The Eye 1 and 2

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Eye, The "Jian Gui" (2002)

Our Score: 8/10
IMDb Score: 6.9/10

Summary: Ghost Story with a Soul

 

The Eye is a tour de force. An extraordinary journey of two girls. The
first is Mun, played incredibly by the lovely, Angelica Lee, who is
given the gift of sight... and much, much more. The second, the donor
of her cornea whose life has become tangled up in Mun's life by her
gifted vision. Mun's character is more then simply a catalyst for a
ghost story, but a heroine of archetypal exploration, around which the
people she meets, dead, and alive, dance in a macabre and beautiful
ballet, to the symphony of her experience. Dr Lo, played by Lawrence
Chou passionately wishes to help Mun, to uncover the truth behind the
living recipient whose cornea she inherited. The movie can be enjoyed
on so many levels... as a action movie with pounding music and intense
dramatic scenes, or a riveting story of love, forgiveness, regret, and
acceptance. Either way you look at it, you will learn to look life
straight in The Eye.

"When I was little... granny told me... I was not an ordinary child.
God had given me some obstacles... so that I would grow up to be an
extraordinary person. Now I understand what it means to be
extraordinary. An extraordinary person can see things others can't...
and feel pain others won't feel... Maybe, I was never meant to see this
world, I don't want to lay terrified in bed every night... then awaken
horrors every morning... I just want to be an ordinary person." The
movie is amazingly effective, from the scene in the diner we see she is
not the only person gifted with this second sight, or "sixth sense",
and that gives us the ability to place the story in a subtext within
reality. The dialog and story truly take this out of the realm of
simple ghost story, to noble heights.

Eye, The 2 "Gin Gwai 2" (2004)

Our Score: 7/10
IMDb Score: 5.7/10

Summary: There is nothing worse then a life left unexamined

The Eye 2 is a sort of spin-off of the original Eye, although this time it shows us another gift of vision... and not through transplant, but through self induced suicide attempts. Qi Shu plays a desperately struggling, and suicidal young lady, pregnant, and teetering on the brink of madness... She's the unwilling recipient of an influx of shadowy images that haunt her pervasively. In an attempt to quell this disturbing phenomenon, she hooks up with a msysterious caretaker, and her secretive ex-lover Sam (Tik Jesadaporn Pholdee), who may be able to shed some light upon the mysterious twilight world descending upon Joey.

The story is about taking responsibility, and is done in such a haunting and wonderful way, as we wind through the inner battle of Joey's detachment from her life, her lack of understanding, and her coming to terms with who she is, and what she has been a part of all this time.

Joey is in love with a married man, and when he discovers a conscience, and begins brushing her off, Joey attempts suicide, out of her own guilt, and sadness. Suicidal attempts develop into strange visions of the dead... but what is she really seeing, and what will it teach her?

Sam's wife commits suicide by jumping in front of a train, when she discovers her husband is having an affair, and Joey begins to see a woman following her around, a ghost, but does she know this woman is the ex-wife of her ex-lover, and why does she follow Joey in the afterlife?

Joey is pregnant, and the further along her pregnancy, the more we see this woman following her, and the more we see strange phenomena surrounding pregnant women. Joey at first thinks the ghosts are threatening the unborn children, but must accept that she is to be the mother of her ex-lover's suicided ex-wife, and that these ghosts merely await reincarnation. Joey evolves as a character, and as a human being, in this heartwrenching story of coming to terms, and self sacrifice, as Joey takes on the responsibility of not only parenthood, but raising the one person as her baby, she hurt more then anyone else in her life.

But, don't be fooled, this is not merely a touching story of responsibility, karma, and social illness, the ghost protects Joey, so that it may be reborn. When a man threatens to rape Joey, he is brutally disfigured, Joey is unconscious so who did it? I believe it was the ghost of this woman protecting Joey.

Alot of people did not like this film, but I found it very moving. Qi Shu shows us she is capable of alot more then simply looking cute, in this heart wrenching look at reality, and the repercussions of living a life without truth.