Shown at Screamfest under the title Perfect, Wan Mei is a 15-minute short directed by Yiyi Yin and released in 2016. It is a very unusual vampire – though I would suggest still worthy of the name.
Xiao (Allen Theosky Rowe) is a broken man. Madly in love with Wan Mei (Wei-Yi Lin), as the film starts she had broken off the engagement and left him for another man (Michael Shenefelt). In response he has taken a mannequin, painted its nails and dressed it in her clothes and put a life-sized photo of her face on it.
What he doesn’t expect is Wan Mei to turn up at his door, remorseful and hoping to start again. He brings her back into the house (the mannequin is still there, though hidden behind the bedroom door). She receives a text from Michael, the other man, and instead of fessing up, makes an excuse and goes out to see him. In his car he steals a kiss and Xiao sees this (though is not privy to the fact that it is stolen).
Things come to a head, Wan Mei is killed as a goldfish bowl is smashed over her head but the mannequin is face down on the floor and her spilt blood flows to it, so the mannequin is face down in it. Magically this brings the mannequin to life – but is the artificial Wan Mei perfect? It is, of course, the fact that the blood brings the mannequin to life that made me tie this into the vampire genre (as Stoker wrote, the blood is the life) and this is an interesting little short that is beautifully shot and takes a ride into the Uncanny Valley.
The imdb page is here.
Xiao (Allen Theosky Rowe) is a broken man. Madly in love with Wan Mei (Wei-Yi Lin), as the film starts she had broken off the engagement and left him for another man (Michael Shenefelt). In response he has taken a mannequin, painted its nails and dressed it in her clothes and put a life-sized photo of her face on it.
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| Allen Theosky Rowe as Ciao |
What he doesn’t expect is Wan Mei to turn up at his door, remorseful and hoping to start again. He brings her back into the house (the mannequin is still there, though hidden behind the bedroom door). She receives a text from Michael, the other man, and instead of fessing up, makes an excuse and goes out to see him. In his car he steals a kiss and Xiao sees this (though is not privy to the fact that it is stolen).
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| the new Wan Mei |
Things come to a head, Wan Mei is killed as a goldfish bowl is smashed over her head but the mannequin is face down on the floor and her spilt blood flows to it, so the mannequin is face down in it. Magically this brings the mannequin to life – but is the artificial Wan Mei perfect? It is, of course, the fact that the blood brings the mannequin to life that made me tie this into the vampire genre (as Stoker wrote, the blood is the life) and this is an interesting little short that is beautifully shot and takes a ride into the Uncanny Valley.
The imdb page is here.
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