Review : Eye 2, The, Oxide Pang & Danny Pang, 2004

EYE 2, THE

Original Title : Jian Gui 2

Directed by Oxide Pang, Danny Pang

Written by Lawrence Cheng, Jo Jo Yuet-chun Hui

With Shu Qi, Eugenia Yuan, Jesdaporn Pholdee, Philip Kwok, Rayson Tan...

Year : 2004

Country : Hong Kong

Length : 95 min

Misc : NTSC

DVD provided by :

Rating : 6 / 10

SYNOPSIS

When Joey decides to change life after a failed attempt to commit suicide, she founds out that she's pregnant. Desperate, the young single girl tries and get in touch with her ex-lover, Sam, who lets her wait and see. Quite fast, psychosis gets in the way, when she begins to feel strange and frightening presences around her and her baby...

REVIEW

While the title of this film implied a long awaited sequel to the Pang brothers' movie ("THE EYE", "BANGKOK DANGEROUS"), it seems that it was only a deceptive means to attract the audience towards a quite conventional ghost movie. Still, "THE EYE 2" remains a good one. If the Pang brothers don't sign that story – less original –, however, their visual touch is indeed there in the direction, through the thought of images and the settings and a very peculiar way of shooting.

Once again, a part of the action takes place in Thailand, a country cherished by Oxidie Pang, where Joey, embodied by Shu Qi ("VISIBLE SECRET", "MILLENNIUM MAMBO", "A MAN CALLED HERO", "THE STORMRIDERS", "VIVA EROTICA"...), tries and commits suicide in a luxurious hotel room in Bangkok. This event would be the start point to strange visions, at the exact moment when she founds out about her unexpected pregnancy. While unease and the instability of the young woman become more marked, the supernatural phenomenon multiply as this difficult pregnancy goes along.

The most striking scenes are a bit more spectacular that in the first opus, insisting on the psychological state of the main character, obsessed with the apparition of a mysterious lady (played by Eugenia Yuan, that could be seen in the Korean segment of "Going Home" of the first part of "THREE") who protect the baby so that she can reincarnate... Shu Qi share very well the despair and the loneliness of a Joey ready to do anything, above all the worst, to preserve her child. This duality between life and death creates a kind of link towards the other side, a reflect of the Buddhist beliefs very much present in the movie through the theme of the ghosts, of reincarnation and Karma...

"THE EYE 2" is for sure more exciting than the previous, even if it stays a bit less mysterious. In spite of the bitter reviews about it when it came out, it's far from being that bad. However, don't expect either a continuation to the first one, or a great cinematographic surprise!

Note from Lan : 6 on 10

Published on 2005-08-17