Nang Nak (1999)

This movie becomes landmark of the birth of Thailand as baby boomer in Cinema Industry. Yes, it's so Asian. It has a national and cultural identity. You can feel the atmosphere of Thai's village and its society. You can taste the mystical east here. But the dominant nuance in this movie is Theravadic Buddhism. It becomes an important keyword from this movie, and it becomes the problem solver for the conflict.Nang Nak tells us about a folk legend in Thailand around 19th century. It is a beautiful horror story about a man named Mak, whom his wife (Nak) is dead with her baby when she gives birth. Mak don't know about it, because he was in war when his wife dead. When Mak return to his home, he is life happily with his wife and their baby. Things' getting worse when Mak's friend tells him that Mak is currently living with ghost. Mak discuss this issue with Nak, and Nak is adding that is so sad because people around her tell bad rumors about her. She says people accuse her doing affair with another guy when Mak is serving at war. After that, Mak's friend is suddenly dead.You can guess what happened next, it's not so complicated nor so unusual, but how Nonzee Nimibutr use the plot is so interesting. We are made keep guessing and never know what actually happened till the mid of the movie. And next are quite horrifying scenes, and ended with so emotional ending. Although the visual effects are not so special, the setting, costumes, and make up are quite good. It has a quite good moral value about mortality and impermanence. This movie is not only a high quality horror. It's a drama of Dharma.

I find that Nang Nak could be considered as a typical example of a sub genre of horror movies. It can be defined a "religious horror" movie since it highlights the horror-generating element's (in this case the ghost) human component. Rather than scare the audience, it triggers deep religious compassion. In fact, the story centers on a young woman, Nak, who refuses to acknowledge her own death. Her binding love for her husband is too deep to be defeated by Death. Hence, convinced that she is still human and not a ghost, she awaits his return from the war even after her death during delivery. This is why she kills all those who attempt to warn him about the strange situation. The movie reaches a climax in the last scene, which is intense and charged with pathos. Deep in the forest a group of monks forms the setting for the exorcism, calling to mind the chorus of a Greek tragedy. There is no horror in the scene, which is instead a religious ceremony conducted with respect for the dead. The High Priest represents all that is sacred, unlike the exorcist who attempts to free the village from the curse by violating Nak's tomb and destroying the body. The High Priest treats Nak like a person who has the right to wish her husband goodbye in order to rest in peace. The scene in which husband and wife join hands for the last time is charged with aching emotion. The narrator's off-screen voice inserts the story among Thai legends and the audience perceives that it verges on reality and as such could occur again.

There is a lot more to this film than immediately meets the eye. Most Thai historicals or ghost stories are loaded with anachronistic pop culture cliches. This one wasn't; people spoke with their mouths filled with betel (maak), the lead actress didn't have lipstick, the houses were quite realistic, etc. In addition, the rural monks switched between high-level speech and country slang. The point is that this film is a serious attempt to do justice to both the original tale and the time period it is set in. The empathy for Nak far surpassed the scariness. What stood out for me is that Nak's justification for her actions seemed quite defensible, adding to the anguished poignancy of the situation.Asian ghost stories, when done well, have a strongly moral character. This is one of the finest examples I have seen.

As always, I never bothered to check any movies that would force me to READ - the subtitle that is any foreign language other than English. Nang Nak was introduced to me by my wife... It is because the publicity in the newspaper telling about how this movie has made an impact at one of the European countries movie awards - it's a horror movie but with strong love story message. (How scary, indeed!).Infact for a moment (till the labouring scene)... I was still doing my work while my wife kept on yelling at me every five minutes to join her...So, I was kind of surprised how good the movie was. Especially the scene when Mak took a refuge in the monastery and Nak followed him there. The most scary part is when she hung on the ceiling....Me and my wife had a trouble for a moment to even try to glance at our own house ceiling!Nang nak.... is GOOD! (I'll watch it from the beginning this sunday...) FROM : LELAKILAH