The Snake King's Wife

The Snake Man
Thai promotional poster
Directed by	Tea Lim Koun
Produced by	Tea Lim Koun
Written by	Tea Lim Koun
Starring	Dy Saveth Chea Yuthorn Loto Saksi Sbong
Distributed by	Dara Rath
Release date	1970s
Country	Cambodia
Language	Khmer

The Snake Man (Khmer: ពស់កេងកង; Puos Keng Kang; Thai: งูเก็งกอง; rtgs: Ngu-kengkong) is a 1970 Cambodian drama horror film based on a Cambodian myth about a snake goddess, starring the most well-known Khmer actress of the era, Dy Saveth and Chea Yuthorn, who became popular in Thailand after the film's release. The film was directed by a Chinese Cambodian director, Tea Lim Koun who experienced unprecedented success as a result of the film and is known today as one of the fathers of Khmer Cinema.

The film was an enormous commercial success in Cambodia and had been released at worldwide box offices, with also much success in neighboring Thailand, which brought back an extremely better result of grossing revenue. The film then noticed one of the biggest box-office hits in Southeast Asia at the time, holding today as Khmer Classic films for decades. As reported by Thailand’s Krung Thep Turakij newspaper, The Snake Man is a Khmer film awarded at the 19th Asian Movie Awards in Singapore in 1972 where it received 6 golden awards including Best Director and Best Actress.

The film begins following the life of Neang Nhi, a Cambodian woman. Nhi is married to her husband Minom. Nhi and Minom have a young daughter. One day, Minom leaves town for work, leaving his daughter and wife at home. He tells their daughter that he will return home soon.

Nhi and her daughter are scavenging for food in their crops, when Nhi breaks her shovel-head in an attempt to dig. There is a snake in the hole that her shovel had burrowed, and this snake claims that he is the Snake King. The Snake King tells Nhi that he will help her family if he sleeps with her. So Nhi does.

Nhi has hidden the affair from her husband and her daughter. However, when Minom returns, he discovers that she is pregnant and enraged by this, he manages to discover the secret and starts a plan in order to kill the Snake King. Months later, Minom is able to chop the snake and cook the snake meat as food for Nhi after the many failed attempts. After Nhi found out about the death of the Snake King, she was murdered by her cruel husband while she was bathing. As her womb was opening, there were several little snakes being born; however,most of them were killed by Minom. Only one of the snakes was able to survive. As a child, the only lasting snake, Veasna arrived at a hermit's cottage where the hermit turned him into a human and also named him, Veasna.