BEI Sui-Mi becomes the new tutor for the WANG family in a bid to secretly investigate the death of Mrs. WANG, her sister. She makes an effort to mend the father-daughter relationship between her niece and Mr. WANG, caring about the girl like a mother. After a series of hauntings occur in the house, Sui-Mi discovers her sister’s diary and comes close to the truth of her death. With the passage of time, Sui-Mi and Mr. WANG fall in love and decide to get married. But on the eve of their wedding, the killer materializes and is intent on seeing Sui-Mi dead.

The film is a localized adaptation of the Gothic romance novel Mistress of Mellyn. It’s aesthetically rich in expressionism, while the creative mise-en-scène showcases the quality of Taiwanese-language productions. Amid modern elements like suspense and murder, the story remains under a feudal construct. Though westernized on the outside, it is conventional on the inside, which creates mild but fascinating contradictions between the portrayal of modern women and the patriarchy which shadows them. (TFAI)