The
Eye
The success
of Ringu and its subsequent remake The Ring
means we are in for a storm of import horror pictures. Fortunately,
we are at the start of this trend and so there are some good
pictures for distributors to pick from before we get down
to the meat of the blandwagon. On the vanguard of this art
house boom is the Pang Brothers' The Eye, a creepy
take on an old story that promises more than it delivers.
After
a good little scare to throw the audience off balance, the
picture settles into what can only be described as low-key
creepy. A blind girl, Mun (Angelica Lee), goes under the knife,
receiving a corneal transplant. As she begins to slowly recover
her sight, she befriends a little girl with a brain tumor
named Ying-ying (Yut Lai So). One night Mun sees an old lady
leave her bed with a thin shadowy figure. Following into the
hall, a white faced woman startles Mun while complaining about
the cold.
All but
the truly horror-illiterate know that we are in an "I see
ghosts" picture. The nice twist is that at least Mun has an
excuse for not putting it together right away. She doesn't
know that women don't walk around with their faces painted
white, or that people in the dark don't appear to be in soft
focus. Her first real clue that things are wrong comes in
the morning with the news that the old woman has passed away.
She takes
the "that's odd but let's move on" denial approach, but as
creepier and creepier things happen to her, she starts to
understand that things are amiss. Set against this horror
staple, Mun's story of trying to fit back into her new life
with sight fascinates.
Newly
blessed with a full set of senses, she finds almost nothing
but hardships. She finds herself no longer welcome in the
orchestra for the blind and she can't recognize everyday items
without touching them. To help her with the second problem
she is sent to handsome Dr. Wah (Lawrence Chou), a psychologist
who will help her relearn her "visual vocabulary."
Filled
with a bunch of great creep-outs and even a few good stings,
The Eye builds an interesting atmosphere and opens
many doors for the plot to travel down. The problem comes
with the start of Act III, when the picture ditches the entire
first hour for a lame attempt at a conclusion which doesn't
take all that well, and then, out of desperation, an unnecessary
action sequence.
While
this huge misstep doesn't ruin the picture it does keep it
from rising above good into great. Of course, the way the
last few years of cinema have gone we've learned to lower
our standards so that 'good' is good enough.
So many
unused themes are introduced that mentioning them just seems
like a waste of time. Mun plays the violin, an instrument
of inexact interpretation much like her slowly healing eyes.
Her conductor even refers to her as Ms. Tone Deaf at one point,
but this idea that she is "playing" her eyes incorrectly seems
to be there but buried and unexploited. Completely unexplored
is the idea that Mun's corneas are actually from a dead person.
Instead the picture goes with an explanation which doesn't
fit with the rest of the picture.
Roger
Corman's classic X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes plays
on some of these themes and The Eye's slow, talky beginning
plays a lot like the start of the classic. Much like our Wachowski
Brothers, The Pangs drip with directorial style but their
overall scripting leaves more than a little to be desired.
Like the
classic jazz quote, the Pangs know how important empty space
is in a story about what is and isn't there. One particularly
memorable sequence comes when Mun sees an old man in her elevator
but when she checks the security monitors he is gone.
As mentioned
before, some great doors are opened by this picture but The
Pangs don't use what they have. This lack of economy keeps
The Eye out of the must-see realm, but it's still certainly
worth a viewing for horror fans and Hong Kong fans alike.
Maybe
some of these problems will be fixed in the inevitable American
remake (rights already purchased by Tom Cruise and Paula
Wagner -- editor), but the way this year has been going
I'm not expecting much for the next decade or so. "I've seen
too much" is obviously a dramatic theme that goes back quite
a ways and The Eye has a good tragic/happy ending when
all the cards are in. But the way we finally get there disappoints.
What's
It Worth? $7.25
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