Mae bia

I've seen a movie when I was a child... it could be either seventies or the eighties... could be of Asian, Indian, or American origin. Really low budget, really like VIDEO DEAD quality film... but all I remember is that there was a martial artist... and a woman who supposedly was a daughter of a snake king, but she would turn into an ugly reptilian creature (not purely a snake) and killed people. Two scenes are still clear in my head. A baby at woman's breast (being fed) turns into an ugly serpentine monster and a man cutting his chest open to feed the creature with his blood, to calm it down. There was a scene of a woman showing her breasts to catch a ride from someone... and such.

Have been searching for it for a long long time... and some promising results had been coming back to me, but it wasn't it. SSSSSSS, daughter of snake king, all those sound similar, but not... Please help...

They never found the second dose!

Intriguing fantasy thriller about a gorgeous young woman who lives in a remote forest (the girl is played by Napakpapha Nakprasitte – wow) who gets into a relationship with a married guy – unfortunately she has as her protector this vicious cobra who hunts down anybody who has the hots for her. The story has an effective backstory about the woman's childhood and, without ever saying so, seems to intimate that the snake is her protective mother. Anyway – the film is actually more of a romantic drama than a horror picture, with only a few moments of snake-suspense, but it's well made and quite visually compelling, although some of the snake scenes are too obviously CGI.

This film begins with a young woman by the name of "Mekhala" (Napakpapha Nakprasitte) sitting alongside the bank of a river lamenting the loss of a former lover. The scene then shifts to a young man named "Chanachol" (Akara Amarttayakul) returning to Thailand after a long absence and deciding to become better acquainted with his native country by taking a tour out into a remote part of the countryside. As it so happens, Mekhala is the attendant in charge of this particular tour and for some strange reason both Mekhala and Chanachol seem drawn to one another. The problem for Chanachol is that he has an attractive wife by the name of "Mai" (Chotiros Kaewpinij) and a young son to think about. Likewise, Mekhala also has a reason to avoid a relationship in that there is a very large cobra nearby which possesses an intense dislike for anyone who gets too close to her-and it definitely doesn't like Chanochol. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this film had an interesting plot and some good camera work which managed to capture much of the beauty of this exotic country. Likewise, having an absolutely gorgeous actress like Napakpapha Nakprasitte certainly didn't hurt this film in any way either. On the other hand, there were several slow scenes which adversely affected the horror aspects and for that reason I have rated this film accordingly. Average.

"Mae bia" (aka. "The Snake Lady") is another of those Thai mixtures of exotic jungles, murderous CGI-animals and steamy love scenes. Thai film makers are good at that - but "Mae bia" is not good. It's slow, the ending is disappointing and the story about overly protective snakes as and adultery doesn't have much substance. Also, it's badly edited. So where are the reasons to watch it? They are purely visual ...

First, there's the jungle, the river, the village. It's just nicely captured and contrasted to the skyscrapers in Bangkok. Second, there's the lead couple. Napakpapha "Mamee" Nakprasitte (Makala) is a beauty and her eyes are seductive. She makes a sexy couple with Puthichai Amatayakul (Chanachol) who has an adorable physique and a sweet face. Pity he can barely act and has a stupid grin on his face for the first half of the movie.

So there's Nakprasitte for the boys and Amatayakul for the girls - but that's it. Yeah, I know, that's a weak commendation. But it's really to only thing "Mae bia" has going for it ... Rating

3/10