The Eye

Rating:
Summary: Great 2nd Act
Review: See this before Tom Cruise's company turns it into Hollywood schlock. The Eye is the latest of the Asian films to be bought up by the power brokers in Tinsel Town and like The Ring will probably be better in its original language.

The Eye tells the story of a young, blind woman who receives the eyes of another to regain her sight. In the beginning all she sees is the out-of-focus shadows of people who may or may not actually be there. Once the film moves into its middle third, it reaches its peak. The Pang brothers do a marvelous job of bringing right you into the film and making you feel what it would be like to be about to see the spirits of the dead.

There are a lot of parallels to The Sixth Sense, but with more of a Taoist spiritual aspect; however, even the Taoism is keep to a minimum as if the filmmakers are embarrassed by the beliefs in the script. This not only leaves the film a bit unsatisfying, but also leaves a couple of unresolved issues in the film.

Beyond that though The Eye is a well-acted ghost story with a couple of scares in it. If only the feeling of the film's second act could have been expanded into the third, then it would have been a great ghost story.

Rating:
Summary: One terrifying movie!
Review: I had the "luck" to see this film earlier this year while visiting Hong Kong.

Man ... all I can say is that this is one scary movie ... probably because of the excellent use of suspense and music ... it is definitely in the less is more category and makes the 6th sense et al seem like childrens movies.

Even though this movie freaked me out, I am excited that it is coming to this side of the Pacific ... as long as they do not dub it or cut it ... people will get a real thrill (or scare) out of this film.

Rating:
Summary: Absolutley Wonderful
Review: Now this is Asian Horror at its best. Not low budget like Ringu. when i see a movie like this i want to get the creeps and this does it. Formulatic yes, but the sweet face of Angelica Lee and her simple low key but effective acting make this even more enjoyable. Such a shame people may not want to see this subtitled movie but the story is great and the ending is incredible. Give it a shot!

Rating:
Summary: A return to classic ghost story telling.
Review: "The Eye" is a Hong Kong/Thailand/Singapore co-production directed by the Pang Brothers about a young woman, Mun, who had been blind for eighteen years, coping with sights she never bargained for after a successful corneal transplant. Not having seen anything for most of her life, Mun is at first confused by the strange shadows and people she begins to see - are they real or are they figments of her imagination? I absolutely LOVE the first half of this movie for several reasons. First, this movie is such a quintessentially urban Chinese ghost story, of the sort I used to listen to as a kid. Who amongst us urban Chinese living in Hong Kong or Singapore has never heard of the ghosts of suicides haunting the corridors of apartment blocks, of the ghosts of dead patients haunting hospitals, of hungry ghosts eating candles, of ghosts with long protruding tongues, of making offerings to the dead, of Taoist exorcists, or of strange passengers in the underground Metro? Second, this movie scares the audience by using absolutely minimal special effects or gore, relying simply on a thumping soundtrack and on the "spookiness" of the situations our heroine finds herself in e.g. venturing into a dimly lit hospital corridor and hearing the moans of a sickly woman and feeling her presence but not really seeing her, or venturing into an empty elevator and inexplicably finding a creepy old man in there moments later, or settling down for lunch at the local restaurant only to find the long dead wife and child of the cook turning up for a first taste. The elevator scene alone is worth the admission fee, and has me convinced NEVER EVER to get into an elevator by myself - the old man has minimal makeup to suggest he is missing the right side of his face, his feet is shown floating an inch above the elevator's floor, and he is slowly floating closer to an increasingly terrified Mun, and that is all the Pang Brothers need to have you clutching with fear at whoever is seating beside you in the cinema. Sadly, the second half of "The Eye" is a little formulaic and less interesting - Mun goes to Thailand to find out more about the donor from whom she had inherited her terrible curse - although the climatic Armageddon-like scene near the end is on par with anything Hollywood can come up with. I'll definitely be getting this movie on DVD. Apparently Tom Cruise has bought the rights to remake "The Eye" for Western audiences. Hopefully, the remake will retain many of the truly oriental flavors of this fine horror film.

Rating:
Summary: Okay so it's not an original idea, it still rox!
Review: This movie is very scary. Sure it lacks originality, but that doesn't matter in a horror film. It's how the idea is executed. Some say it's to familiar, and imediately dismiss it as a rip-off, but this is far superior to most horror films and should be viewed as such. Definately a top 50. See it today if you can.

Rating:
Summary: Sit Tight ... Don't Blink ... and See This Chilling Movie
Review: A big box-office hit in Hong Kong back in 2002, this stylish horror flick "The Eye" is the follow-up of identical twins The Pang Brothers' "Bangkok Dangerous." Like the previous one, this new film is inspired by actual events, but the brothers expanded their own story from there to make one of the most impressive thrillers I have ever seen these days. And the story goes like this.

Young female violinist Mun (excellent Lee Sin-Jie) is living in Hong Kong, and has become 20 years old. She is about to have a corneal transplant operation, and recover her sight which has been lost for 18 years. The operation succeeds, but during the time of rehabilitaion, Mun notices that she is seeing something she never expected to see before, like, the shadowy figure standing behind her sis and grandma when there should be only two visitors in her room. And those 'things,' as they gradually emerge from the blurred images, start to haunt her vision, and ours too ... before she comes to know what she is really seeing.

The film may be trying to too smart when it comes to the ending (which I should never disclose) which is really surprising, and this tour-de-force wrap-up may not sound consistent to the entire tone of the film. But I assure you, whatever way you take it, the closing section of the film would literally blow your mind away. It is reported that one celebrity in USA has already bought the right to remake the film for Hollywood, and I can tell his judgement is quite understandable, seeing the way the film ends.

Blindness has been used in thrillers in the past, and talented actresses such as Audrey Hepburn, Uma Thurman, and Madeline Stowe had already played the blind people in unnerving situation, but The Pang Brothers show their skills to scare with stylish visions. Though I thought the big banging sound is overused, and some of the techiniques are now hackneyed, still they can really scare us with the flair for visuals. As you can see, when they employ 'less-is-better' tactics, they are most successful, and all in all the directors make the film that way. Unsuspecting audience would probably jump in the seat (some of the people did when I was watching it in Japan). And try to spot some of the 'things' they inserted in the backdrops of the film (see closely the glass window of the subway, and you see...).

The hidden meaning of some part of the film may be lost on the viewers outside Hong Kong. I heard some of the 'things' are based on the urban legends in Hong Kong (see for example the guy standing upright on the expressway). I do not know how the distributors in USA would release the film -- they may cut those parts -- but anyway, just in case if you don't get it.

A few more about the film, and I will end this review. The greatest virtue of the film which gives it a real dynamic energy is the leading actress Lee Sin-Jie (Angelica Lee), now living in Taiwan. Her great acting as a woman with a haunted vision will attract every viewer's eye and compassion, making this apparently larger-than-life story really credible and scary. Imagine Naomi Watts in "The Ring" and give her more colorful expressions of eye, and she would be this superb actress.

The original concept is inspired by a newpaper article 14 years ago about a girl who received a corneal transplant operation, but commited suicide after a week. The ending part is also based on the real-life disaster that actually happened in Thailand in 1990.

Rating:
Summary: Lack of originality is this movie's blind spot
Review: A woman who has been blind since the age of two gets a cornea transplant 18 years later. The doctor's remove the bandages from her eyes, and she opens her eyes to see...something's not right. Soon, she and her post-surgery psychotherapist (conveniently of the opposite sex and thus becomes a romantic interest as well) are working together to determine why she's haunted by these visions (to describe them would spoil the fun).

The premise sounds original and promising, but a bit further into the movie and you realize that The Eye borrows plot elements from a variety of horror and suspense movies, one very popular American movie in particular. I won't name it since it would be a spoiler, but even if you barely see any movies you'll know which one it is if you make it only a third of the way into The Eye.

Should we hold that against this fairly well acted and directed movie? In the realm of suspense pictures, there is definitely such a thing as first mover advantage. A plot that the audience has seen before loses the element of surprise and can't reach the same peaks of dramatic tension. I knew what she was seeing, why she was seeing them, and how she could make them stop, because I'd seen this movie before.

Not that you won't get goosebumps or feel your heart racing a few times. The director isn't at all embarrassed to resort to the classic creeping camera pans and quick visual cuts in conjunction with sudden peaks in the soundtrack to make the audience jump and squirm. Some horror fans enjoy being manipulated so directly, others do not.

Given that Asia has cranked out some of the most original horror and suspense films in the past decade or so (e.g. The Ring series, Dark Water, Cure), many of which have been remade or ripped off by Hollywood, it's disappointing to see the reverse happen in The Eye.

Rating:
Summary: Great suspense - A MUST SEE for Asian Movies fans
Review: Just saw this movie in the cinema with a friend. I think it is not scary at all, but is really cool and has great suspese scenes like the one with the old woman yelling in the hospital's corridor (the most frightening moment).

I'd enjoyed the special effects. Ehy, the young doctor was quite handsome... And what about the face on the metro's window? A really good movie, I think I will buy the dvd too... And by the way, this is MUCH more scarier than Dark Water or Ringu!

Actually my rating is 4 1/2 [4 for the film itself plus 1/2 for Agelica Lee - no wonder she won the award for the best actress...]

Rating:
Summary: Ok, If you like horror, you might as well watch it
Review: OK movie but like so many Asia movies (Suicide Club,Inner Senses), the stories are great but they end up going nowhere, they give you extra characters and facts that have nothing to do with the end result and sometimes even contradict the story. I must admit, I did jump a couple of times but foreign films also don't capture the moment by increasing the volume of the special effects for that added chill.
Disclaimer: I'm using the same review for Inner Senses
Rent-Yes
Buy-Maybe

Rating:
Summary: Boring
Review: The Eye is slow and not that frightening. I was watching it and got so bored I had to turn it off. It was a total bore.