Saagar Kote
‘Mudborn’ or ‘Ni wa wa’ is a Taiwanese horror film that chronicles the journey of Hsu-Chuan and Hsu Muhua, a married couple. Chuan is a VR game developer fascinated by horror themes, and Muhua is an artifact conservator. Inexplicable occurrences trouble the couple after Chuan brings home a clay doll that he finds at his office. Muhua, who is pregnant, begins behaving strangely around the doll. Lacking clues about the reasons behind these actions, Chuan and Muhua are pushed into uncertainty.
When it becomes clear that an unknown spirit may be the cause of these occurrences, Chuan wishes to solve the mystery at any cost. He seeks help from a young man well-versed in supernatural phenomena, hoping he can save Muhua and the unborn child before it is too late. As secrets from the past and present converge, Chuan and Muhua must work together to survive against seemingly overwhelming odds and puzzling threats. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Mudborn Plot Synopsis
Chang, a VR scanning expert, and Ah-Yi, a VR game developer at the company Dreamland Entertainment, go to a haunted house to scan its layout for an upcoming video game. Ah-Yi is injured and starts bleeding when an object hits him after he touches a clay doll found by Chang in a kiln. The house has a dark history, wherein the former owner was possessed, leading him to murder his family with a knife. One body which was never recovered was that of the owner’s wife, named Liu Hsin, who was a ceramic artist making clay dolls. Ah-Yi’s blood touches the clay doll, seemingly changing its color. Ah-Yi then wakes up in a zombie-like trance, his face covered in dripping blood. Chang is dragged away through a mysterious door back into the kiln. Chuan is also a game developer at Dreamland Entertainment and lives with his pregnant wife, Muhua, who is an artifact conservator.
Yi arrives at the office building in a possessed state, bleeding on the stairs. Due to Yi’s questionable health and odd behavior, the company makes Chuan the lead developer for the upcoming game. Chuan takes home a box of Yi’s research material, which also includes the clay doll from the haunted house. Chuan researches Hsin as he begins developing the game. At Chuan’s house, strange things occur, like the AC turning on by itself. Muhua finds the clay doll and notices that a part of its head is missing. She also hears strange noises and a lullaby, scaring her. When Chuan sees his wife the next day, one of her eyes is noticeably red, and she behaves more aggressively. She also craves the kind of food she never liked. He assumes all this has to do with a hormonal imbalance and doesn’t dwell on it.
Chuan meets Hsin’s sister, Liu Yen, and learns about Hsin’s ceramic artifacts having talismanic inscriptions to ward off evil spirits. Chuan visits the haunted house to learn more and also creates advanced VR experiences inspired by it. At home, Muhua hears a voice again, which forces her to cut herself to feed blood to the clay doll. The clay doll has talisman inscriptions on its back, which Muhua erases. The narrative introduces A-Sheng, an expert on talismans, who believes in their power. Muhua repairs the clay doll and fills it with blood-filled clay. Chuan gets a call from a distressed Yi, who warns him about the doll and tells him to contact a Taoist priest to deal with it. When Chuan visits Yi, the latter is controlled in a “Voodoo” fashion by a possessed Muhua, who uses the clay doll to force Yi to kill himself.
Strange occurrences continue to affect Chuan’s house, forcing him to consult Sheng after a Taoist priest tells him to do so. Sheng assures Chuan that he can take care of Muhua’s possession. Sheng deduces that the talisman on the doll is incomplete because a part of the doll, including parts of the inscription, was broken. Sheng faces Muhua and temporarily controls her with the power of other talismans that he has. Sheng also tells Chuan that Muhua must be freed from her possession before sunrise on the next day. Chuan and Sheng go to Yen to learn more about Hsin. They perform a séance on Yen, allowing her to look into her sister’s past.
She reveals that her sister had a miscarriage and got obsessed with having a child. Hsin mixed the dead fetus with clay acquired from a graveyard and made the clay doll. It led to several spirits possessing the doll. Yen also reveals that Hsin, in a state of possession, killed her husband. Due to her feeling of extreme guilt, Hsin drew the talisman on the clay doll, trapping the spirits inside. This was followed by Hsin killing herself within a kiln, holding the clay doll.
Mudborn Ending: Do A-Sheng and Hsu-Chuan Save Hsu Muhua? How?
After finding out the truth about Hsin’s past and the way in which the spirits got trapped in the clay doll, Sheng and Chuan reach a decisive point in the story. Their mission is to now seal the spirits inside another host and free Muhua from possession before it is too late. Sheng realizes that they must find Hsin’s body quickly to use it as a host to trap the spirits. Every second the spirits remain in Muhua’s body, they draw blood from her and grow stronger. Sheng and Chuan drive to Hsin’s haunted house, with Muhua unconscious, tied up in the backseat, with the clay doll next to her. When they reach the house, Sheng burns an incense stick to protect himself from evil spirits within it. While Sheng walks inside, he asks Chuan to keep an eye on Muhua and to prevent her from escaping.
Sheng also gives Chuan a protective amulet to counter danger. Chuan, while sitting in the car, puts on the VR headset and uses it to map the house using earlier scans, hoping to find the missing piece of the clay doll, which contains the remaining parts of the binding talisman. Finding the missing parts of the talisman is important as it is the only way to seal the spirits inside Hsin’s corpse before sunrise, if Sheng finds it. After countering evil spirits through other talismans in his possession, Sheng finally reaches the kiln, where Hsin’s corpse is expected to be found. Sheng finds Hsin’s skull, and Chuan finally locates the missing talisman piece through VR. When Chuan tells Sheng about this, Muhua wakes up, with the spirits fully controlling her.
Before Chuan spots her, she escapes from the car, along with the doll. The possessed Muhua shuts the kiln’s door, trapping Sheng inside. Chuan runs into the house and uses the amulet to fight Muhua as she grows more violent. Chuan manages to free Sheng, but gets lightly stabbed by Muhua before doing so. Under the amulet’s effect, Muhua falls to the ground, growing weaker. Sheng uses the details from the missing talisman piece and creates a replica of the talisman. He then uses this replica to draw out the spirits from Muhua’s body. Despite the spirits coming out of the woman’s body, Sheng is unable to trap them within Hsin’s skull, as it is not a living entity. The spirits prove far more powerful than expected and require a living host. The spirits stay in the room, desperate to find another host to bind themselves to.
It is when Sheng realizes that the spirits are targeting Muhua’s unborn baby to be their host. Sheng tries to convince Chuan that trapping the souls in the baby is the only way to save Muhua. But Chuan refuses to harm the unborn child as he desperately wants to save both the mother and the baby. Just as Sheng is about to use the talisman to seal the spirits within the baby, Chuan makes a brutal choice. He cuts himself and bleeds on the clay doll to attract the spirits. The souls immediately latch onto Chuan’s body, but Sheng is not able to immediately seal them in. The possessed Chuan fights Sheng and overpowers him. He then walks towards Muhua to stab her, as commanded by the spirits.
However, when he sees Muhua’s womb, the human within him comes alive, countering the effect of the spirits temporarily. In a shocking moment, Chuan stabs himself in the left eye. He requests that Sheng seal the spirits immediately. This time around, Sheng proves capable enough and successfully binds the souls within their new host. Before collapsing to the ground, Chuan assures his wife that the baby will grow up to be healthy. As Muhua weeps for her husband, he seemingly breathes his last.
Does Muhua Give Birth to a Healthy Child? What Does She See?
The narrative picks up many days after Chuan’s ultimate sacrifice. We see Muhua narrating an old story to her baby daughter. The kid listens to the story attentively and smiles at her mother. Muhua’s tale is about the value of a father in a person’s life. This is an emotional moment for Muhua as she struggles with conflicting feelings. On one hand, she is happy that her daughter is healthy and smiling, on the other, she still struggles to come to terms with her husband’s death. Although she desires to see her husband again, he now exists only in her memories. While the baby was born after the mother faced extremely difficult circumstances, she will likely grow up without any signs of possession. Despite the difficult decisions Chuan made, the kid will presumably live a happy life. Muhua receives a package from Chuan’s VR gaming company, which leads her to a poignant moment of self-realization.
She puts on the VR headset she finds in the package and sees a version of Chuan through it. The virtual version of Chuan has his loving qualities. Muhua tells VR Chuan that the baby is six months old and is learning to talk. Muhua feels emotional, realizing how much she misses her husband. VR Chuan assures Muhua that he will always be there for her, linked to her phone and computer forever. The VR man hopes to watch the kid grow up and be happy. Muhua hugs her husband’s digital version and holds on tight. She will always have a source of support and comfort when she needs it the most in the future. Despite the tragic nature of the love story between Chuan and Muhua, the inherent beauty of their relationship is bound by sacrifice and loyalty.
What Does the Mid-Credits Scene Signify? What Happens to Hsin’s Spirit?
A shocking revelation unfolds in the mid-credits scene, which turns the narrative upside down in the most unexpected way. We see Sheng with the binding talisman from Muhua’s incident. He takes this binding entity and places it next to other talismans within a small wooden cabinet. In the small space where the talismans are placed, there are writings above them that signify their purpose. While some talismans are used to bind spirits, others are used to steal souls and borrow life. The narrative intercuts between important revelatory moments. Yen, Hsin’s sister, stands in front of a clay doll, similar to the one her sister created. She smiles, looking at it, hoping to achieve something sinister. We see that there is a talisman capable of resurrection, suggesting that Yen will eventually try to bring her dead sister back to life using it.
The final piece of this puzzle is the possibility that Chuan is still alive. Chuan lies on a bed, connected to an oxygen supply unit. His left eyelid has a scar, which is a result of Chuan stabbing the eye to save Muhua earlier. It is possible that Chuan’s body was left unattended by Sheng and Muhua after the sealing of the spirits. Yen might have utilized this opportunity to retrieve his body and place it at a location of her choice. Yen will likely try to draw out her sister Hsin’s soul from Chuan’s body. It is highly likely that Yen wants to bring Hsin back, Chuan is alive, and the resurrection talisman works, though the narrative doesn’t explicitly confirm any of it.
Could A-Sheng Stop Liu Yen?
Sheng is a master of talismans, with significant control over them. He can withstand extreme duress and emerge victorious in unlikely situations. This might hold the key to stopping Yen if she tries to resurrect her sister. If Sheng finds out about this, he might be able to come up with solutions that are beyond Yen’s capabilities. As per the rules established in the story, resurrection is a dangerous violation of nature and could harm the principles of life and death that Sheng believes in. There could be a violent confrontation in the future between Yen and Sheng.
She would likely attempt to get hold of the resurrection talisman, and Sheng would possibly be capable enough to keep the talisman under his control. The act of resurrection is rare and would require a greater sacrifice from the one who intends to perform it. With Sheng in the picture and his skills stronger than ever, Yen may have to make difficult decisions if she truly wishes to reunite with her sister.
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