic documentary tells of the family's attempt to preserve their daughter's future by cryogenic freezing after her death, despite their Buddhist belief that her reincarnation might be interfered with. The film is also the family's testament of their love for Einz that is to be safely stored for their daughter's viewing when and if she is revived sometime in the future.

An intriguing detail is that this is a family of scientists: the girl's father is a laser scientist. The girl's older brother, Matrix, is a 16 year old science prodigy, who loved his little sister and is dedicated to be around and instrumental…

Review by vela🕯

fascinating to learn about cryogenics and how it might work in a future, heartbreaking to see a family lose their baby and desperately trying to hold on to hope... who knows if they can bring her back, if the process used now will really preserve her as she was

Review by Cadhla McCarthy ★★★ 2

This was a very complex watch. Pretty difficult subject matter but I was trying not to have powerful opinions because grief and hope are very individual experiences. I really hope they’re all doing ok and this doesn’t affect them too much

Review by Willy

matrix described that day as being in slow motion

as serious as the subject matter is, the levels of meta this reaches for thailand is crazy. kids named matrix and einz, slow motion, cryonics freezing, clash of science and spirituality, the buddhist passage. its all so in the water its like a cross of arthouse and horror quietly playing out in documentary form. beautiful, peaceful, but godamn does it get cold when you're forced to face reality.. you go figure, imitated by a clash when west invades upon east with somn to say.

rly am not tryna pun, but it's all in his expression during that line call. and then of course they had to go with the reel too.. thai fucking visceral. at least they found something to keep going.

Review by King Aaron ★★★★

This doc is heart breaking and fascinating. It’s interesting to think about the religion angle and how it affects what was done. The ending broke my heart.

Review by Krittiwan Chaiyawantakee ★★★★

Documentary Film of people who can't move on from life.

It"s so Sad....

Review by saddymart ★★★½ 1

turns out science and religion can be exactly the same !

Review by kkoechner ★★★½

This is such a heartbreaking documentary. Probably the saddest documentary I've ever seen. To me personally, just seeing the mother in such pain & suffering when visiting Alcor was just..... heartbreaking. The question that I kept asking myself is is this worth it? Are they living a life in hope or pain? I'm not sure.

I did like how the documentary brought in the concept of Thai Buddhism and questioned whether freezing Eniz prevented her being reincarnated. Something, as a Westerner, I never really think about.

I don't think I could watch this again, but it was very fascinating. But, if you have a sensitive heart or a heart in general, prepare to cry.

Review by sarah ★★★

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Hope Frozen, Netflix Thai documentary about cryonic freezing of girl’s brain and her family’s emotional journey, is also about Thailand’s scientific prowess, filmmaker says

After her death from brain cancer, the family of a two-year-old girl in bangkok make the life-changing decision to have her brain cryonically preserved pailin wedel’s film follows the buddhist family’s struggle to put their faith in science and address the religious and ethical questions their action raises.

When a girl from Thailand with brain cancer died in 2015 and her medical engineer parents made the decision to cryogenically freeze her brain in a United States facility, the story made news globally, as the girl is the youngest person in the world to have her brain preserved for future reanimation using the still unproven technology.

For Thai filmmaker Pailin Wedel, who has made a documentary about the family’s quest to bring their child back to life, the real story happened after the fact. “My film follows the emotional journey of the girl’s brother and parents, who saw it as their duty to do everything in their power to give their daughter a chance of life. What happens to them after they made that decision?” says Wedel.

The 75-minute feature Hope Frozen portrays the emotional struggle of parents Sahatorn and Nareerat Naovaratpong who, as Buddhists, have to contend with the religious, ethical and medical repercussions of their decision, and the quest by the girl’s brother Matrix, a science prodigy, to find out whether the science can bring his beloved sister back to life one day.

The girl, Matheryin, or Einz as her family nicknamed her, suffered from a rare form of brain cancer and died before she turned three. She was put into a deeply frozen state at the point of her death in Thailand.

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We cryogenically froze our little girl’s brain after cruel cancer death – we believe she’ll come back to life one day

• Rebecca Pocklington
• Published : 11:38 ET, Sep 15 2020
• Published : Invalid Date,

KNEELING down on the floor, Nareerat Naovaratpong holds her baby girl's dress to her chest while praying in front of the vessel that now carries her frozen brain.

The mum and her husband Sahatorn, from Thailand, chose to have their late daughter's brain cryogenically preserved after her devastating death from brain cancer in 2015, just before her third birthday.

They now hope Matheryn, who was known as Einz to her loved ones, will one day come back to life, as technologies rapidly advance in the future.

Einz, from Bangkok, was diagnosed with the aggressive cancer just months before her tragic death - sparking a determination in her father, Sahatorn, to give her another chance at life.

After months desperately researching ways to save her, he decided their best hope was cryonics - where a whole body or head is frozen using liquid nitrogen, until a way is found to bring them back to life in the future, and cure what they died of.

The couple chose "life-extension" company Alcor in Arizona, US, to carry out the procedure, making their daughter the youngest person ever to be preserved using the technology.

In new Netflix documentary Hope Frozen: A Quest To Live Twice, her parents reveal the heartbreaking story behind their unconventional decision.

'I wished I could take her place, take her pain away'

Sahatorn and Nareerat decided to try for another baby after their first son, Matrix, expressed his deepest wish for a sibling.

And when it came to meeting his little sister, Matrix says on camera: “I think I cried I was so happy!”

Satahorn adds: "Einz brought us together, the entire family. Everyone had been waiting for her to arrive.”

However, despite the tot appearing healthy for her first two years of life, she one day failed to wake up in the morning - sparking an agonising few months for her family as she fought aggressive brain cancer.

“I wished I could take her place, take her pain away… I’ve always felt nothing bad could happen to her because her mother is here to protect her," Nareerat says.

I’ve always felt nothing bad could happen to her because her mother is here to protect her Einz's mother Nareerat

Einz underwent 10 surgeries, 12 rounds of chemo and 20 rounds of radiation, but was unable to beat the cancer.

Realising there was no hope of curing his daughter, Sahatorn began researching cryonics, in the hopes of convincing his wife that it could offer their daughter a new life in the future.

While there is the option with Alcor to freeze a whole body, which costs around US $200,000 (£155K), you can also just freeze the head and brain, which costs $80,000 (£62K). Sahatorn hoped to pursue the latter option.

“This was the way to keep her… we must keep her," he says.

'Can we stop the process of dying? Yes'

At first, the whole family were against the idea, and Sahatorn spent months persuading them.

He says in the documentary: "Can we stop the process of dying? Yes. Can you believe that we can stop it? This is want I have to show my family...

“I spent many months trying to persuade my wife before she finally agreed.”

Once convinced, Nareerat eventually says: "We knew in our hearts that she would pass away. She’d gone as far as humanly possible… the doctors admitted that she would not survive.”

The couple began recording videos for their daughter, to hopefully see in the future, while arranging for a team from Alcor to fly to their home in Thailand - to be there when Einz passed away.

Is cryogenics safe - and could it ever work?

There is currently no way to resuscitate bodies that have been cryogenically frozen.

There are also concerns that the freezing process itself could cause extensive damage.

According to  medicalbag.com , when a body or even an organ is frozen, "extracellular and intracellular ice crystals form, resulting in crushing or rupturing of cells and damaging surrounding tissues".

Scientists do hope to have found a solution to this, however. Cryonics experts use slow-freezing solutions and also cryoprotectants to protect organs and vessels from ice crystals forming.

There are also concerns that, even if it does work, that person's memories will be wiped away.

Dennis Kowalski, of the Cryonics Institute in Michigan, previously stated: "You could be just like you but without your memory, without the same mind. Like a clone of you."

There was a scientific breakthrough in the field in 2016 when a fully intact rabbit's brain was cryogenically preserved successfully.

Researchers found that, despite it being dead tissue, all of its synaptic connections were maintained when it was thawed out. They didn't attempt to resuscitate the rabbit, however.

The toddler tragically died on January 8, 2015, just before she turned three, with her family surrounding her at home.

'It is true love in my opinion'

For cryonics to be as successful as possible, experts say it's best to begin the freezing process within 60 seconds of when the heart stops beating.

It meant Einz's family watched on as her body temperate was lowered in front of them, before her body was frozen and flown to Arizona.

Cryonics expert Aaron Drake recalls on camera: “As soon as the heart stops beating, we want to start immediately… 60 seconds if possible.”

Commenting on how Einz's family put their own grief aside to be with her throughout the initial procedure, he adds: “I’ve never seen that before. To overcome that is true love in my opinion."

"At that point, I was grieving beyond words," Satahorn says.

Meanwhile, Nareerat adds: "I told her, come back and be my daughter again. Mummy loves you so much.”

Initially, the main priority for the team was to keep blood pumping round her body, with experts applying pressure to her chest to artificially pump the heart.

In a typical procedure, the body is then packed in ice and frozen, before the blood is replaced with a "cryoprotectant" solution, to stop ice crystal formation. The body is then frozen even further.

Einz was transported to Arizona after the initial freezing process, where her brain was removed and preserved at -196C, inside a vat filled with liquid nitrogen. It will now remain there until technologies advance further.

“I am certain that we are heading towards deathlessness. That will be Einz’s time," her father says on camera.

Max More, Alcor Life Extension Foundation CEO, admits he doesn’t know when anyone can be brought back in the future, and adds: “The exact details of the revival process are unknown to us."

'To have her back would be the greatest achievement of my life'

The family later flew to Alcor themselves to see where their daughter is being preserved.

In emotional scenes, they are shown the entire process, before getting the chance to kneel in front of the vat that now contains their daughter's brain.

Fighting back tears, they clutch her favourite dress to them while holding a hand each to the vat - before praying for Einz with their family around them.

It's inspired Einz's brother Matrix to pursue a career in science, in the hopes of one day finding a way of bringing his sister back to them.

“To have her back would be the greatest achievement of my life," he says.

But there is a lot of work to do. While a rabbit's brain has been successfully revived after being frozen, experts have yet to find a way of preserving memories and proper brain function.

“We have to wait for better technology to reconnect everything," Sahatorn says.

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The couple have since welcomed another daughter, who they have named Einz Einz in memory of her older sibling.

Alcor was founded by Linda and Fred Chamberlain in 1972. Fred has since passed away and is now kept inside one of the vats himself.

Netflix documentary Hope Frozen: A Quest To Live Twice is available to stream now.

• News Features

'Hope Frozen': The cryonics industry offers strength to grieving families but does the technology actually work?

When it comes to scientific advancements, there is no question that the past 100 years have been characterized by a number of innovations that have propelled us much farther into the future – many of them in the medical field. One of those techniques that are considered groundbreaking by some but with skepticism by others, seems to be more like science-fiction rather than reality. Cryonics is the process of deep-freezing the bodies of people who have just died, in the hope that scientific advances may allow them to be revived in the future – this has been regarded with skepticism within the mainstream scientific community but for others, it presents hope.

In 2015, Matheryn Naovaratpong became the youngest person to be cryogenically frozen at just two years old. Matheryn aka Einz was the second child of Sahatorn and Nareerat Naovaratpong, whose first child, Matrix, had wanted a younger sibling. The baby brought joy to the family when she was born. However, she developed a rare form of brain cancer just after her second birthday -- a form of cancer for which the survival rate was minimal if not zero. Sahatorn made the decision to cryogenically freeze his child, in the hopes that she could be revived in the future when there would be a cure for her cancer.

The Naovaratpong family's quest to give their child a chance to live and the aftermath of that decision is the subject of Netflix's latest documentary, 'Hope Frozen: A Quest to Live Twice'. Sahatorn passes on his dreams of reviving Einz to his son, Matrix, who himself holds up that dream with fervor. Matrix goes to visit an American scientist in the latter half of the documentary to learn how close they are to reviving those who have been cryogenically frozen. What he learns there is heartbreaking.

The scientist who worked on successfully freezing and reviving a rabbit tells him that current techniques mostly will not ensure that revival will be a successful process. The scientist stresses that the cell structure needs to be intact to ensure that the person being revived remains the same. However, with current techniques, he believes there will only be a 0.1% chance of success.

How exactly does cryonics work? Once the patient is declared clinically dead, cryonic technicians drain their blood and replace it with a solution designed to preserve organs, then follow it up with a “cryoprotectant” solution that freezes cells without causing the crystal formation that would damage them when returned to normal temperature. Bodies are then placed in tanks of liquid nitrogen for long-term storage -- the nitrogen must be regularly topped up.

The scientific community, however, is much more skeptical about the process, as we have seen in the documentary. What makes a person who they are, are their thoughts, memories, and their knowledge and the cryonics process could destroy the structure of the brain by dehydrating it. The method to recreate synaptic connections or the nervous system's workings in a virtual scenario is still an impossible task. A 2015 article from MIT Technology Review states that such a technology does not exist, even in principle, and says the cryonics industry is offering "an abjectly false hope that is beyond the promise of technology."

'Hope Frozen: A Quest to Live Twice' is now streaming on Netflix.

Hope Frozen: A Quest To Live Twice (2020)

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Hope Frozen Reviews

• 1 hr 15 mins
• Documentary, Drama
• Watchlist Where to Watch

Two-year-old Einz is the youngest person in the world to be cryogenically preserved. Her family settled on this plan of action after she died from brain cancer, and since then, it has been the subject of great contention. Hope Frozen is a documentary film that centers on her and the decision her family made in hopes of seeing her be rebirthed in a regenerated body in the future.