THE EYE
Hong Kong/ Singapore, 2002, 99 minutes, Colour.
Angelica Lee, Lawrence Chou.
Directed by Danny Pang, Oxide Chun Pang (the Pang Brothers)
The Eye was a well-received film from the prolific Brothers PAYING rather early in their career. It was released at the time when a significant number of horror films, ghost films were made in Japan – many of them later to be remade in the United States, as was The Eye in 2008 with Jessica Alba.
The story concerns a young woman, blind from childhood, a violinist. She has the opportunity for surgery after a cornea donor has been found. The atmosphere is eerie, especially because of the special effects and images during the opening credits. It is also difficult for someone blind to adapt to seeing, the blur clearing, identifying people and objects, focusing on objects rather than having a general panorama, finding names for objects that have been known but not seen…
However, the violinist suffers from nightmares, hallucinations in the street, seeing a kind of Daoist Grim Reaper taking people off in death. She sees a little boy asking for his school report, a young girl in the hospital, ghosts of other people. In her nightmare she sees fire as well as changing images of her room.
With the help of the doctor who is assisting her in adjusting to sight, she tracks down the donor of the cornea and travels to Thailand. She finds the village of the young woman, her powers, and the realisation that she is seeing through the donor’s eyes. With the premonitions, the film builds to a climax, special effects climax, the young woman warding off a disaster and recovering her own life.
1. An Asian horror story? Ghost story? The atmosphere of the opening credits, disjointed sequences, as if the film stock was burning?
2. The background in Hong Kong, the city, apartments, hospitals, corridors? The visit to Thailand? The settlement, the home of the donor? The musical score?
3. The title, the focus on eyes and seeing, the consequences of blindness, the difficulties in recovering sight?
4. Mun and her story, blind since the age of two, her growing up, coping with her blindness? Family and background? Violinist and her music?
5. The surgery, its success? Mun in hospital, the woman in the hospital, the little girl, the visions, the image of the Grim Reaper in Daoist mythology, Mun being disturbed?
6. The variety of ghosts, sinister atmosphere, tragedies? Her nightmares, the clues? The fires, her room changing appearance?
7. The doctor, his help, a device, the difficulties in adapting to seeing, focusing, noticing particular characters, different things, hearing the voices and identifying names…?
8. The search and the discovery of the cornea donor? Thailand?
9. The trip to Thailand, Mun and the doctor, her dependence, going to the village, learning the truth about the young woman, her powers, foreseeing tragedies and death?
10. The buildup to the climax, Mun and her visions, her being able to save people – and the donor being at rest? The special effects climax? Mun to live her life?
