Mae Nak Phra Khanong (1959)

More tragic love story than horror

The first half focuses on village life, Nak and Mak meeting and their early married life. The second half is a mix of comedy-horror, supernatural and tragic love story. The copy I found to stream was (re)dubbed and included strange "space-age" sound effects and much later music.
The end, where they stopped speaking, I found more affecting. I'd very much like to see this with the original sound though that may no longer exist.
Overall though, it was worth watching as part of the history and glimpses into early Thai cinema and how, in 1959, they presented life in the previous century.

Having seen Nang Nak (1999) first made it easier for me, with only rudimentary Thai, to follow the story in this version of the legend. The auto-generated English subtitles sometimes clarified, sometimes confused.

This mix of original and redub makes it hard to choose ratings, so I just gave it 7's across the board. The music in the redub was inconsistent - some of it was traditional and effective, some of it western and out of place. Likewise, I'm inclined to rate the original acting higher, but the redubbed voices lower. I watched this out of interest in the different ways stories are told and this mixture has its own place in that.

Leer más