Immortal love and blue-red teeth.
Nang Nak is based on an old Thai folklore about a woman and her newborn child who loves her husband too much. The man in the house comes home after the war. He comes home to his wife and newborn child. What he doesn’t know is that his wife and baby died during childbirth. People in the village die one by one. Those who warn the husband dies. Will he ever realize he’s living with ghosts?
The story in Nang Nak is touching. The dialogue and the actors are of somewhat mixed quality. But the story itself is so beautiful and tragic that it’s not so important in the long run that the dialog and some actors are bad.
But the old monk and his overreactions are something you just have to experience. He’s so bad, and he will make you laugh! And you will always remember the blue-red smiles of the characters in the movie. When they smile, you will smile too! Talk about tooth discoloration!
Genre is romantic drama-horror, and the focus is on the drama. The entire foundation of the movie is built on drama, and I fell for this beautiful story of immortal love. But there’s an important scene towards the end that’s terrible when the couple says each other names. Mak, Nak, Mak, Nak. They say it so many times, and they say it in such a dramatic way that it becomes comedic and embarrassing.
But this isn’t a scary movie. Nang Nak creates a dark atmosphere, but it’s not a scary movie. The Thais love dark love stories, and Nang Nak is probably the most known story of immortal love in Thailand. I have also seen some recent movies based on this folklore, and they were bad!
I would have no problems with a remake of Nang Nak with better direction and better actors. The actors who play the married couple are great, especially the woman. But they should have worked more on the script because it doesn’t seem like the director had complete control over what he was doing with the way he tells this tragic love story.