Nang Nak

Thai movies are not often shown on the big screen in Montreal. When I saw that Fant-Asia was screening the first Thai film in the history of the festival, I was really keen to see what kinds of movies are being produced there.

It turned out that this romantic/ horror film was one of my favorite of the whole festival. The images are beautiful and the story is so touching. This is an old Thai folktale that I had heard before. I was concerned that it would be too dark and that the love story would get lost in the ghost story. However, they manage to convey both the sweetness and the horror of the tale without compromising either.

If you get the chance, I highly recommend this film.

Nang nak had been made for many times in Thailand both for TV series and films. Therefore, most of them express the scary part of Nak but they don't mention anything about her deep true love to Mak. So I think this version is very touching and great. I love it. Though, there were many versions made but none of them gives good facts like this one. Two thumbs up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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

In 1868, Mak (Winai Kraibutr) is summoned to the war and leaves his beloved wife Nang Nak (Intira Jaroenpura), who is pregnant, alone in their isolate house in Prakanong. Mak fights with his friend Prig that dies while Mak is seriously wounded. He miraculously survives and after a long time, he returns to Prakanong.

He meets Nak and their son and they live happily together until the day that a friend of Mak visits him and tells that Nak had died in the delivery and he is living with the ghost of his wife and his stillborn son. Mak does not believe on his friend until the day that he discovers the truth about his family.

"Nang Nak" is a movie about a Thai legend of a faithful wife that dies but does not live the world of the living waiting for her beloved husband that is missing in action in the war. The story of eternal love is a touching ghost story with a melodramatic farewell in the end. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Vidas do Além" ("Lives from Beyond")

When I first studied in the university for movie productions, I was taken away by Bram Stoker's Dracula, the beautiful settings and play of shadows. I thought that all such romantic horror films should take on similar cinematography to make the film beautiful.

However, when I watched Nang Nak after graduation, I really salute to the director for making such a beautiful story. The story behind the legend was true, and it was the perfect choice of the director to choose the production of this film as a love-story instead of a horror movie.

Basically it all started out of love, the love of a woman to her man, bearing his child and yet, before they could get together again as a family, they had to be separated by heaven and earth as she dies during child birth. The female lead did a wonderful job to be so constrained, so soft and almost to the point of pitiful loving which makes it truly understandable why she could not leave her husband despite her death.

To intensify her longing to be with her husband, we saw how she was robbed off her belongings at the point of her death while she was giving birth, a young woman who had to bear the pain of childbirth without the support of her husband by her side. During that time, there were no modern hospital facilities and giving birth in itself is a dangerous labor of love. Her courage beaten, her life taken, and yet she had not been able to see her husband for the last time.

It is no wonder that such a loving woman would bring her child along with her to meet with her husband once more, just so that they can live together again as a happy family. Everyone in this world hopes for such a happy family life and yet this very basic human right had been taken away from her. Despite her coming back to haunt the village, as a viewer I can only pity her for her everlasting love for her husband and her strong will to keep herself within this realm of existence just to be with him, defying all laws of nature.