When this year's International Film Festival Rotterdam announced that it would dedicate a whole section to Asian ghost stories, I groaned. The infamous "J-horror" was new, fun and scary ten years ago, but the vast wave of "Ringu"-imitations have soured this particular sub-genre to the point where I thought I'd never want to see another long-haired ghost again.
But I got to hand it to the programmers: they've concocted a hell of a selection, providing a surprisingly diverse range of titles. A prime example of this is the Thai movie "Nak", a computer animated children's movie produced by Prachya Pinkaew.
Huh?
A cgi kiddie-horror movie from the guys who made Ong Bak?
Does this mean there is no story, just a lot of cool fights? Thankfully, no. Warring ghosts or not, "Nak" has a lot more heart in it than you would expect, and is more inspired by Miyazaki than by Dragonball Z.
Read on...
Ghost and spirits surround us all, invisible most of the time. Some good ghosts help us, some evil ghosts tease us, but generally the worlds of humans and ghosts leave each other alone.
Until one day when Tee, a young human boy, suddenly gets targeted by an evil force because he is the key to a ceremony to open a large portal. This will allow a large army of evil spirits to enter the human world and reign supreme for all eternity. Bwoohahaha!
Thankfully, the boy is guarded by a group of good spirits led by the legendary and powerful Nak. When Tee still gets kidnapped, his little sister Kaem travels with Nak to the heart of the evil ghost empire to retrieve him in a desperate attempt to save the world.
Again, let me compliment the programmer who put this movie in the "Hungry Ghost" segment of the International Film Festival Rotterdam. And not just because it is an original addition which makes that segment a bit more diverse, but because "Nak" features a veritable "who-is-who" of Asian film ghosts and legends. Not only Nak herself has featured in many movies (she is inarguably Thailand's most famous ghost) but most of her companions are also quite well-known in the Far East. The good side even includes one of the witches from "Mystics of Bali", who can famously send her head flying around with lungs, heart and digestive tract still attached to it.
But the fun really starts when the bad side start their big attack. When, during a festival, "Ringu" is shown in an outside cinema, Sadako herself crawls out of the big screen as one of the villains! Giant-sized and with her evil eye peering through her long hair, she goes after the heroes in a fashion which would have been far too terrifying for me when I was little. Also, later in the movie when the heroes need a place to hide, they open a cupboard and find the little boy from "The Grudge" inside, upon which they say "Move over kid, there's plenty of space". Needless to say, lots of screaming ensues shortly after...
But is it any good?
Well... yes!
At least I certainly enjoyed myself a lot, and for the following reasons:
The animation is cel-shaded 3D cgi. It doesn't look anywhere near as detailed as Pixar's work, and this approach is certainly cheaper to produce, but the designers made clever use of the limitations imposed on them. All characters consist of only a few lines and lots of bright colors, and this gives the movie a unique and pleasant look.
Movement (the actual animation) is occasionally shaky: in some scenes the characters seem to be skating instead of walking, making these look like a bad videogame. But just when you start to get annoyed by this the next few shots look impeccable and beautiful! A bug they solved halfway through the production, perhaps? Whatever the reason, every wide shot of the jungle village, the festival and the tree of spirits looks gorgeous and is worthy of framing.
Reason number two: the narrative actually had a few surprises in it, although these are intent-based rather than story-based (the story here is quite run-of-the-mill).
Throughout there is a strong focus on the merits of self-sacrifice. Fighting isn't even shown as cool or desirable, although the Nak-vs-Sadako rematches never get old and the final third of the movie is actually one big spectacular boss fight in several stages. But the feelings are definitely in the right place here without becoming too cloying. And even though at the end a very unfair pull at your heartstrings is made, it is still quite touching rather than sugary sentimental. Kudos to director Nuttapong Rattanachokesirikul for walking that tightrope and doing it well.
Reason number three: clever genre-related jokes. Sadako may be the best, but there are plenty of others. Happy hunting!
Conclusion:
"Nak" is an animation movie which might never reach the lofty heights of a Pixar or a Sudio Ghibli production, but still a very nice surprise nonetheless. I wouldn't have felt cheated as a paying customer and will definitely try to find a decent DVD (dare I hope for a BluRay?) to show my children.