Saturday 16 April 2016

N - Mae Nak & Na-young - Fictional Phantoms #AtoZChallenge 2016


Welcome to the letter N today on my blog and I have two female fictional phantoms for you today, one from Thailand and one from South Korea. One is scary, the other is a bit of a dork :). I hope everyone is having a great AtoZChallenge so far.

Mae Nak (The Ghost of Mae Nak)

Mae Nak is a Thai legend about a young woman's eternal love which lives beyond death and she has been the subject of many films. The version below is from The Ghost of Mae Nak.

Mae Nak married a man called Mak and they were deeply in love, were married and had a child together. However, Mak was called to war, where he was gravely injured, while Mae Nak remained at home and went into labour.

Mak was nursed back to health by monks and returned home to find his wife and child living comfortably in their small house.
However, after some time Mak realised that something was wrong. No one would come to their house and their neighbours no longer spoke to them.

When he went to the village they told him his wife died in child birth and so did the baby and he was living with ghosts.

Mae Nak then took revenge on those who tried to take Mak away from her by telling him the truth, killing those who had spoken. At which point the villagers demanded an exorcism, trapping her spirit in a piece of her skull, so she could no longer seek revenge.

However, in the film, pure love awakens her spirit.

Han Na-young (Cheo Yong - Ghost Seeing Detective)

One thing I love about Korean television shows is that they can look almost like a normal police procedural, but have a twist. Cheo Yong is one of my favourites and the twist is that Yoon Cheo-yong (Oh Ji-ho) sees ghosts.

One of these ghosts, who manages to get him into as much trouble as she manages to drag him out of is Han Na Young (Jun Hyoseong). She is a teenage ghost who is confined to the police station where Cheo-yong ends up working and only he can see and talk to her, unless she possess a human being.
In the first season we don't know her name until towards the end and she is stuck in the police station unless she possesses Ha Sun-Woo (Oh Ji-eun), Cheo-yong's police partner.

She talks all the time, says the most outrageous things sometimes and can be very annoying, but she is also earnest, helpful and would do anything to help those she cares about.

In season 2 she has much more freedom and starts to find out she also has supernatural powers in the form of being able to interact with the real world. When she possesses people the thing she likes to do most is eat.

Do you think being able to see ghosts would be useful in your every day life?

~*~
My Other Blogs
I am sharing blogging duties with my sister, Sophie, on two other blogs for the AtoZ as well :

And Sophie also has her own blog in the AtoZ too:

~*~
Other People's Blogs
Don't forget to check out the other participant in this years AtoZChallenge. Click on the image to visit the main site and see the full list.

31 comments:

  1. No, I'm thinking if I saw ghosts in my daily life it would not be useful but scary :)

    betty

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I suppose you'd get used to them though ... maybe?

      Delete
  2. In the Korean show, I wonder if the police partner who gets possessed is aware of that happening to him. It just makes him such a vulnerable character.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. She doesn't until the end (in the first season) and then it's a different lass in the second season and she finds out quite early on and allows it.

      Delete
  3. These two ghosts are new to me but I like both of them.
    The first story is kind of sweet. I mean, sure, the wife is cheting the husband, but she does it because she wants the family she didn't have a chance to have.
    The second sounds like a fun ghost :-)

    @JazzFeathers
    The Old Shelter - Jazz Age Jazz

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The second is definitely a fun ghost - I really hope they do season 3

      Delete
  4. I love how pure love awoke Mae Nak's spirit. I don't think I've ever seen a Korean television series. That's be quite interesting to watch.

    Cheers - Ellen | http://thecynicalsailor.blogspot.com/2016/04/n-is-for-nautical-miles-nancy-drew.html

    ReplyDelete
  5. Ghost are all around us, we don't see them... maybe out of the corners of our eyes.

    Very Nice Post... but you know that, that's why you posted it! Right!

    Welcome in the letter "N"... thank you!
    Jeremy [Retro]
    AtoZ Challenge Co-Host [2016]

    Stop over and find a free "SIX STRINGS: BLOGGING AtoZ CHALLENGE" Here: http://www.jmhdigital.com/

    HOLLYWOOD NUTS!
    You know you want to know if me or Hollywood... is Nuts?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. But what if they were right there and we could talk to them, would they be useful or just a pain? :)

      Delete
  6. Okay I'm in. But depressed that it's not on dramafever. Darn.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I just found it on dramafever. It's under a different title--Cheo Yong. Happy viewing!
      @deb_atwood from
      Pen In Her Hand

      Delete
    2. KissAsian has it too - although the last three eps on s2 have subs from hell :)

      Delete
  7. I think these are 2 very intriguing ghosts. And I cannot blame Mae--I would have done the same thing!

    #AtoZchallenge
    Meet My Imaginary Friends

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. She wasn't harming anyone, so why they wanted to upset her happiness is wrong.

      Delete
  8. Well, that was one scary ghost story you opened your post with. I'm ghost-adversed, so I'd rather not live with them.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I suppose if you saw them all the time and always had they might just be another part of life.

      Delete
  9. Asian ghost stories always seem to be creepier than American ones. They're also a lot tougher to stop! Except for Han Na-young, though.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They often are, aren't they - often there seems to be no way out at all. Yep Na-young is a big exception :)

      Delete
  10. I agree with J E Oneil. Asian ghosts are super creepy.

    Piper Presley
    N is for Novel: Blogging From A to Z Challenge

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yep - one an Asian ghost goes bad there seems to be nothing for it but to run.

      Delete
  11. I like the story of Mae Nak. It's very interesting.

    ~Ninja Minion Patricia Lynne aka Patricia Josephine~
    Story Dam
    Patricia Lynne, Indie Author

    ReplyDelete
  12. Glad the movie of Mae Nak had a happy ending. Of course that means she didn't kill anyone right?
    I'd find the other story, a bit annoying. As I would find a ghost hanging around extremely annoying. LOL I like my privacy!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ummm ... that would spoil the story ;)
      LOL - I suppose entities who don't take any notice of closed doors could be a problem.

      Delete
  13. Two great-looking television ghosts. I watch a fair number of Korean dramas (and even wrote a Korean ghost), but I haven't heard of Ha Na-young. I can't seem to find it in the US. Have you seen Master's Sun? That's a pretty good Korean ghost drama series.
    @deb_atwood from
    Pen In Her Hand

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I have Master's Sun on the to watch list :). I also love Vampire Prosecutor. I have to admit I tend to go for the fan sub sites because I just can't get them anywhere else. I mean Vampire Prosecutor is available on DVD, but it is ridiculously expensive - they want 151 GBP for it!

      Delete
  14. I have enough distractions without dealing with ghosts. With my luck, they would want something from me, like everyone else in this house. That first one looks terrifying.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah - imagine how many of them there might be.

      Delete
  15. I have enough distractions without dealing with ghosts. With my luck, they would want something from me, like everyone else in this house. That first one looks terrifying.

    ReplyDelete

Thank you so much for reading. I love to hear from people. Please leave your comments below.