“The world is beautiful!”
Probably the best thing about
being partially deaf is that, unlike most people, I have absolutely no problem
with watching subtitled foreign films. My girlfriend falls into the category of
“most people” however, so I’m watching this while she does other stuff. Thing
is, though, I don’t really get scared by the supernatural in horror films; I
don’t believe in it, and that’s that. But it’s deeper than that, really; I
never “suspend my disbelief” when watching screen drama, always seeing as
something that has been written, designed and shot. I just don’t get scared by
anything in fiction, and that is that. Odd, I suppose, that I can still be
moved emotionally by it, but let us not go off on too many tangents.
The Eye, being Hong Kong horror, is not from a genre of which I am
hugely familiar. It’s good stuff- pacey, strong on character, and stylishly
shot, however. The central conceit- a blind woman has her sight restored, but
the eyes are donated by a deeply troubled woman cursed by second sight who had
committed suicide- is ingeniously horrifying on a very basic level, and the
main twist (I won’t spoil, but it involves a photograph) is brilliant. This
film does more than just scares, though; the scenes with Ying Ying, a little
girl undergoing chemotherapy, are heartbreaking. There are some nice dramatic
moments (the early scenes evoke Bill Masen’s bandages being removed in Day of the Triffids), and the conclusion
is extremely neat and satisfying.
One little side observation: we
native English speakers are lucky to have such a lingua franca as our tongue.
This film includes scenes in which two Cantonese speakers talk to a Thai nurse
in English, the language of a small island halfway round the world.
This is an excellent film- scary,
affecting, superbly shot and with some highly satisfying plot developments. The
early part of the film is a little slow, perhaps, but the payoff is worth it.
One word of caution, though: beware of a huge spoiler in the film’s tag line
No comments:
Post a Comment