directors
Oxide Pang
Danny Pang
screenwriters
Jo Jo Yuet-chun
Hui
Oxide Pang
Danny Pang
producers
Peter Ho-Sun Chan
Lawrence Cheng
cinematographer
Decha Srimantra
music
Orange Music
editors
Oxide Pang
Danny Pang
cast
Lee Sin-je (Mun)
Lawrence Chou (Dr. Wah)
Chutcha Rujinanon (Ling)
Yut Lai So (Yingying)
Candy Lo (Yee)
Yin Ping Ko (Mun's grandmother)
Pierre Png (Dr. Eak)
Edmund Chen (Dr. Lo)
Wai-Ho Yung (Mr. Ching)
Wilson Yip (Taoist)
mpaa rating: R
running
time: 99m
hong
kong release: 5/9/02
u.s.
release: 6/6/2003
video
availability: VHS -
DVD
official
website
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"I'm freezing."
The Eye is probably one of those horror films
completely ruined by Internet hype. Those lucky enough to stumble
onto it with no expectations were most likely blown away by
a stylish and, at times, quite frightening supernatural thriller
about a blind woman (Lee Sin-je) who has a corneal transplant
and begins seeing blurry and troubling things. Now, though,
the Internet backlash has kicked in, and some cynics want you
to know that The Eye is just a ghost story, for
Christ's sake, and not a particularly original one at
that (dutifully ticking off predecessors like The
Sixth Sense). Granted, the film doesn't re-invent the
wheel. And the premise might've been explored with a bit more
cleverness and curiosity.
But. The Eye, directed
by the hotshot Hong Kong brothers Danny and Oxide Pang, made
me jump a bunch of times, and seriously creeped me out at least
three times. One such time comes early in the game, when the
woman, called Mun, is recuperating in the hospital after her
eye operation. Her eyesight isn't anywhere near 100% yet; the
world is still a blur to her. She hears sounds out in the hallway,
and rises from her bed to investigate. What follows is simple
to describe: she has an encounter with a ghost. And we can see
that coming. What we haven't bargained for is how aggressively
the Pang brothers use the film vocabulary of a blurred, disoriented
point of view to ratchet up the terror. We may also not be ready
for the Pangs' sadistic use of sound (crank this 5.1 Dolby sucker
way up if you want to shit your pants). The ghost doesn't even
really do anything. It moans, it says something, and
it slowly, sloooowly approaches the camera while staying defiantly
out of focus. And it's the stuff of nightmares.
Later, Mun wants to take an
elevator up to her apartment, but notices on a security camera
that a gray-haired ghost, facing the corner (shades of Blair Witch, and done with infinitely
more menace here), is in there. She opts for another elevator.
She peers inside. It's empty. She gets in. Pushes the button
for the 15th floor. And suddenly we're into a sequence that
could do for elevators what Psycho did for showers. And
it doesn't end there. We may be thinking to ourselves, "She
should've just taken the stairs," but the Pangs then do
for stairways what they just did for elevators. It's a virtuoso
scene of sustained suspense.
What do ghosts want? Movies,
including this one, tell us that ghosts are embittered vestiges
of the soul, taken abruptly from life and not realizing they
don't belong on this plane of existence anymore. As in Ringu
and its remake, and as in Sixth Sense, the protagonist
must figure out a way to appease the restless souls so that
they will move on. Here, Mun's transplanted corneas are courtesy
of a deceased Thai girl with a backstory to rival Carrie White's.
In life, the girl was ostracized for her visions; now Mun is
seeing through her eyes. Inevitably, The Eye loses some
force when it starts explaining itself. The first 45 minutes
or so -- culminating in that celebrated elevator sequence --
carry enough what-the-hell-is-going-on? freakishness to power
five lesser movies. We expect resolution, a return to order,
an affirmation that all of this is going somewhere logical,
but when we get it, there's unavoidable disappointment. The
Pangs pay a price for laying such creepy groundwork in the first
half: they have a hard time following their own act.
The incongruously concussive
climax has been jeered for echoing that of The Mothman Prophecies,
a moron-movie no self-respecting horror film should share a
room with, but it reminded me more of the wham-bam opening scenes
of Final Destination and especially Final Destination
2 (which The Eye's similar highway massacre preceded).
Hong Kong movies seem to exist comfortably in the overlap zone
between the spiritual and the hyperbolically physical, and some
of The Eye's excesses might put off Western tastes. (It's
reportedly being groomed for a Hollywood remake by Tom Cruise's
production company.) I cannot say The Eye is the end-all-be-all
of modern supernatural horror, and the Pangs, enthusiastic and
skilled as they are, lack the perversity of a Takashi Miike
or the pathos of an Alejandro Amenabar. Still, the brothers
have contributed more than a few fine moments to the horror
pantheon, and interrupted my sleep patterns for a couple of
nights. I can't really ask more than that.
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