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“The actual world is so shitty that horror is the perfect genre to express the most honest and concrete things … More than ever, horror should embody the absolute escape from the lies of official society. The genre has a great opportunity to be really countercultural again after years of having been softened by the cynical postmodernism of our times.” --- Pascal Laugier

Horrorphile - September 2008

The Eye

September 25th 2008 00:39
The Eye movie poster
Hong Kong twin brothers Danny and Oxide Pang are directors with style to burn. Danny also works as an editor (he cut the influential Infernal Affairs, remade by Scorsese as The Departed), and Oxide directed Ab-normal Beauty (2004). Generally they do movies together, and The Eye (2002) was their breakthrough movie, a ghost story reminiscent of The Sixth Sense (1999) but oh so much better.

Its original Cantonese title is Gin Gwai (or Jian Gui in Mandarin), and it’s a HK/Thailand co-production, with additonal UK financing. But the Pang brothers work in an Asian-Euro crossover-style, which makes their movies easily digestible to a wider audience. The DVD (from Eastern Eye) edition I own has the credits in English, yet the movie’s dialogue is in Chinese and Thai (with a few lines in English).
The Eye Sin-Je Lee
Sin-Je Lee as Mun
Mun (Sin-Je "Angelica" Lee) is a young blind woman who has just received a cornea transplant from an unknown donor. The operation enables her to see for the first time in as long as she can remember. Everything seems hunky dory, Mun befriends a young tuma-suffering girl Yingying (Yit Lay So) at the hospital, and Mun’s mother and sister seem happy that she can finally be able to move forward in life entirely on her own.
The Eye Edmund Chen and Sin-Je Lee
Dr. Lo (Edmund Chen) prepares Mun for a whole new world
But all is not good. Mun’s vision is being affected by spectres. She sees ghostly figures; some are genuinely terrifying, while others appear more mundane and peripheral. She witnesses a dark figure assisting an elderly woman from the ward, and later realises the woman had died and she was watching the woman cross to the other side.
The Eye Yit Lay So
Yit Lay So as young Yingying
Mun’s visions become more and more unsettling and nightmarish, with a young boy, the victim of suicide, plaguing her. Mun’s personal physician, Dr. Wah (Lawrence Chou) becomes increasingly concerned for her well-being, despite his superior, Dr. Lo (Edmund Chen) expressing doubt over her sanity. At the request of Mun’s distraught family Dr. Wah travels with Mun to Thailand to track down the cornea donor, a young woman named Ling, but not before Mun makes the startlingly discovery that the face she sees in the mirror is not her own …
The Eye Lawrence Chou and Sin-Je Lee
Mun feels secure around Dr. Wah (Lawrence Chou)
They meet with Ling’s heartbroken mother (Sue Yuen Wang) who tells them of Ling’s tragic life; cursed as a village witch-girl, and after failing to save the village from a fire, Ling committed suicide. Because she has Ling’s eyes Mun is cursed with seeing dead people with issues, trapped in a limbo. But she is also “blessed” with foresight, and it this foresight which comes to an explosive head during the movie’s final ten minutes.
The Eye aggressive ghost
Mun's vision treats her to some scary experiences ...
The Eye crackles with disquieting slow-burn ferocity. Like Ringu (1998) it builds and releases, builds a little more, then exhales again, rises further into the darkness, and finally comes full circle. The opening sequence to The Eye is also the closing sequence; it forms its own poetic sphere. The cinematography is lush, with great mise-en-scene, and excellent editing. The music is a little over-the-top, even kitsch in a few scenes, but the dramatics prevent any cheese from ruining the taste of coppery fear.
The Eye ghost mother and baby
Sin-Je Lee is excellent as Mun, displaying a vulnerability and great emotional depth. I wasn’t so convinced by Lawrence Chou as the doctor, he barely looked out of his teens, but his performance carried him through. Yit Lay So as Yingying provided solid support in the movie’s first half.
The Eye deformed ghost man
The Eye ghostly silhouette
The Eye Sin-Je Lee
Mun enters Ling's spectral bedroom
As in all good Asian horror, there are several superbly engineered scare scenes, you just can’t bet a great ghostly apparition for sheer palpable terror! The Pang brothers are skilled in using just the right amount of CGI to provide the effect required without over-playing their hand. The more subtle the creeping unknown is the more powerful the apprehension and dread becomes.

The plot of The Eye appears to come to a conclusion, but moves into an unexpected, and brilliantly executed, finale which brings together all the stories key elements, and as I mentioned earlier, ties the movie’s main thread together. It’s a beautifully told story. I’m very keen to see how David Moreau and Xavier Palud (the brilliant directors of Ils aka Them) have re-envisioned the remake starring Jessica Alba. Keep your eyes peeled, I’ll be reviewing that tomorrow.
The Eye inferno
A victim from the movie's scorching finale


Here's the US trailer:


Here's the infamous elevator scene in its entirety:

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Posted By: Bryn - Category: movie reviews
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5 Comments. [ Add A Comment ]

Comment by Jason King

September 25th 2008 02:34


Sydney Table
Salty Popcorn
Total Randomness

I just loved this film - it destroys the waste of film US remake. I suggest you run from the Alba remake, it is massively bland!

Comment by Damo

September 25th 2008 03:45


For the Sake of Argument
My Apologetics
Caught this one night on sbs and was very impressed.
The man with the half caved in face in the elevator was just chilling.

Good stuff and would see it again.

Comment by Bryn

September 25th 2008 05:50


Horrorphile
Cheers guys ...

Jason, I'm a gluton for punishment ... By the way, since you loved Funny Games, you should probably check out Captivity ...

Comment by Jason King

September 25th 2008 06:45


Sydney Table
Salty Popcorn
Total Randomness

I will suss it out for sure!!

Comment by Bryn

September 29th 2008 01:17


Horrorphile
It has a great scene with a doggie ...

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