“Love, keeps the spirit of the dead alive, in memories.” When a patriarch (Lau Ching-wan) dies in a car accident, a once-happy family of four experiences earth-shattering changes. As an adult, the daughter (Mia Yam) decides to write a novel to alleviate her mother’s (Kelly Lin) pain. In the novel, she imagines that her father was blinded after surviving the crash and also turns to writing to find healing. However, in the midst of writing, the daughter suffers the loss of both her mother and her little brother, causing both the real and fictional worlds to collapse. Wai Ka-fai continues his exploration of fate and impermanence. The complex script he co-wrote with Au Kin-yee features an intricate and carefully linked narrative structure that blurs reality and fiction, with a depiction of the afterlife that combines mystical characteristics from both East and West. A writer can determine the life and death of a character, but who decides the life and death of those in the real world? This is one of the few Hong Kong films that truly explores the meaning of creation and life and death in depth.

Miss Giddens (Deborah Kerr) is hired to work as a governess for Miles and Flora at a country estate. When she hears about a ghost story involving the previous governess and witnesses the children’s odd behaviour, she wonders whether they are the doing of humans or spirits who are possessing human bodies. In addition to the two children’s superbly uneasy performances, Kerr is also at the peak of her performing prowess, perfectly conveying the secret intertwining of sexual consciousness during the religiously puritan Victorian era. Georges Auric’s off-kilter score and Freddie Francis’ magical black-and-white widescreen cinematography go against horror conventions with their ethereal and mysterious style.