Nang Nak

[Sweeney Todd]

I also loved "Nang Nak".

There is a new version available which takes place nowadays.
Have a look at the Link:

http://www.ethaicd.com/show.php?pid=21498

I also loved "Nang Nak" and I also saw the new version "The Ghost of Mae Nak". I would be interested to know more about the old movie versions of the story. I have one of these old versions, called "Mae Nak Prakhanong", year unknown. I can put the video sleeve on a blog (with a link in the forum) if someone can provide the year, director, and casts informations... One of the problems with Thai movies (and websites) is the absence of vital informations about these films, such as year of production, director, etc. It's necessary in order to avoid confusion, as so many stories were filmed many times. Can anybody make a list of the versions of the Mae Nak / Nang Nak story ? thank you !

[Sweeney Todd]

Following my previous post about "Mae Nak Prakanong", below are two scans of posters or video sleeves from two previous versions. Can someone identify these movies, I mean, the director and actor's names ? (you can click to enlarge the image). In any case, thank you for your help !!!

[TK]

The one on the right: Maenak Prakanong (2002 version)
Casts:
ฌานิศ ใหญ่เสมอ (Chanit Yaisamur a.k.a. Tar Boyscout)
ลิซ่า ไปรพิศ (Lisa Pripis)
สิริมา อภิรัตนพันธุ์ (Sirima Apiratanapan)

Director:
พิชัย น้อยรอด (Pichai Noirod)

Also still available to buy at ... http://www.ethaicd.com/show.php?pid=14023

[TK]

The one on the left is Maenak Prakanong, 1978 version.

CASTS
สมบัติ เมทะนี Sombat Methanee(as Mak)
ปรียา รุ่งเรือง Preeya Rungruang(as Nak)
เนาวรัตน์ ยุกตะนันท์ Naowarat Yuktanant (as Chom-nard)

Directed by:
แดง เสนีย์ เป้าประดิษฐ์ Seni Paopradit (aka Dang Seni)

Produced (or distributed) by โกมารชุนภาพยนตร์ (maybe, Komarachun Movie)

Producer: ศักดา ศิริรัตนปัญญา Sakda Sirirattanapanya
script by: พรรณรังษี Pan-rangsi

[Sweeney Todd]

Hi TK... How to thank you for the invaluable informations about these movies ? if I can help you in anything from France, just ask me...
Of course, being given my interest for Thai movies, you can ask me why I didn't learn the language. The answer is simple : I'm interested in fact for movies from every country of the world, in every language. With a preference for films generally ignored in "reference books", always incomplete for my taste. So it would be impossible for me to learn any language on this planet !!!
I'm also sorry for the poor reproduction of the beautiful Thai poster, but in a few weeks I'll ask to a friend who is a photographer to make decent reproductions of the posters I have.
One of my Thai posters is for the Hong Kong movie "The Witch with Flying Head", but others are (probably) Thai movies, dealing with the Krasue legend. Another poster is very curious, depicting a old-style Frankenstein monster (directly taken from a still of Glenn Strange in "Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein"), a werewolf, a vampire bat, modern buildings, etc. This one could be a Hong Kong movie but I'm not sure.
I have a collection of Thai movies, mostly on VCDs, some on DVDs - with the advantage of English optional subtitles in some cases. And it's my intention to buy more of these movies in the future.

[Junmia]

In Cambodia, there has been a movie entitled "Neang Neath" (pronunce neeng neet) about the ghost of a wife who died when giving birth to her child, while the husband was away. And i've been told that it was actually a "remake" of Nang Nak. I guess the story is exactly the same ^^
It was said to be set in Battambang province, the sceneries were very beautiful, the shooting was quite good (too good actually for a Khmer production), the actors were unknown to me, the special effects, though still crude, were better than what Khmers can afford.

So I'm wondering if this movie was not actually Thai and was only dubbed in Khmer.

Can you tell me if this cover is of the Thai movie Nang Nak?



Otherwise, I liked the story, but it was then reproduced too many times (wife died while husband away) and I really really loved the lullaby. I don't like Khmer horror movies at all but this one was above the average.

There has also been some arguing about the origin of the tale, some think that each of Thailand and Cambodia have this story, some think that Cambodia copied the story from Thailand. Anyway, I did my work and did some search on the Internet and I couldn't find anything about a Cambodian tale of the same story, but I could find a page about Nang Nak and the altar devoted to her.

[Sweeney Todd]

According to a Cambodian video site (I asked for it, as I have the intent to order "Neang Neath") this film is not the Thai movie simply dubbed in khmer, but another version. I'll tell more about it when I'll get the DVD.
Some legends seem to be common to both peoples, for instance I found in Great-Britain a video of a film called "Crocodile Men". It was neither any of the recent versions ("Krai Thong", 2001, and "Chalawan Returns", 2005), nor the two Thai movies produced in the 1980s by Chai-yo Prods and starring Sorapong Chatree ("Krai Thong", "Krai Thong 2"), but another version, "Kritong Kraper Charavann" aka "Krai Thong Kropeu Chharavann", aka "Krai Thorng Krawper Charavan" (sorry for the different spellings, I got them from different sources), made circa 1978 I think, directed by Hui Keung and starring Hui Keung, Huoy Dina, Hsien Yu Thing. The female star of this production was famous Cambodian actress Dy Saveth (Dee Savet) who made, among others, some entries in the Cambodian/Thai saga, "The Snake Girl" !!! This film seems to be a copro between Cambodia and Hong Kong, but Thailand could be possibly involved as well.
Recently I ordered a Cambodian movie called "Plerng Ches Arb" (Burn the Witch) on DVD, and it was another variation on the Krasue myth, complete with the head and intestines...
It's very difficult, especially for an European, to identify exactly an Asian movie, especially when people like Godfrey Ho bought the rights (I suppose) of an unknown Thai movie, cut half of the scenes, and add specially shot sequences without any connection with the original story, the dialogue being changed in order to make some logic of the patchwork. For instance, the film internationally known as "Crocodile Fury", which is a mixing of crocodile sequences and hoping vampires mixed with no-names American actors, is in fact composed (for the crocodile sequences) of scenes lifted from "Krai Thong 2" with Sorapong Chatree !!! the paradox being that the two 1980s versions of "Krai Thong" are available on VCD, but the transfert is poor and the image hideously cropped - when all the sequences from the second film are beautifully rendered in "Crocodile Fury", in Scope, and vibrant colors !!!

[TK]

These are the versions of Mae Nak as listed at Thaifilm.com (year in Buddhist Era/year in A.D.) So it seem the oldest version is the same one that available at ethaicd

By the way, list of the films at Thaifilm.com started from 1927 and it seems that they are few thai films that may be horror film made before 1959 so I doubt that the Mae Nak 2502 version will be the first thai horror film ever. And I think the list is not comprehensive since I think there was also นางนาคพระโขนง (2495/1952) but while thaifilmdb.com and thaifilmdirector.com are unavailable (I've got 404 error), I have no other mean to check it.

1) แม่นาคพระโขนง (2502/1959)
2) แม่นาคคืนชีพ (2503/1960)
3) วิญญาณรักแม่นาค (2505/1962)
4) แม่นาคคะนองรัก (2511/1968)
5) แม่นาคพระนคร (2513/1970)
6) แม่นาคพระโขนง (2516/1973)
7) แม่นาคอาละวาด (2516/1973)
8) แม่นาคอเมริกา (2518/1975)
9) แม่นาคบุกโตเกียว (2519/1976)
10) วิญญาณรักแม่นาคพระโขนง (2521/1978)
11) แม่นาคพระโขนง (2521/1978)
12) นางนาค ภาคพิศดาร (2528/1985)
13) หม้อแม่นาค (2528/1985)
14) แม่นาค 30 (2530/1987)
15) แม่นาคอาละวาด (2532/1989)
16) แม่นาคคืนชีพ (2533/1990)
17) สัญญาใจแม่นาคพระโขนง (2535/1992)
18) แม่นาคเจอผีปอบ (2535/1992)
19) แม่นาคพระโขนง (2537/1994)
20) วิญญาณรักแม่นาคพระโขนง (2538/1995)
21) นางนาก (2542/1999)

If you cannot read thai, please use thai2english for transliteration, (I am too lazy to do it ) link here http://www.thai2english.com/trans.html?query_id=12747

[Sweeney Todd]

Really incredible ! 21 titles... In France we have less movies on Napoleon ! (I'm kidding)

So, if you add the 1952 version you mentioned, plus "Nang Nak Part 2" (directed by I. Aning and starring Krit Suwunparb, Sawika Karnjanamartr, and Tao Chernyim), plus the 2002 (or 2004 ?) version directed by Pichai Noirod (with Tar Boyscout, Sirima Apiratanapan),plus the recent "The Ghost of Mae Nak", it makes a total of 25 Thai movies based on the same story !

I don't know how many versions were made in Cambodia... Perhaps the recent "Neang Neath" was the first one.

Curiously, I found the same translation site mentioned in your post some hours ago, this afternoon, and used it to obtain phonetic translations of some titles from the video catalogues like eThaiCD, generally they give the English title (often different from the original), and the Thai title just below, so in obtaining the phonetic transliteration, you can obtain an approximation of the Thai title and avoid confusions (as some other sources only give the transliteration, not the English title). Of course the difference of spellings remains a problem, like "pii", "pee", phi" or "phee"...

Of course these problems only exist for people who don't speak (and read) Thai. But some of the transliterations of names (for instance) have so many spelling it's almost impossible to find them on the Web. For instance, I have a movie whose translated title is "The Evil Demon Tiger" (or "The Accursed Demon Tiger". The director's name is "Naam Mon". I tried to find anything on him, but he can be mentioned under a different spelling, "Nam Moon", "Nham Mun", etc. The same goes for any of the actors in the cast...

In any case, thank you very much for the list of Mae Nak movies - practically none of these movies are listed in "reference books" about Fantasy / Horror cinema.


(quote) "while thaifilmdb.com and thaifilmdirector.com are unavailable... "

You are right, but I used Wikipeda. Apparently, an even earlier version of Mae Nak was made...
The mixing of informations in Wikipeda and the Thai2English system is amusing. For instance, let's take your second entry for 1992, film N° 18 in your list. Thai2English gives the following transliteration for the title:

Mae Naak jer pee bpop

Now, I use your Thai writing of the same title and I use Google to find the page of Wikipeda with this title (and the same date) and I get the Thai credits (director + some stars). They are as such:

Director: "ja-rin prom rang see"

Stars: "dtree rak rak gan dee", "nat-nee sit sa-maan", "ai la-daa chaa ree maa", "soh nik san nee", and "kam dtan chaa dtree".

Of course I'm not familiarized with the Thai names and surnames, but if I found a Maenak movie with a director named Jarin Promrangsee, and some actors whose names are almost the same as above, I can imagine it's the 1992 movie !

Incidentally, in using your Thai writings of the titles on Google, I also saw that the other 1992 version (film n° 17, "San-yaa jai mae naak pra koh-nong") is available on VCD too, as "Sunya jai Maenak Prakanong"... so the system works !!!

[Junmia]

Cambodia produces a lot of low-budget horror movies (most of them about female ghosts like "preay" (in Khmer) = spirit of a woman who died violently; about "aap" (in Khmer) which is the equivalent of the Thai "Krasue", and lately there have been a lot of movies about haunted houses), but as far as I know only "Neang Neath" and "Proleung Khmaoch" (in Khmer it means "Ghost" and this movie was low-budget and not even an entertainment ^^ have a similar storyline to "Nang Nak" (wife dies when husband's away, and she returns as a ghost to be near her beloved).

That's impressive the number of versions of Nang Nak ^_^ It's maybe as much as or more than the various versions of Vampires (mixing Count Dracula and Nosferatu)