In terms of media consumption, it's been a slow new year around here. My partner Don has been brought quite low by a nasty little cold/flu/bug so we've mostly been watching game shows, comfort movies, and TV on DVD (Don spent his first two days off work re-watching entire seasons of Firefly, Wonderfalls, and Arrested Development). But last night we watched The Eye, a Hong Kong horror film from 2002 which has been remade by Hollywood and will be released in a couple of weeks. Since it was made in Hong Kong and Thailand, I guess it's not officially part of the Japanese "J-horror" genre (such as the original versions of The Ring, The Grudge, and One Missed Call), but it certainly partakes of those films' conventions: ghosts, female leads, children, a sense of dread).
A young woman, blind since the age of 2, receives a cornea transplant and, while learning how to process the visual information she's missed most of her life, realizes that she can see dead people, both the ghosts of the recently dead who have not found rest in the afterlife, and the newly dead being led off by spooky grim reaper figures. With the help of a handsome young therapist, she digs into the background of the dead girl whose corneas she got and helps the girl's ghost get redemption. The movie could end at that point, but in a final scene which, despite the elaborate special effects, feels tacked on, she foretells a mass traffic disaster but is unable to make people believe that they're going to die (reminiscent of the climax of The Mothman Prophecies). The movie looks good (and looks like it was shot on digital video or film), and the leads, Angelica Lee and Lawrence Chou are very good, though Chou, while quite nice looking (see pic above), is way too young to be believable as an experienced psychologist. It feels like a variation on The Sixth Sense and as such is quite predictable, but the ghostly atmosphere is nicely done, and in mostly bright colors rather than shades of gloomy darkness--with lots of effective out-of-focus camera work for the ghost scenes. The effects in the ending are spectacularly done, but as I noted it doesn't feel organic to the story, as though the producers thought the film needed more gore. I don't know if I'll bother to see the American version with Jessica Alba, though I admit that the presence of the hot Alessandro Nivola might make it a must-see eventually on DVD. (Shame on IFC for not showing this widescreen movie in a letterbox format, and for keeping their damned logo on screen the entire time!)
In terms of media consumption, it's been a slow new year around here. My partner Don has been brought quite low by a nasty little cold/flu/bug so we've mostly been watching game shows, comfort movies, and TV on DVD (Don spent his first two days off work re-watching entire seasons of Firefly, Wonderfalls, and Arrested Development). But last night we watched The Eye, a Hong Kong horror film from 2002 which has been remade by Hollywood and will be released in a couple of weeks. Since it was made in Hong Kong and Thailand, I guess it's not officially part of the Japanese "J-horror" genre (such as the original versions of The Ring, The Grudge, and One Missed Call), but it certainly partakes of those films' conventions: ghosts, female leads, children, a sense of dread).
A young woman, blind since the age of 2, receives a cornea transplant and, while learning how to process the visual information she's missed most of her life, realizes that she can see dead people, both the ghosts of the recently dead who have not found rest in the afterlife, and the newly dead being led off by spooky grim reaper figures. With the help of a handsome young therapist, she digs into the background of the dead girl whose corneas she got and helps the girl's ghost get redemption. The movie could end at that point, but in a final scene which, despite the elaborate special effects, feels tacked on, she foretells a mass traffic disaster but is unable to make people believe that they're going to die (reminiscent of the climax of The Mothman Prophecies). The movie looks good (and looks like it was shot on digital video or film), and the leads, Angelica Lee and Lawrence Chou are very good, though Chou, while quite nice looking (see pic above), is way too young to be believable as an experienced psychologist. It feels like a variation on The Sixth Sense and as such is quite predictable, but the ghostly atmosphere is nicely done, and in mostly bright colors rather than shades of gloomy darkness--with lots of effective out-of-focus camera work for the ghost scenes. The effects in the ending are spectacularly done, but as I noted it doesn't feel organic to the story, as though the producers thought the film needed more gore. I don't know if I'll bother to see the American version with Jessica Alba, though I admit that the presence of the hot Alessandro Nivola might make it a must-see eventually on DVD. (Shame on IFC for not showing this widescreen movie in a letterbox format, and for keeping their damned logo on screen the entire time!)
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