'Flat Girls' Movie Ending Explained & Summary: Is Ann Dead?

The ending of the Thai film Flat Girls is a disappointingly dry one that doesn’t really answer any questions. The coming-of-age film, currently streaming on Netflix, revolves around two girls, Jane and Ann, who grew up together in the “flats,” apartments allotted to the police officers and their families. Ann’s dad died 2 years earlier, but thanks to Jane’s mom, her family is able to continue to live in the flats. Her own mom is a gambler, and Ann’s got 3 younger sisters, so of course, she has to play the responsible elder sister. I suppose, right off the bat, you know that the moral of this movie is that adults always cause the mess, and kids have to do the suffering. In Ann’s case, she’s chasing freedom, whereas Jane’s seemingly perfect life is ruined when her dad decides to leave her mom and live with his new mistress in a fancy new place. The women who live at the flats rely solely on their partners’ earnings, but Jane’s mum loans money to the residents to help them out. She also seems to be doing some sort of work on the side; maybe that’s why she’s able to stay put and give Jane a decent enough lifestyle. Jane and Ann may live in the same place and have grown up together, but at the end of the day, Ann has ambition, but Jane simply cares about keeping things as they are. This is where the problem really begins. But with that said, let’s jump into the ending of Flat Girls and try to figure out what happened to Ann.

Spoiler Alert 

The film subtly hints at the fact that Ann may be romantically interested in Jane. At first, it feels like Jane’s the more obsessed one, like she’s got feelings, and Ann probably likes men, but in reality, it’s the other way around. Jane’s just confused, and when the girls share a kiss halfway through the film, Jane finds herself more confused than ever. It’s not that she doesn’t like Ann, but she just doesn’t feel any different in that moment. This makes Ann really sad, because she felt otherwise, and she was the one who told Jane they should “touch eyelashes.” That level of closeness is hard to achieve, and Ann definitely felt something special for Jane, which is why she made her do it. The other problem is that Jane and Ann have different financial situations. When Jane tells Ann she can live with her, Ann immediately asks her if she wants her to live like a maid. On the other hand, she’s never willing to take the spare badminton racket Jane has because she feels like she’ll owe her, and she doesn’t want money to get in the way of their relationship. But really, the big trouble starts when Tong gets involved. 

Tong is a police officer who lives in one of the flats by himself. He’s much older than the girls, but they end up becoming close, and he even teaches them and a friend of theirs how to drive. Tong is the adult male figure that both girls have needed in their lives. Ann’s dad’s dead, but Jane’s dad’s pretty absent too. We only learn near the end of the movie that he’s leaving them, but we never see him throughout the story. This makes the girls especially vulnerable when it comes to Tong. Tong and Jane’s relationship is a very natural one. He calls her “piggy” because she reminds him of his young daughter, “piggy.” There’s nothing inappropriate there. They’re both friends, and they get to enjoy each other’s company. However, I don’t think Ann knows about this daughter situation, because she starts to feel jealous when she notices how close the two have become. And no, I don’t think it’s because she’s jealous of Jane. 

Ann feels claustrophobic in the flats because she wants to get out of there. She doesn’t like the familiarity; she wants to be free, unlike Jane, who claims she could live there forever, as long as Ann’s around. This is, of course, a perspective of convenience. Again, it comes down to their financial situations. This is what gives Ann the ambition to get out. Ann says she wants to be an air hostess because the only other thing she can do is marry a cop and live in the flats. Ann can speak English, she works all day, and we can assume she’s good at school too, so in all honesty, she could’ve managed to achieve her goals. She’s beautiful too. But Ann’s fed up with the lifestyle she lives because her mom doesn’t seem to care how hard she works. She even asks her mom why she had her because her mom tells Ann she knows that she’s going to leave them like her dad did. I think this is the last straw for her, because until then, she managed to hold it in pretty well. To make matters worse, Jane sees Ann going into Tong’s house one day and saying she left her phone behind. Jane immediately assumes that they’re together. But we’re not sure about this claim. The previous night, Ann needed comforting, and that’s what Tong did for her. He told her she didn’t need to feel like the big sister all the time and work relentlessly for her siblings. Even though Tong is broke himself, he gives Ann money to help her in whatever way possible because he understands her hunger for freedom. It’s too late for him, but he can still help her.

But the next thing we know is that the entire building is gossiping, and Ann’s mom wants her to get married to Tong. Just like that. Even though she’s still in school, and he’s at least 15 years older than her and has a kid. It’s like Ann’s mom is selling her off to keep her house, and she isn’t even ashamed of it. Of course, Ann would feel suffocated in such an environment. Finally, one day, when Ann accidentally lets a scarf get away and follows it, Jane sees her and runs out behind her. Ann grabs Jane’s hand and takes her to the cruise. This cruise is significant because both girls always wondered where it went, and Tong showed them. They thought they’d go on it together, so that’s what they do now. But when Jane’s eyes are closed, Ann disappears, and what remains is the ring that Jane gave her to sell so Ann could get the money to pay back Jane’s mom. 

In Flat Girls’ ending, it appears as if nothing has changed, and nobody seems to be worried, not even Jane, who was with Ann one second and gone the next. Ann’s disappearance is treated as a runaway situation. Everybody knew she wanted to get out, so obviously that’s the only reasonable thing to believe, but what if Ann chose to jump into the water that night and end her life because she was so tired of everything? Sure, she was ambitious, but there’s only so much one can tolerate. In this scene, some time has passed because Jane is moving out, and everyone has become accustomed to life without Ann. Jane leaves a mark in the flats by spray painting all their names on the wall, the kids’ as well as Tong’s, making sure he knows that he was important to her, too. At the end of the movie, Jane takes a tuk-tuk back to the flats and probably pays 60 baht for it. She doesn’t have to worry about a meager 10 baht. This takes us full circle to the first scene of the film, where Ann hitches a free ride for the girls on a police truck going to the flats.

In the end, Jane makes a call to Ann’s number, which is now unavailable, and tells her that she still hopes to be taken in first class on the flight that Ann works at. I guess it’s easiest to believe that Ann got away and will achieve her dreams, because if they believe she’s dead, there’s nobody else to blame but themselves. Whatever the case is, Ann is finally free, and Jane is moving out, so everything is different, and nothing will be the same anymore. It’s best if we hope that Ann and Jane will meet again someday in the future, rather than think about a morbid ending.