Nang Nak: Thai bourgeois heritage cinema

Abstract

Abstract From the late 1990s to the early 2000s, history has been flooding commercial Thai cinema as never before. These contemporary ‘films that go back in time’ (nang yon yuk) can be distinguished by their ambition to maximise visibility at both domestic and international levels. Their novelty in the Thai context lies in combining the aesthetics of the nostalgia film, the promotional practices of the high concept film, with the insistent claim of attentive historical representation as a mark of quality and seriousness. The article explores Nonzee Nimibutr’s ghost remake Nang Nak (1999) as an exemplary instance of contemporary Thai bourgeois heritage cinema. It argues that the film’s signification of heritage takes the narrative form of self‐exoticisation, or the inscription of generically arcane Old Siamness for the fascinated gaze of the bourgeois Thai spectator. The article considers the tension between the self‐exoticising aesthetics and the yearning for national self‐representation, brought out especially acutely in this heritage film’s international foray on the film festival circuit.