Nang Nak

Mak is taken from his rural village west of Bangkok to fight in the Siamese-Vietnamese War (1831–1834). He leaves behind his pregnant wife Nak, and their harsh separation marks the beginning of a perilous period for both of them. The years of conflict loom over their fragile reunion to come.

Mak is wounded and barely survives the war. He eventually returns to Nak and their child, finding a fragile peace awaiting him at home. The reunion is bittersweet, shadowed by the long absence and the fear of what may have changed.

A friend visits and finds Mak living with Nak, whom the villagers believe died months earlier. They realize Mak is spellbound by her ghost. Those who try to tell him she is dead are felled by Nak's night-time vengeance.

When Mak confronts Nak about the rumors, she lies that the villagers disliked her after he left for war and that their son is not Mak's. Believing her, Mak lashes out at anyone who claims she is dead. The deception deepens the rift between truth and illusion.

Driven by curiosity, Mak crawls under the house to retrieve an item. He stumbles on a corpse protruding from the dirt and realises Nak's ghost may be more real than he thought. He watches in horror as Nak extends an arm to retrieve a comb from the floor.

Looking up, Mak sees Nak brushing her hair, then drops the comb as her arm reaches the ground. The baby in her arms is revealed to be a corpse as well. A series of flashbacks reveal that Nak and the child died from complications during a difficult childbirth.

Terrified by the revelation, Mak escapes to the local temple to hide from Nak's haunting presence. Nak follows, determined to win him back, while the village peers on with growing fear. The specter of the dead wife begins to pull at the seams of the living world.

The villagers drive Nak from the home and burn down her house in a bid to dispel the haunting. They summon the kingdom's exorcist to remove the spirit from their midst. Nak refuses to leave unless Mak returns to her side.

Mak pleads with Nak to depart to the netherworld, acknowledging they cannot be together since she is dead. He decides to cut his hair and become a monk to pray for her sins and grant her peace. Nak resists, clinging to the living world nonetheless.

The kingdom's most respected Buddhist monk, Somdej Toh, intervenes in a tearful farewell. Nak repents and leaves her husband for the living world. The monk has the center of her corpse's forehead cut out, releasing her spirit, and makes a girdle brooch from it.

The epilogue states the girdle brooch, forged from the center of Nak's forehead, eventually came into the possession of Prince Chumbhorn Ketudomsak and was handed down through generations. Its fate continues beyond Mak and Nak, linking their tragedy to royal lineage.