The Second Woman

The Second Woman is a 2012 Chinese-Hong Kong film directed by Carol Lai. Plot Twin sisters Bao and Xiang are identical, even to a fault where their mother and Bao's lover, Nan, could not tell them apart. When Bao becomes sick after the pressure of being on stage, Xiang decides to replace her for the time being since no one else in the troupe knows about her besides Nan. After hearing that Xiang performed better than her, Bao and Nan's relationship starts to deteriorate as she suspects that her twin sister and her lover might be carrying an affair behind her back. Bao takes Xiang to their favorite hill by the cliff to have a conversation and the scene shifts to Xiang alone in a canoe in the middle of the ocean. She grabs the oar and attacks a hand that grabbed her and leaves. One of the villager fisherman, Uncle Tai, witnesses Xiang running to the dock in the rain. The family was made aware that Xiang left to travel for work and wants to report the sudden disappearance instead. But Bao (whom the viewers is led to believe is Huixiang in disguise) hesitates on the idea. Nan, though convinced that Xiang does often disappear without leaving a message, is extremely suspicious of Bao's lighthearted attitude about the whole situation. He goes to his friend, KK, to look into Xiang's disappearance and KK reaches out to his sister, Fan, to help him. Uncle Tai finds a floating jacket at the shore and reports it to the police; KK and Fan is convinced that Xiang drowned Bao at sea to take her place based on this evidence. In the meantime, Bao starts to see manifestations of her sister and is stuck between a psychotic state and a sober state as she tries to improve her acting along with Nan and the aggressive female lead, Amy. During one rehearsal, Amy is injured but Nan believes Bao caused the accident on purpose so that she could rise as the female lead. After going with Fan to the cliff, Nan finds Bao's floral hair pin and confronts her in the dressing room. Bao recalls the story of taking Xiang to the hill by the cliff to ask about her relationship with Nan. Xiang avoids the subject. The two take cover in a makeshift shelter from the thunderous rain where Bao drops her hair pin. Later at the beach, while reminiscing about their childhood stealing canoes, she suggests the two steal a canoe and go out to the water. When KK temporarily leaves the investigation to Fan, Fan travels to the haunted house which the twins and Nan often frequent and is captured.