This urban legend or folkore is probably one of the most famous stories told in Southeast Asia. I’m sure many have been told of this story or seen a movie related to this.
Mae Nak Pragkanong is a beautiful country girl who marrys the love of her life and starts a family with her lover Mak. Soon she becomes aware that her husband is called to the army. She also finds out that she is now pregnant with their first child. With Mak off to fight in the war, Nak is forced to stay at home and tend to the farmlands. Being she is pregnant it’s hard for her to work, and many warned her to not work so hard otherwise she’ll have a hard time giving birth. She doesn’t listen and continues to work on the family farm.
On the night she is suppose to give birth a timeline of strange things start to happen. Mak’s friend is killed in the war and Mak himself is injured. During the delievery process Nak is having trouble giving birth. She had such a hard time she later died during childbirth.
In Asia a ghost who dies during pregnancy is said to be very powerful. Nak was a simple girl who just loved her husband and wanted to start a family with him. She loved him so much even in death she waited for his return from the army.
Mak later returns healthy to find his wife and baby waiting for him by their boat dock. He’s over joyed to see his beautiful wife and his newborn son. They live life normally as a happy family.
Then one day everything in their perfect family starts to fall apart. Mak goes out in the village and sees one of his old friend. They started talking and Mak’s friend asked how he’s handling everything. Mak said everything was good and that he loves his wife and child very much. His friend is confused as to why Mak would mention Nak and their unborn child. He tried to tell Mak about Nak’s death but Mak refused to believe that Nak is dead because he’s seen and lived with her these past couple of days.
Nak just wanted to live a life alone with her husband and child and would kill anyone who dared to come in between them, making her a really revengeful ghost.
The story in between gets kind of hazy because this story is really old and people aren’t really sure of what happened to the forehead piece the monk took from Mak Nak to keep her spirit from hurting other people again. No one really mentions what happens to Mak after finding out he was living with his wife’s ghost. In some Thai series it shows that he remarries and others show him just living a life alone.