In 1999, Nonzee Nimibutr, whose success has been credited with opening the Thai film industry to such visionaries as Wisit Sasanatieng and Apichatpong Weerasethakul, electrified cinemagoers with the horror film Nang Nak. Based on a traditional Thai folk legend, Nang Nak cinematically re-envisions the tale of a wife whose eternal love for her family binds her to the earth-even after her death. In a rural village, Nak (Intira Jaroenpura) watches as her husband Mak (Winai Kraibutr) goes off to war. A year later, a half-dead Mak comes home to the welcoming arms of his wife and newborn child. Unfortunately, the joyous reunion doesn't last long as, one by one, neighbors and friends begin to die in horrible, untimely ways. Merging the commercial framework of the Asian horror wave with a narrative rooted in Thai culture, Nang Nak trumped Titanic as the biggest box-office success in Thai history, and stands shoulder to ghostly shoulder with the best in contemporary horror.