Ghost of Mae Nak

The Ghost of Mae Nak (2005)

Written and Directed by: Mark Duffield
Starring: Pataratida Pacharawirapong, Siwat Chotchaicharin, Porntip Papanai, Jaran Ngamdee

Thai haunted house movie, created by someone... not Thai (I dunno where that guy's from. I assume he's British). But, apparently, based on an old Thai legend. Which would explain a lot actually.

A newlywed couple (named Mak & Nak, which would tend to get irritating) moves into an old house only to discover that the place is haunted by the ghost of Mae Nak who died many, many years ago and is still upset about it. Oh yeah, and her husband was named Mak, which is even more annoying. Nak's Mak is possessed by Nak and Mak. Arg. There are some criminals named Tick and Tock, too, which is almost too much. It's so adorable.

That was funny though. The rest of the movie was a little on the boring side, though. It sort of crawled along, and not that much happened. It wasn't particularly original artistically speaking, and wasn't really very interesting.

Also, it was translated from English, to Thai, and back to English so the subtitles are a little... weird. They make sense but they're kinda funny. (Pointless story: One time I was watching some movie... I think it was The Living Daylights... no, wait, it was the one with Christopher Walken, but anyway, I was futzing with my remote and turned on the Thai subtitles just to see what would happen and they're weird man. There are subtitles when there's no talking and numbers and stuff in there that just don't match up with the dialogue... stuff like '30 grams' and that. Drug deal?)

Yeah, so a little more traditional than some other things. The ghost obeys the laws of being a ghost. Sort of. That's probably cos it's a folk tale or whatever.

Supposedly there are a couple other versions of the story on film too. I ran into Nang Nak by Nonzee Nimibutr (I've heard of that person!), which is supposed to be good. I guess. I don't know, I can't tell by the poster. Ah well.

So, sort of interesting, but kinda dull.

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