Bunshinsaba 3 2014

Xu Lian, Jiang Yiyan, a mental patient with a fragile heart, escapes from her facility to reclaim her daughter Xiao Ai from her grandparents. When the grandparents try to move Xiao Ai away, a car crash occurs and Xiao Ai is the only survivor, forcing Xu Lian to move with her to her grandfather’s villa in a remote countryside. From the very first night in the new home, Xu Lian is haunted by unsettling images and sounds, most notably the sight of a girl with a charred face who seems to originate from a painting on the staircase wall. Xiao Ai, meanwhile, discovers a tricycle bearing the name “Xiao Ai,” a clue that connects to the figure of the charred girl and to the eerie memory haunting the house. The village around the villa appears to know Xu Lian in some way, and among its residents is a mentally handicapped man who claims to be searching for his wife and daughter, adding a layer of mystery to the place.

In an effort to help Xiao Ai integrate with other children, Xu Lian is frustrated by the local kindergarten’s headmistress, who degrades Xiao Ai’s antisocial behavior. She hires a tutor, Yuan Yuan, for Xiao Ai, even though she initially doubts the girl’s youth. Yuan Yuan is shown to be skilled with ouija, and she becomes entangled in a complicated dynamic with a colleague who falls in love with her and hopes for a deeper relationship if he agrees to a certain arrangement. To address the haunting painting, Xu Lian borrows a hammer from a neighbor whose husband is an artist. But when she returns the hammer one night, she discovers the neighbor has been killed by her husband, and Xu Lian narrowly escapes, fainting from her illness. A call to the police yields no trace of the alleged killing, leaving Xu Lian with more questions than answers.

As Yuan Yuan settles into her role as Xiao Ai’s tutor, she suddenly bolts away after a stomachache, later revealing to a colleague that she is pregnant by her art teacher, Xu Kuizhe. Her plan to obtain an abortion with help from her colleague is explored, but the attempt spirals into danger when he refuses and is knocked unconscious by an accident. Yuan Yuan heads to Xu Lian’s residence but is seized by Xu Kuizhe, who is revealed to be the neighbor’s husband. Xu Lian confronts him to rescue Yuan Yuan, and the two flee until a car accident appears to strike Xu Kuizhe, though no trace of the incident remains.

Years pass: Yuan Yuan undergoes pregnancy, gives birth, and later, after rejecting Xiao Ai, abducts the child and confines her in the attic of Xu Lian’s house. Through the clues left by the mentally handicapped man—who turns out to be Yuan Yuan’s colleague driven mad after Yuan Yuan abandoned him—Xu Lian uncovers the full truth. Yuan Yuan is not merely a tutor; she is the identity Xu Lian assumed ten years earlier. Xu Kuizhe had fathered the child, and his parents had apologized, allowing Yuan Yuan to adopt her role as their granddaughter, Xu Lian. Five years later, Xiao Ai is burned alive in the attic while playing hide-and-seek with Yuan Yuan, who cannot intervene due to her own illness. To keep Xiao Ai’s life going, Xu Kuizhe’s parents adopt a girl named Wen Wen and force her to take on the role of Xiao Ai, ensuring the family’s story continues.

Weeks after these revelations, Yuan Yuan visits the mental facility to review her interview videos, insisting on the possibility that her daughter might still be alive and rejecting the doctor’s insistence about her daughter’s death. Stepping outside, she is greeted by Wen Wen, the girl who has been living as Xiao Ai, a haunting ending that circles back to the cycle of memory, identity, and the unresolved truth that lingers in the countryside house.