The spirit of Mae Nak
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The spirit of Mae Nak |
| Original title | นาค รัก แท้ วิญญาณ ความ ตาย |
| Country of production | Thailand |
| original language | Thai |
| Publishing year | 2005 |
| length | 102 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Mark Duffield |
| script | Mark Duffield |
| music | Steve Bentley-Klein |
| camera | Mark Duffield, Ryan Godard |
| occupation | |
| |
The spirit of Mae Nak ( Thai : นาค รัก แท้ วิญญาณ ความ ตาย , pronunciation: [ nâːk rák tʰɛ́ː winjaːn kʰwaːm taːj ] - literally: Nak: true love, spirit, death ) is one of numerous film adaptations of the popular Thai legend of Mae Nak, which was made in 2005 in a Thai-British co-production. Directed by Mark Duffield .
action
The story begins when a Thai couple, Nak and Mak, want to buy a house. During the tour of the house, Mak sees a ghost who from then on encounters him again in nightmares. Mak still decides to buy the home. After purchasing it, Nak purchases an amulet in a shop. Shortly afterwards, the house seller Fah is beheaded in an unusual way, apparently by a ghost.
The next day, Nak, Mak's fiancée, goes to see a seer to invite him to her upcoming wedding. The wedding takes place shortly afterwards. On their wedding night they both move into the house they have bought. Mak sees "the spirit" again in his dreams. He soon realizes that something is wrong.
When Nak and Mak come back from work the next day, they find that they had been broken into and all their belongings were stolen. Mak reports the theft to the police. Shortly afterwards he finds his things that are for sale on a street. While trying to confront the thieves, he is hit by a car. Mak has been in a coma ever since. During the visit to the sick, Nak learns from Mak alone that she should find “Mae Nak”. Since Nak does not know the story of Mae Nak, she asks her grandma, who she tells her as follows:
"Mae Nak" is a ghost. She died in the unsuccessful delivery of her child. Her love is so strong that after her death she is still visible as a spirit. Phi Mak, her husband, who knew nothing of her death, came back home. He did not notice that his wife had already passed away. The neighbors tried to warn Phi Mak, but he didn't believe them. However, when he later saw her body, he accepted it. To put an end to the ghost, a monk cut a piece of her skull and since then Mae Nak seems to have disappeared.
At first Nak cannot see any connections, but when her lawyer informs that her home seller Fah has passed away, she gradually becomes suspicious. She learns that Fah was a fraud (he had built in a special clause that allowed him to significantly increase the selling price) and that he never intended to sell the house. Now that Fah has died, Nak is the rightful owner of the old house. Shortly thereafter, Nak discovered her stolen clothes at a flea market. When trying to steal the shirt, she sees the amulet that Mak gave her. This catches them and runs away from the thieves. Nak escapes and the thief is later killed by the ghost of Mae Nak.
With the help of the amulet she can see her old school, where she kissed Mak for the first time. She takes it to the seer and learns that this amulet is originally the missing piece of bone from Mae Nak. Nak instinctively goes to the old school, under which, as it turns out later, is Mae Nak's grave. Nak organizes help and digs in the said place. When they discover the bones, the police surprise them and arrest them.
Later, after Nak was released and Mak's condition (now it is with the monks) has not improved, she asks Chai to smuggle her to the morgue so that she can insert the missing piece of Mae Nak's bone and her mind may be freed. She succeeds and Mak wakes up in the middle of the exorcism ritual.
In the final scene you see Nak and Mak in bed, where they both wake up sweaty from their nightmare - obviously the whole story was a bad dream.
background
Legend has it that over 100 years ago a certain "Mae Nak" ( Mother Nak , also "Nang Nak" - The Lady Nak ) on the Phra Khanong Canal ( Khlong Phra Khanong ) near the Wat Maha Bud temple together with her husband Thit Mak lived in a tiny hut. When Mae Nak became pregnant, Thit Mak had to go to war (in some versions of the legend it's a war against the Burmese, in others it's just some war). Mother and child died during childbirth, but the mother's spirit was not ready to leave this world as Mae Nak was eagerly waiting for her husband to return. When Mak finally realized that his wife was a ghost, he fled to the temple. This angered Mae Nak so much that she terrorized the entire area. When the monk Somdet Phra Phutthachan (To Phromrangsi) found out about it, he removed part of her forehead bone in a ceremony. He made a belt buckle out of it, which he wore all the time. This could put an end to the ghost.
Wat Maha Bud, the temple in legend, is a Buddhist temple ( wat ) that was founded as early as the Ayutthaya period . Today it is also called "Wat Mae Nak Phra Khanong" by the locals, as there is a shrine for Mae Nak (also "Mae Nak Phra Khanong" - mother Nak from Phra Khanong ) in a corner of the temple grounds , who was loved by the many admirers is adorned with flower garlands. Wat Maha Bud was formerly in the Bangkok district of Phra Khanong , after a restructuring the temple has been in the Suan Luang district since 1990 .
Reviews
"Another film adaptation of the Thai" Nang Nak "legend, which mixes elements of the haunted house story with Asian ghost stories and creates a dense atmosphere through the ingenious camera work."
Previous film versions of the material
There are many other film versions of the Mae Nak legend (like Romeo and Juliet in western cultures) before and after this implementation. According to Duffield, his Mae Nak should be the 21st version.
Web links
- Ghost of Mae Nak in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Official site (in English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ http://www.bangkoktourist.com/unseen_historical_love_legend_of_mae_nak.php ( Memento from March 2, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) - Wat Maha Bud and the love story of Mae Nak ;
- ↑ The spirit of Mae Nak. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed February 25, 2017 .
- ↑ cf. earlier versions