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Review
by Kozo: |
Last spring, the Hong Kong box office got a minor
boost thanks to The Eye, a cerebral chiller
from The Pang Brothers. Angelica Lee (aka: Sinjie)
stars as Mun, a twenty-something HK resident who's
been blind since youth. She becomes the recipient
of a cornea transplant, which will finally give her
sight and presumably a new lease on life. However, Mun needs to adjust
to her new eyes so she's sent to handsome psychotherapist
Wah (Lawrence Chou) for some expert counseling. It seems her body may
know how the world works, but her vision can't connect
the dots. The physical appearance of others surprises
her, and she becomes alienated from her still-blind
friends. And there's an even bigger problem. Yep,
Mun sees dead people.
The underlying story
and set-up for The Eye don't truly break
new ground. Transplanted body parts have a long history
in the horror genre of screwing with their new owners,
and the "seeing ghosts" thing is becoming
dangerously overused. For a horror film to be good,
it's the telling that matters and not the actual story.
If one were to concentrate on the story, they could
find issue with the generic plot, convenient characters,
and unnecessary existential lip service. Even more,
the usual doctor-patient romance hits new heights
of convenience thanks to Wah's quick admission of
his love for Mun. It helps that Mun is played by Angelica
Lee, but his affection still develops incredibly quickly.
Thankfully, the Pang
Brothers find other ways to make their story as involving as possible. The cinematography and
music are extremely effective and appropriate, and
some of the images the filmmakers create are truly
haunting. Even more, they take extra steps to put
the viewer into Mun's head, sharing her growing fear
with the audience. Nothing that occurs in the film is really
a surprise, but the quiet dread with which its presented
is genuinely creepy, and the suspense can be unrelenting.
Though danger never seems to be an issue, one can't
help feel frightened by what Mun experiences because
it's what's imagined and not what's actually seen
that proves most terrifying.
Aiding this is Mun's character,
which feels extremely real despite having little actual
backstory. Mun isn't presented as someone who has
extreme neuroses, or is in possesson of a debilitating
past. All of Mun's issues arise from what's actually
happening onscreen, and that makes the audience's
identification with her extremely acute. Angelica
Lee does a fine job of bringing Mun's understandable
fear, fragility and even strength to the screen. As
with her performance in Princess D, Lee displays
a charisma that doesn't rely on cuteness or histrionics
to hold the screen. Her ability to charm and affect
is seemingly effortless.
Where The Eye really surprises is in its climax, which subverts
the film's narrative drive to haunting effect. What
happens shouldn't be disclosed, but it's neither gratuitous
or contrived, nor is it even upsetting. What the Pang
Brothers do feels merely appropriate, and the result
is a film which doesn't do too much or too little
in the service of its genre. The Eye is probably
the most effectively told horror film out of Hong
Kong in a long while. (Kozo 2002) |
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