Reincarnation

Reincarnation is the belief that when a person dies their soul is reborn in a new body. This is one of the core beliefs of many world religions including Hinduism and Eastern Beliefs, in particular Buddhism. Accordingly, souls can be incarnated all the way from insects and animals through multiple human lives until they achieve enlightenment and perfection.

Reincarnation is a commonplace element in films originating in particular from Hong Kong and Thailand where such is a part of cultural belief. The Vampire and Mummy films frequently have their title characters seeking the reincarnations of lost loves. The 1950s brought a spate of past-lives hypnotic regression films following the success of the supposedly non-fiction The Search for Bridey Murphy (1956) where a housewife claimed to recall her former life.

There are various films about the reincarnated possessing the living, evil souls returning to exert influence, people being pursued or lovers seeking one another across multiple lives. Other treatments range from Light Fantasy Films to thrillers to action films, even stories in which the reincarnation is an elaborate hoax.