Ghost Of Mae Nak (DVD)

Mak and Nak are two young lovers about to get married. Mak is worried about some dreams he has been having about a ghostly woman who appears to want something from him, but he puts it to the back of his mind while looking at a beautiful old house. Although the house is in need of repair, they buy it from dodgy real estate agent, who does his best to rip them off. Fortunately, he dies a rather violent death before he can do any harm and the house ...
...house is broken in to by two local thieves, who steal the newly weds' wedding present. When Mak sees the thieves on the street selling their wrapped presents, he chases them, but they run him down and he falls into a coma. Distraught, Nak sits by his side and is flabbergasted when he suddenly comes out of his coma to tell her that she needs to find Mae Nak. Lapsing back into his coma, Nak is forced to find out about Mae Nak from her grandmother. ... more

Mak and Nak are two young lovers about to get married. Mak is worried about some dreams he has been having about a ghostly woman who appears to want something from him, but he puts it to the back of his mind while looking at a beautiful old house. Although the house is in need of repair, they buy it from dodgy real estate agent, who does his best to rip them off. Fortunately, he dies a rather violent death before he can do any harm and the house is theirs.

A few days later, the house is broken in to by two local thieves, who steal the newly weds' wedding present. When Mak sees the thieves on the street selling their wrapped presents, he chases them, but they run him down and he falls into a coma. Distraught, Nak sits by his side and is flabbergasted when he suddenly comes out of his coma to tell her that she needs to find Mae Nak. Lapsing back into his coma, Nak is forced to find out about Mae Nak from her grandmother. Mae Nak, it seems is long dead, but wants something from Mak and will not release him from his coma until she has it. Will Nak be able to find out what she wants and save her husband from certain death?

When I think of Asian horror, I tend to think Korean or Japanese. This is one of a handful of Thai films that I have watched (although it is directed by Mark Duffield, who is presumably not Thai). Although not the best horror that I have ever seen, it has some good points and I certainly found it very watchable.

Mak and Nak are played by and Siwat Chotchaicharin and Pataratida Pacharawirapong respectively (remember those names if you can!). As young lovers, I found them to be realistic enough, although a little vomit-inducingly sweet at times. Mak's fear of the dreams that he has been having is palpable and Nak, although annoying at times, is convincing enough in her desire to help her husband at all costs.

Meesak Nakarat plays Angel, the dubiously qualified estate agent that shows the young lovers round their house. Apart from a silly giggle, I thought he was excellent - he played the friendly helpful agent to Mak's face, but obviously has something up his sleeve for later. Unfortunately, the same can't be said for the men that played the two thieves. Their acting was appalling - totally exaggerated and very annoying. It is a shame that the director couldn't have found better actors to play these roles, which although small, are quite important. It may be that they were supposed to add a bit of humour to the film, but it didn't work for me.

This is a horror film and so, of course, there are heaps of special effects. These vary in quality. The ghost, Mae Nak, is basically a woman covered in white make-up with black patches on her face and teeth. This was frankly not very believable and I think could have been done much better with clever camera angles. On the other hand, there are some really gory bits - one where a man's head is cut off, another where a man is chopped in half from top to bottom by a glass pain - these are really quite well done. The man chopped in half is particularly gory with his insides falling out. Lovely!

The atmosphere is quite spooky, although I did feel that more could have been done to make it scarier. The fact that Mae Nak does not look realistic doesn't help. The best parts are the dreams that Mak has - what actually happens is a lot less scary. However, it is what doesn't happen and the promise that something will that makes this film watchable.

The plot is pretty weak really. It is apparently based on a Thai legend about a woman who loved her man so much that she wrecked violent revenge on anyone who got in their way. However, there doesn't seem to be a reasonable explanation for why she suddenly reawakens after a hundred years and wants to punish Mak and Nak. In addition, the way that Nak manages to put the story together is totally unrealistic. I could see where the story was going after about half an hour into the film - after that, it was just a matter of sitting back and waiting for it to happen. The ending though, when it came, did have a twist in the tale that I hadn't seen coming. It wasn't particularly believable, but it did make me sit up and take notice.

Another negative is the flashback to the life of Mae Nak. The facial expressions that these actors used were far too exaggerated and were grossly un-lifelike. Although it was perhaps a good idea to be able to visualise why Mae Nak behaves in the way that she does, more attention should have been paid to making it seem realistic. As it is, it did detract from my enjoyment of the film.

The film is in Thai (a beautiful-sounding language) and thus has subtitles. Some may be put off by this, but I found the subtitles extremely clear and in good English and as such, had absolutely no difficulty in reading them. My enjoyment of the film was not in the least eroded by the fact that it had subtitles.

Overall, I found this film to be very watchable, although it is not the best Asian horror I have ever seen. I suspect that those who have already seen good Korean horrors, such as Lady Vengeance and Oldboy, will be fairly disappointed by this film. However, if you are new to the genre, you'll probably enjoy it. Recommended.

The DVD is available from play.com for £6.99.

Classification: 18. Bearing in mind the gory shots of body parts, this is definitely right.

Running time: 1 hour and 42 minutes 

...less