I WAS having flashbacks of other films when watching Misteri Dilaila. Two television movies came to mind: the 1986 Vanishing Act and the 1976 One of My Wives is Missing.
I must say more than 90% of the plot in Syafiq Yusof’s latest film came from these two TV films. Even their synopses are similar.
Misteri Dilaila revolves around a couple, Jefri (Zul Ariffin) and Dilaila (Elizabeth Tan), who are holidaying at Dilaila’s family mansion on Fraser’s Hill.
They have a quarrel and Jefri ends up sleeping on the sofa. The next morning, he wakes up to discover his wife missing. After a fruitless search, he makes a police missing person report.
The next day, an imam named Aziz (Namron) informs him that Dilaila has been found.
But when he meets the woman (Sasqia Dahuri), he denies she is his wife, even though she insists she is.
Vanishing Act, starring Mike Farrell and Margot Kidder, is about a man on his honeymoon who reports his new bride missing and a stranger who turns up claiming to be her.
One of My Wives is Missing, starring James Franciscus and Elizabeth Ashley, is about a wealthy man whose missing wife suddenly reappears but the distraught husband claims that she is not his wife but an imposter.
The only difference in the three films is that Syafiq has put his own twist to the ending and added some horror elements to his story.
It would have been okay if the production team admitted to being inspired by these two TV films (which in turn were based on French playwright Robert Thomas’ 1964 Trap for a Lonely Man).
Even famous Korean director Park Chan-wook admitted to being inspired by Welsh writer Sarah Waters’ novel Fingersmith when he made his critically-acclaimed Handmaiden and put his own twist to the story.
Park also admitted to basing his hit Oldboy on Nobuaki Minegishi and Garon Tsuchiya’s Japanese manga of the same name.
Park has given credit where it belongs, and I love both his film versions more than the originals.
Being inspired is not a crime but denying where you got your inspiration from is. It leaves a bitter taste in the viewers’ mouth when no credit is given where it is due.
Stolen stories are rarely beautiful.
The only strong points in Misteri DIlaila are the solid performance from the cast, especially Zul as Jefri, and some really breathtaking shots of Fraser’s Hill.
Of course, the twist at the end makes you wonder what really happened in the first place.
