THE EYE (JIAN GUI)

By: Abbie Bernstein
Review Date: Friday, June 06, 2003

THE EYE is a curious kind of horror film. For approximately its first two-thirds, it is not to put too fine a point on it terrifying. Then it switches gears near the end of the second act and, although it sticks with the supernatural, the film changes both locales and rules on us. It's a bit jarring, but what works about it works so well that it qualifies as a must see.

Young Hong Kong resident Mun (Lee Sin-Je), blind since childhood, gets a corneal transplant in both eyes that restores her vision. The results are bittersweet Mun at first cannot recognize objects by appearance and the blind orchestra with which she's played for years is suddenly uncomfortable with the sighted musician in their midst. However, these problems pale in comparison when Mun begins seeing people in places they should not be, sometimes acting very strangely and/or displaying injuries that, as the medical euphemism goes, are "incompatible with life." She also sees mysterious figures who seem not quite human.

What's going on here? Actually, for as long as we don't know the answer, THE EYE builds up an impressive freight of dread. There is a sequence in an elevator car that for mounting silent terror matches pretty much anything in memory if this doesn't give you the creeps, congratulations, you're probably immune to movie horror. However, once Mun and her young, helpful (and  totally in breach of doctor/patient propriety) psychotherapist Wah (Lawrence Chou) team up and try to get to the bottom of what's going on, they head to Thailand and events become a lot more streamlined and less frightening as we're suddenly confronted with two new major characters and a goal that's introduced relatively late in the day. There's no sin in breaking rules of structure, but this approach undercuts what seems to have been building before. The finale returns us to the main themes in a way that is viscerally effective and visually striking, but has a wee bit of deus ex machina to it, as Mun's visions influence her actions but are unconnected in any causal way to the incident itself.

However, gripes

about THE EYE's plot arc are relatively minor, as it succeeds in more crucial areas. The film is still utterly terrifying for good long stretches. The filmmaking team of directors/writers/brothers Oxide and Danny Pang know a thing or three about sunlit horror and subtly introducing the notion that something is very, very wrong before bringing us face to face with the nightmare and making it worse. Lee is an expressive, warm focal figure she's one of those actresses who can convey gut-clenching terror so that we empathize with her rather than want to distance ourselves and/or tell her to get a grip.

THE EYE borrows liberally from THE SIXTH SENSE and a slew of enchanted transplant stories, both literary and filmed, but still very much has its own identity. You may come out wishing that the throughline was a bit firmer, but you'll probably also find it hard to shake off many of the images and if you're not on the ground floor, you'll take the stairs instead of the elevator.

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