Midnight Hair

A Mu is a husband living with his pregnant wife, carrying a long-buried past from the orphanage. He harbors a dual identity as A Ming, revealing a fractured sense of self. He is revealed to be the grandson of the orphanage dean and is linked to Qingqing’s murder and his grandmother’s death, a truth that destabilizes his life. His struggle culminates in a decision to end his life to prevent further harm to Xiaomei.

Xiaomei is two months pregnant and increasingly unsettled by the supernatural presence in their home. She drives the investigation into A Ming and Qingqing’s past, confronting the truth behind the orphanage and the locked room. Her miscarriage during a confrontation with the white-dressed figure deepens the emotional stakes and foreshadows the cost of buried secrets.

A Ming is the alternate persona that haunts and overpowers in the villa, representing a darker facet of A Mu’s past. The plot gradually reveals that A Ming is actually Xiaoshan, the orphan-turned-child whose history intertwines with A Mu and Qingqing’s murder. This identity drives the central mystery and explains the supernatural manifestations tied to the two boys in the paintings.

Yangyang is a new orphan girl introduced at the end, carrying the red doll and singing the string-game song. Her appearance suggests the cycle of haunting continues, as a hand reaches for the doll just as the film cuts to black. Her presence symbolizes unresolved secrets and the ongoing influence of the past on the living.

Yu Xiaohan is Qingqing’s younger half-sister who appears as the woman in white, later explained to be Xiaohan in hospital. She taunts A Mu to confess, seeking truth about Qingqing’s murder and the family’s losses. Her appearance links the orphanage’s history to the present, and she ultimately seeks accountability and closure for the past.