Kidnapping of a Big Star

In the Haibei People's Hospital, Qinghai province, China, the present-day on the night of a full moon, a patient is murdered by a syringe through her chest. This adds stress to the hospital's heart surgeon Gu Zhen Sheng who had recently lost his wife Xia Xue to an illness. Since his wife's death, Gu has been suffering from nightmares that have affected his work, and Xia Xue's younger sister, Nurse Xia Xiao Yu also is emotionally disturbed.

Pottery factory owner Ming Fu (Ng Kai Wah) is haunted by visions of the blazing death of his business partner in a suspicious fire. Widowed, Ming is set to marry Ye Yue (Miao Pu) much to the consternation of Ming’s “Rebecca”-like housemaid Zhen Zi (Ayumi Ito of “All About Lily Chou-Chou”), who just happens to be his late wife’s sister. Yarn hints at paranormal causes as more of Ming’s business associates die one by one, but an early slip gives the game away. Zhang’s helming, aided by Japanese vet Yudai Kato’s lustrous lensing, is inventive, but a heavy glazing of horror cliches make this cracked yarn damaged goods.

Set in the village of Aicun, Yunnan province, pic begins in the early '80s, with poor, lame farmer Ge Wang (Tuo Guoquan) pressured by his family to marry the mentally and emotionally stunted Cherry (Miao Pu). Ge weds the unkempt but harmless woman, who spends most of her time chasing children and offering them the fruit that is her namesake. Once married, the shamelessly sexual and embarrassingly naive Cherry shows an insatiable desire to have her own child. Fate intervenes in the second act when Cherry finds an abandoned baby girl in the woods. Though the sprig, named Scarlet, comes complete with a handful of bank notes, Ge panics, thinking he can't afford to raise a child, and reacts in callous fashion. Final section puts a pre-pubescent Scarlet (Long Li) centerstage as she deals with the stigma of having a mentally handicapped mother whose affection is both infinite and frequently inappropriate.