Chinese exchange student Wei (Joyena Sun) comes to live and attend university in Auckland, New Zealand.
Scarred by her father’s death and the stigma of a distinctive birthmark, Wei channels her self-loathing into finishing his scientific work on skin grafts.
In collaboration with her unsavoury science lecturer (Jared Turner), she makes progress on the project. But as a scientific breakthrough draws closer, Wei’s own obsession with beauty - especially of the kind modelled by fellow student Eve (Eden Hart) - will lead her down a fatal path…
There is something rough and ready I like about Grafted, a ‘don’t bore us, get to the chorus’ to the storytelling that adds to its sense of escalation.
Characterisation is minimal, in that characters have just enough motivation to justify their actions. The number of characters is small, as are the number of locations.
The movie feels like a fable, a more violent Twilight Zone episode with a clear moral: Don’t get what you wish for.
Bluntness of message can seem like a bad thing. In a stripped-down genre movie like this, it is an asset.
Despite some moments of pitch-dark wit, the film’s earnest treatment of it - that helps.
That wish is western beauty standards. Wei’s rampage could be reframed as a proximity to Whiteness, as she moves between different faces, and the expectations associated with each of them. Wei’s obsession with her facial scar laces her obsession with Whiteness to its links with ableism.
She is determined to ‘fix’ herself even though the improvement would be purely cosmetic.
Wei’s fixation, Eve, is presented as a stereotypical blonde. The blonde hair is fake but that only adds to the film’s fixation on a particular kind of white beauty - even Eve has to make adjustments in order to achieve the ideal.
The performances - particularly when Wei has taken on the visages of other characters - are impressive.
Unlike a lot of face swap movies, there is an attempt at verisimilitude - Wei’s uneven smile is always present, no matter whose face she is wearing.
The three actresses, particularly Jess Hong, are effective at marking the drastically different personalities and physicalities of Wei and her NZ-born cousin Angela.
With minimal dialogue, she evokes the jealousy and conflicted feelings Angela has toward her cousin and her connections with her mother’s culture. She is stuck between worlds, despising her mother while yearning for an unseen father who will never return.
The only character who seems to be at ease with herself is Jasmine (Sepi To'a), Angela’s friend who takes a genuine interest in Wei. She presents a viable alternative to Angela - someone who is not willing to subordinate herself entirely in the same way Angela has, and actually wants to help Wei find her way in her new home.
The film is so economical that Jasmine barely gets a look in - it might be an effect of budget, but that narrowed focus matches the central character’s increasingly claustrophobic existence.
Dark, uncompromising but still empathetic, Grafted is a welcome addition to the New Zealand horror canon.
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