Pee Mak

The legend of Mae Nak Phra Khanong, the best known story in Thai folklore, has been filmed dozens of times; Banjong Pisanthanakun's version turned it into comedy. Mak, played by Mario Maurer, returns from the war to his village and to his wife Nak and their baby. The four friends who come with him quickly work out that she died and is a ghost; Mak does not, and his friends cannot work out how to tell him. The whole idea sits in that delay: the horror scenes run on the friends' panic and the romantic ones on Mak's ignorance, and the two genres advance simultaneously. The commercial result was extraordinary. Against a budget of one million eight hundred thousand dollars it passed a billion baht worldwide, around thirty-three million dollars, becoming the highest-grossing Thai film of all time. It sold sixteen million tickets and left Ong Bak's record behind. It opened on 28 March 2013. Who it is for: viewers curious about horror comedy and Southeast Asian folklore. Who it is not for: anyone expecting an actual horror film, since the register stays close to farce throughout.