The Eye AKA Gin Gwai
(2002) 99 min.
Rated: R (Gore)
Country: Hong Kong, Singapore
Director: Pang Brothers
Starring: Angelica Lee, Lawrence Chou
Links: IMDB | Wikipedia
Rating: ★★☆☆☆
A young blind woman gets a cornea transplant and begins to see supernatural beings.
Synopsis:
The film opens with a blind woman named Mun (Lee) who has just received a cornea transplant while her sister and grandmother wait patiently. Mun at first sees a bit blurry, but slowly is able to make out shapes and distinct objects.
In her hospital a young girl named Ying Ying is also staying and talks to Mun while she heals. Ying Ying has a brain tumor and has to undergo several operations. They’re close friends and Ying Ying wants to show Mun that the world is beautiful.
One night Mun goes out of her room and sees a lady being led away by a shadowy man in black. She later learns that one of the room neighbors passed away that same night. Soon Mun is seeing a young boy looking for a report card in her apartment building and all sorts of other apparitions that no one else seems to see. She also sees the spirit of Ying Ying after she passes away. Part of her tries to learn to accept seeing the spirits.
She talks to her Dr. Wah (Chou) who at first doesn’t believe her, but slowly comes to trust and believe her. He has developed a closer relationship with Mun and willingly goes with her to Thailand to find the cornea donor as Mun believes the donor is the cause of her nightmares.
While in Thailand Dr. Wah is able to talk to a Thai doctor who remembers Ling, a village girl who had the ability to see spirits. The rest of the village treated her as an outcast and went so far as to throw water on her. She endured a lot of this until one day there was a huge fire in the village. The very same day Ling hung herself.
Mun and Dr.Wah go to Ling’s house where Ling’s mother still lives. Mun decides to stay the night in Ling’s bedroom. She feels that these were all things familiar to her that she would see in her dream.
She wakes up during the night and sits at a mirror talking to Ling’s spirit. The events of Ling’s life unfold. She is taunted mercilessly and shunned. Her mother tried to protect her but ultimately Ling decided to hang herself in her room. Mun runs out of the room and talks to Ling’s mother, telling her that Ling is re-living her death every night and the only thing that can stop the cycle is the mother’s intervention. At first Ling’s mother refuses saying that Ling “gave up” after she had protected Ling. But eventually the mother goes to the room and pulls “Ling” down, and Ling is able to channel through Mun and apologize to her mother for killing herself.
After that Dr.Wah and Mun pay their respects at Ling’s grave and all seems well.
On their return trip from Thailand Mun and Dr.Wah are riding in a bus when Mun notices the shadowy figures gathering in large numbers. Alarmed she gets up to see what the cause of all the traffic is. She notices a large 18 wheeler has overturned carrying a large tank of flammable gas. Mun, in her mind, relives a moment in time when Ling was trying to warn the villagers of an impending fire, of which no one listened and many died from. Mun echoes this and tries to warn the other drivers to get out of their car and that there is danger. Dr.Wah wakes up from a nap, notices Mun missing and runs out to get her.
The tank explodes igniting the gas that has leaked and surrounded the cars. Dr. Wah pushes Mun down to shield her from the blast, but pieces of tinder/shrapnel have already hit her eyes. Many people die in the explosion. The spirits of the dead are shown being escorted away. We see that Mun and Dr.Wah are still alive.
Mun and Dr. Wah survive, but Mun is now blind. She feels at peace, though, and Ling’s visions no longer haunt her.
Review:
There’s a lot to like about this film as far as cornea transplants go. It’s not by any means a perfect film. There are quite a few unbelievable traits in the film and it kind of plays like a drama. The plot building slowly and sometimes meandering into moments like Mun and Ying Ying playing with a camera.
Some parts are kind of muddled, like Dr.Wah’s inexplicable attraction to Mun who he’s only encountered a handful of times. He basically is risking his job going to Thailand for her, but his attraction to her is never explained. They never seem to share chemistry.
The movie starts off as sort of a horror film, then verges on mysterious thriller, then it settles on action with giant explosions at the end. This kind of disjointed tone is set throughout the movie. The soundtrack playing both classical violin as well as synthetic violin. Perhaps it’s the relatively low budget of the film, but despite these flaws the film still manages to build tension in a few scenes and throws a few jump scares into the mix.
The concept is alluring enough that several sequels and remakes were made. (An American and Indian remake.) So to that end it’s worth watching if only to see what the fuss is about. It definitely has a few moments of interest, but it also lulls a bit.
