Movie Time: The Tag-Along《红衣小女孩》

Movie synopsis
Wei’s grandma suddenly disappears for no reason, but strangely the routines still move on as if she never vanished – the laundry is still done, their house is well-arranged as usual, and even breakfast remains prepared for Wei every morning. Distraught with worry, Wei is totally clueless until he finds an uncanny video in his grandma’s camera, showing that there was a little girl in red tagging along her. Oddly enough, after Wei’s grandma finally returns, it turns out that Wei is missing instead. Struggling to unravel the enigma, Wei’s girlfriend Yi-Chun gradually discovers that the mysteries behind Wei and his grandma’s sudden disappearance may be connected to the urban legend of “The Little Girl in Red”, but what’s even worse is yet to come…

阿伟是一个房地产经纪人，认真工作希望能与女友怡君早日结婚。有一天，与他同住的奶奶失踪了。。。 诡异的是，家里却打扫过了、衣服也洗好了、还替阿伟煮了早餐，但就是不见奶奶的踪影。毫无头绪的阿伟逐渐感到焦急，他打开奶奶平日用的相机，竟看到其中一段出游的影片里，有个诡异的身影跟在奶奶背后，像是个穿着红衣服的小女孩，看着这个影像，使阿伟不寒而栗。事情发生七天后，伤心的阿伟突然在家听见奶奶的声音，循线找去，却是眼前一黑，阿伟就此消失在房子里。。。
阿伟失踪的隔天​​，奶奶毫发无伤地回到家中，却仿佛经历过地狱般的折磨，整个人呈现疯狂的状态。担心阿伟安危的怡君，发现阿伟的失踪、奶奶的异常，似乎都跟流传多时的灵异传说「红衣小女孩」有关。为了寻找男友的下落，怡君决定独自深入调查，却因此在罕无人迹的山林之中目睹了最骇人听闻的真相。。。

Directed by: Wei-Hao CHENG 程伟豪

Starring:
River Huang 黄河,
Wei- Ning Hsu 许玮宁,
Yumi Wong  黄诗琪,

In Cinemas (Singapore) 新加坡上映日期: 21st Jan 2016

Language 语言: In Chinese with English Subtitles

Runtime 片长: 93 mins

Movie trailer

Review
The movie is adapted from a true event happened in 1998, and “the little girl in red” has been one of the most talked about mysteries among the Taiwanese people for more than twenty years. A video footage taken by a group of climbers – in which show a little girl in red dress following them on the mountain trail is submitted to a mystery programme in Taiwan. No one among the team know who is this little girl or see her during the mountain trail, and she is believed to be a mountain demon who will capture human back to the mountain and “plant” them into the trees. This footage was authenticated by professionals that it was not edited.

As a horror show lover, I personally prefer ghost in the film with a lot of suspend rather than loads of blood in the show I’m watching. I have to admit throughout the show I was keep pretty scared, and the fear factor increase with my “scary” sister sitting beside me (sometimes the horror effect is caused by the sound and action beside me instead of from the screen).

The “little girl in red” did not appear too often and somehow she turned out to be a demon instead of a ghost which I had initially expected. It looks quite scary upon first look but after showing in the demon form for a few times, I beginning to feel amused as it reminds me of the Gollum in “Lord of the Ring”.

It’s quite interesting on some of the message brought up to us – humans are chopping down trees thus the mountain demons have no space to stay and need to come down to human world; one tend to take the concern from family members for granted and only feel regret when dealing with lost.