| |
Review
by Kozo: |
While
a sequel to the The Eye might have been feasible,
any revisiting of that film would only have ruined its
haunting, appropriate climax. Still, The Eye was a hit, and even had its remake rights sold to the
United States — to Tom Cruise, no less. In business
terms, that usually means sequel, so Applause Pictures
has acquiesced by giving us The Eye 2. Like the
first film, The Eye 2 is directed by Thailand's
popular Pang Brothers, and features a story centering
on the now overdone catch phrase, "I see dead people."
Instead of Angelica Lee, we get Shu Qi as a harried
young woman who, duh, sees the deceased. We get an effective
suspense flick, and an intriguing storyline about karma
and reincarnation. We also get some inadverdant laughs,
and absolutely zero unease when the movie's over. You
can't win them all.
Shu Qi is Joey Cheng,
a depressed girl vacationing in Bangkok after a disappointing
breakup with boyfriend Sam (Jesdaporn Pholdee). One
evening, she threatens suicide in her hotel room but
is saved by the timely arrival of her wake-up call.
However, something in her near-death experience must
have flipped a supernatural switch; upon her return
to Hong Kong, she starts seeing pale, ghastly figures
wandering the streets. At first she blithely walks by,
thinking that they can be seen by everyone else, but
slowly the truth dawns upon her: she can see dead people.
Cue shock pans, creepy music and an abundance of close-ups
on Shu Qi's pouty face, which are enhanced for maximum
harried effect thanks to a lack of makeup and a glazed,
tired expression. And she still looks pretty damn good.
Sadly, her aesthetic beauty
isn't much help with Sam, who's taken to ignoring her
phone calls and even hiding in the closet when she drops
by their once-shared apartment. His utter avoidance
of her prompts Joey to hide her biggest secret from
him. No, it's not the fact that she can see dead people
because most people in these movies tend to hide that
fact from people around them. Joey's big deal is that
she's pregnant with Sam's baby, a realization that coincides
with the mystery appearance of a ghastly, dirty-looking
woman (Eugenia Yuan of Three: Going Home). This
mystery woman stares disturbingly at Joey while she's
waiting for the subway, and what occurs there is both
shocking and portentous. In the months that follow,
Joey is witness to a bunch of nasty-seeming events,
all slowly leading up to the inevitable birth of her
child, who hopefully will not be some sort of Rosemary's
Baby. Then again, this is a horror flick, so bad stuff
is bound to happen, right?
The best thing about The
Eye 2 — other than the fact that it's a sequel
to The Eye — would have to be that it was
directed by the Pang Brothers. The brothers pace the
film exceptionally well, and handle events with requisite
suspense and visual panache. Like its predecessor, The
Eye 2 is given to slow visual exposition and moments
of quiet dread, and both films manage a few good "yikes"
moments. Shu Qi is photogenically harried and convincingly
disturbed, and the production itself is atmospherically
sound and technically impressive. The special effects
are probably not as good as the original (they were
handled by Menfond Electronic Art and not Centro Digital),
but the cinematography and art direction are impressive
enough to compensate. Like The Eye, this film
feels like a solid production, and it's told well enough
to make for involving, suspenseful cinema. If movies
are about the ride, then The Eye 2 gets decent
marks.
Where The Eye 2 loses points is in its ultimate destination. The threat
of horror is all well and good, and the film certainly
gives us plenty of that, but the best horror flicks
(at least in this reviewer's estimation) do more than
just give us the occasional shock. The Eye 2 promises bad things with its ghostly figures and pulse-pounding
soundtrack, but ultimately it's all very benign stuff.
Another title for this film could have been The Eye
2: Joey Goes to the Hospital. Practically every
tense scene in the film concludes with Joey being carted
to the hospital where she calms down from her freak
out, only to return to her life and repeat the whole
process when she freaks out again. In the meantime nothing
more disturbing than her freaking out ever seems to
happen to the world around her. Eventually things get
tied up with Sixth Sense-type efficiency, though
there's nary a twist or truly gripping moment which
makes The Eye 2 better than, say, Visible
Secret 2. Sure, it's directed with a far more accomplished
sense of style, but style isn't everything.
Even worse, The Eye
2 is prone to more than a few sequences that will
draw a laugh instead of a scare. The way the Pang Brothers
milk every moment for maximum tension is sure to raise
nerves, but when the payoff isn't anything that bothersome,
it all starts to feel rather silly. Joey is a believably
disturbed character, but her overwrought emotions and
freak-out potential makes her a less engaging character
than Angelica Lee's Mun from The Eye. Mun was
a strong character who strove to understand what was
behind the visions she saw, and her journey was both
tense and ultimately haunting. Joey is a bothered girl
who gets dealt a crappy karmic hand, then proceeds to
freak out despite nothing all that bad ever happening.
After a while, her antics could cause a giggle, which
is a shame only in retrospect. When it's all over, The
Eye 2 feels like no big deal. But for a good portion
of the running time, it's gripping enough to maintain interest. (Kozo 2004) |
|
