Delusion

The heroine's life centers on writing in her diary, cooking for no one, and long stretches of solitary days. Her days drift into odd amnesia-like episodes and sleepwalking moods that hint at a fragile grip on reality. A narrator voice-over frames the narrative around loneliness, anxiety, and the seeds of paranoia that can bloom into schizophrenia.

On a street, she encounters Yu Wenle, who resembles the 'him' from her diary. She disregards his relationship status and brings him home, cooking for him and gradually falling in love. This encounter marks the escalation of her personal romance and potential slide into delusion.

In the film's opening third, life seems normal but carries a disquieting air. Her demeanor shifts into moments of amnesia or sleepwalking as she longs for love but has no one to give it to. She stays largely alone, with brief exchanges with neighbor Leung Loh Sze and no family or colleagues visible.

A voice-over explains that modern people can fall prey to paranoia caused by loneliness and anxiety, sometimes leading to hallucinations or schizophrenia. The idea anchors the film's exploration of perception versus reality. The heroine's inner life is cast as a potential delusion rather than external threat.

Psychologist Li Yulin treats a patient who believes they are being followed by a mysterious organization. The case probes how belief can feel as real as any external danger. This clinical thread echoes the film's broader questions about reality and control.

Writer Lin Zichen works on a novel about delusion, and as he writes, the line between his fiction and reality begins to blur. The act of storytelling starts to pull him into the same psychic landscape the patient describes. His creative process becomes a lens to examine perception.

Police officer Li Wei investigates a series of bizarre murders that seem linked to delusional patients. Clues from the crime scenes mirror the patterns seen in Li Yulin's patient and Lin Zichen's writing. The investigation expands the narrative beyond a single character to a network of minds.

As the three stories progress, Li Yulin's case, Lin Zichen's novel, and Li Wei's murder cases begin to intersect. Shared themes and overlapping clues reveal a common mechanism behind the delusions, hinting at manipulation or a larger scheme. The borders between professional spheres and personal reality grow blurry.

The narrative culminates in the revelation that a massive psychological experiment underpins Lin Zichen's book and Li Wei's cases. The experiment's architecture explains the coincidences and the pervasive sense of being watched. The film reframes its own events as constructed phenomena rather than random occurrences.

Boundaries between reality and delusion collapse, pulling the trio into a vortex where perception outruns fact. They confront how the experiment has shaped their thoughts, choices, and sense of self. The line between observer and subject dissolves.

The diary entries echo through the convergence, suggesting the heroine's inner life may be both influenced by and feeding the experiment's dynamics. Her isolation and longing become data points in the larger design. The film ties her personal longing to the overarching illusion being manipulated.

The film leaves the fate of the lovers and investigators unsettled, with questions about genuineness, control, and the possibility of escape from the experiment. Viewers are invited to ponder what is real and what is manufactured in a world where minds can be engineered. The final image lingers in uncertainty.