Lacks the kind of suspenseful plotting that's needed to make you cower behind your popcorn carton.
The Eye (2003)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:100
Fresh:64
Rotten:36
Average Rating:6.1/10
Consensus: Conventional ghost tale with a few genuine scares.
Runtime: 1 hr 39 mins
Genre: Horror/Suspense
Synopsis: THE EYE, directed by twin brothers Danny and Oxide Pang, is a Chinese/Thai horror film that focuses on Mun (Sin-je Lee), a cornea-transplant recipient who has been blind most of her life. As Mun... THE EYE, directed by twin brothers Danny and Oxide Pang, is a Chinese/Thai horror film that focuses on Mun (Sin-je Lee), a cornea-transplant recipient who has been blind most of her life. As Mun adjusts to her newfound sight, she begins to see haunting visions of dead people. As these terrifying visions become more frequent, Mun turns to a young psychiatrist, Dr. Wah (Lawrence Chou), for help. Eventually the two track the identity of the deceased eye donor to Thailand, and there the mystery is finally brought to light. With THE EYE, the Pang brothers enter the increasingly populated subgenre of contemporary Asian horror. Drawing on the visual language of recent Japanese films such as RING and PULSE, as well as Hollywood films THE SIXTH SENSE and STIR OF ECHOES, this chilling tale implies more than it reveals, building a deep sense of dread, even from the opening credits. Although the "I-see-dead-people" plotline has been investigated numerous times, THE EYE manages to put a different lens on the idea through subtleties in the story and the charismatic performance of the radiant Sin-je Lee. Featuring scenes that will make all viewers wary of elevators, hospital recovery wards, and calligraphy, this film offers truly startling moments that will linger in the mind's eye for a long time. [More]
Starring: Sin-je Lee, Laurence Chou, Chutcha Rujinanon, Candy Lo
Starring: Sin-je Lee, Laurence Chou, Chutcha Rujinanon, Candy Lo, Edmund Chen, Pierre Png
Director: Danny Pang, Oxide Pang
Director: Danny Pang, Oxide Pang
Screenwriter: Jo Jo Hui Yuet Chun, Danny Pang, Oxide Pang
Producer: Lawrence Cheng
Composer: Orange Music
Studio: Palm Pictures
Reviews for The Eye
The overall visual imagery is terrifically effective, unsettling and eerie, yet darkly beautiful at the same time.
It's like "The Hand" clumsily mishmashed with "At First Sight", "The Sixth Sense", "Ring" and "The Mothman Prophecies", and it just goes on and on.
If you're a longtime horror fan, however, the shocks are somewhat mitigated by the game of "spot the reference" you'll be playing as the story unfolds.
This Eye won't give your own peepers back to you for 98 armrest-clenching minutes.
This is a movie with serious intent, a mature, wordy thriller with naturalistic (if somewhat naive) performances and aspirations to poetry.
Like the horror-flick hacks who infest Hollywood like termites, the Pangs don't build suspense, they assault the senses with twitchy photography and Danny's editing.
Though mythology and motivation might not withstand excessive scrutiny, this film is an intelligent, creepy thrill.
This is the kind of movie you happen across on TV, and linger to watch out of curiosity, but its inspired moments serve only to point out how routine, and occasionally how slow and wordy, the rest of it is.
A feast to behold, but it lacks substance and will leave most viewers wholly unsatisfied.
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