"The Eye" trilogy

The Eye (2002) 
Chinese Title: 見鬼
Translation: See Ghost

Starring: Angelica Lee Sin-Je, Lawrence Chou Chun-Wai, Candy Lo Hau-Yam, Fong Chin-Fat, Chen Chi-Choi, Chutcha Rujinanon, So Yat-Lai
Director: Danny & Oxide Pang


We fans of HK cinema often joke about the Anglican names of HK celebrities often being names that are obsolete here in the West--Mavis? Bosco? But, where the heck did "Oxide" Pang get his name? Anyway, this film seemed to be a minor hit in the pan-Asia market, at least enough to merit two sequels and a wedding between lead actress Angelica Lee and Oxide Pang. You know you're working with something good or memorable when Hollywood opts to remake it.

The movie begins with a young blind lady named Mun (Angelica Lee) musing to herself whether or not the world is a beautiful place. She's about to undergo a cornea transplant, so she's going to find out about it for herself. The surgery is a success and, after a few days of recovery, she is taken to a room in the hospital to remove the bandages in front of her sister (Candy Lo) and grandmother (Ko Yin Ping). She sees three blurry images in front of her: her sister, grandma and...well, someone. Gradually, her vision is restored, although she has an interesting experience with a shadow figure coming to visit the old lady in the next bed over.

Once out of the hospital, she begins to start her life anew. She begins to learn calligraphy. She undergoes therapy with a certain Dr. Wah (Lawrence Cho), a psychologist who wishes to ease her back into the world of the vision unimpaired. She continues playing the violin for a special blind orchestra, although she learns that they have a bit of prejudice toward the recipients of new corneas. On the other hand, she also starts having some peculiar experiences: she meets a boy on her floor who has lost his report card; she has nightmares set at another hospital; sometimes her bedroom temporarily changes into one unfamiliar; and finally she sees a shadowy figure hovering over the body of a kid hit by a car...whom had just spoken to her a few minutes before. Thus, the question arises: just who donated the corneas to Mun?

The Eye is Hong Kong's answer to The Sixth Sense by way of films like Blink (1994) and The Hands of Orlac. The first half is mainly horror, as Mun's new gift in life comes with a terrifying side effect. Although the ghosts she sees are not physically dangerous, they are common enough to scare the bejesus out of the poor young lady at regular intervals. By the final act, she has come to terms with her new powers and seeks to find the truth behind the person whose corneas she inherited, at which point the film becomes more of a tragic supernatural melodrama. The Eye is well-acted and there is an awful sense of inevitability to the climax, which brings Mun's story full circle. In some ways, The Eye is sort of a retelling of the Greek myth of Cassandra.

Following this film's success, several low-budget films about eye transplants gone wrong were made in the States before it was remade with Jessica Alba. See films like Deadly Visions and Jill for similar premises. The movie is creepy at times, but not extremely scary, and lacks a good 11th hour twist to make it memorable.


The Eye 2 (2004) 
Chinese Title: 見鬼2
Translation: See Ghost 2

Starring: Shu Qi, Phillip Kwok Chun-Fung, Eugenia Yuen Lai-Kai, Jesdaporn Pholdee, Rayson Tan, Lam Chi-Tai, Derek Tsang Kwok-Cheung
Director: Danny & Oxide Pang

 I think when it comes to a premise like this, talk of a sequel immediately invites the fear that any follow-up will simply be a remake of the original. And while this film obviously shares the same basic structure as the first one, it thankfully is it's own little creature. In some ways, I think the film is better than the first one, stumbling only at the climax. The Eye 2 is very much The Sixth Sense, but through a purely Buddhist lens--although a Hindu lens would probably present one with a similar output.

We open in Bangkok with a young lady, Joey Cheng (the luscious Shu Qi), going on a buying spree. As things progress, it becomes clear that Joey is in the middle of a messy break-up that has left her more than a little unstable. So unstable, in fact, that her plan for the evening is to max out all her credit cards and then overdose on barbitrates in her hotel room. She does go through with her plan, although she does end up surviving, thanks to the hotel employees who entered her room for a wake-up call. While she was in her near-death throes, she noticed that there were a lot of people showing up in her hotel room, although she doesn't recognize the significance of it. Following her recovery, she does witness a Buddhist ritual cleansing of her previous room: a maid informs her that when the act of suicide invites the presence of ghosts to the hotel.

Back in Hong Kong, Joey starts having seeing people that other people cannot. Moreover, she witnesses phenomena like random objects falling over. At the same time, she discovers that she is pregnant with the child of her ex-boyfriend, who has been avoiding her.  As she wrestles as to whether or not she wants to keep the baby, a chance encounter with a rapist results in her going all "Rats in the Walls" on the "poor" scumbag and nearly eating his face off. Someone, or something, really,  really wants her to have that baby.

Although the first film was a serviceable, well-acted variation on The Sixth Sense, it sort of felt like two separate movies. In that case, the real plot didn't start until the second half or so. The Eye 2 feels a lot more focused, even if a lot of the ghostly encounters are the random consequences of being able to see spirits. The focus is Shu Qi's Joey Cheng learning to deal with both her powers and an unwanted pregnancy, with the stakes being raised as Joey realizes that both are connected. The Eye 2 tackles heavy topics like suicide, infidelity, and guilt, and at its very core, it is a strongly Pro-Choice film. Even if I don't agree with the sociological implications of this film's religious beliefs, I credit for doing a good job in developing the ideas onscreen.

The Eye 2 is also more visceral and frequently scarier than the first film, with several scenes that made my heart skip a beat. The finale is quite bloody, although not in a way you might imagine (without me giving spoilers). The problem is that once it is revealed what the stakes are, the climax isn't particularly scary, and it's executed in a repetitive manner. The final two scenes are practically maudlin, with a brief "spooky" final image to justify the ominous music playing over the final credits. But given the spiritual explanations for what's going on in the film, there's nothing creepy about that final image if you think about it for two seconds. 


The Eye 10 (2005)
aka: The Eye 3
Chinese Title: See Ghost 10

Starring: Wilson Chen Bolin, Kate Yeung Ki, Ray MacDonald, Isabella Leung Lok-Sze, Kris Gu Yu, Bongkoth Kongmalai
Director: Danny & Oxide Pang

So yeah, there is no The Eye 3...or 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 or 9. The Pang Brothers close out their Eye trilogy with The Eye 10. The title refers to a Thai book about black magic that references ten different ways one may see a ghost, with haunted corneas and suicide-while-pregnant being two of those. This film explores the other eight ways, which is definitely interesting. On one hand, the Pang brothers are not repeating themselves. Unfortunately, while the first two films were serious horror films, this one goes full Hong Kong Movie in its execution.

The movie opens with a Buddhist exorcism in Thailand of a woman possessed by spirits, which involves her body levitating and then licking(!) the monks with a giant CGI tongue. Cue the opening credits, set to upbeat music with graphics that make one think of an early 90s TV series about teens (or twenty-somethings) having fun over the summer. Four friends--April (Isabella Leong), May (Kate Yeung), Teddy (Wilson Chen) and Kofei (Kris Gu)--are spending their vacation in Thailand, where they've made friends with a local, Chongkwai (Ray MacDonald). One evening, the group decides to tell each other ghost stories, at which point Chongkwai whips out a book he recently bought about how to see ghosts. Being the idiots they are, they decide to try out several of the rituals, like "Spirit in a Cup" (the Thai version of Ouija) and "Invitation to Dinner." 

Both ceremonies do allow them to see ghosts, although May is "left out." Determined to see a ghost for herself, she convinces Chongkwai to do another ritual, which is basically "hide-and-seek in a forest at night while carrying a black cat." On one hand, May doesn't get to see any ghost. On the other, Kofei goes missing. April, his girlfriend, goes into hysterics and, convinced he might be dead, performs yet another ritual in which she annoints her eyes with the soil from a cemetery, which almost gets her killed. At this point, May and Teddy go back to Hong Kong...but their experience with the supernatural is not over yet.

When I said that The Eye 10 is pure HONG KONG, I think fans of the Jade Screen know what I'm getting at: jarring tonal inconsistencies, inappropriate music that suggests comedy or action where things should be scary, ghost possessions played for laughs, and just an overall sense of weirdness to the whole endeavor. In one scene, a character is chased down the hallway by a sentient basketball. In another, a pair of B-Boys have a dance off with one of the characters, who has just been possessed. The finale has our characters raiding the spirit world and fighting off malignant ghosts with their breath, which they project toward their foes as if they were hadouken from Street Fighter II. While things don't get to Wong Jing levels of looniness, the film is impossible to take seriously.

In addition to the schlocky tone that's at odds with the serious approach of the previous two movies, The Eye 10 just looks tacky overall. The CGI is woeful. The photography looks late 90s UPN series, complemented by the crappy special effects. The ghosts are meant to look scary, with their white make up and black highlights, but lack the atmosphere to make them truly scary. Even the opening credits deflates much of the tension that was suggested in the opening scene. It's strange to consider that this film was made by the same people who made the other two movies, which boasted genuine scares, great photography and strong performances. This has none of that and gives credence to the belief that the third part of a trilogy (or series) is always the worst.