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Dom Robinson reviews
Tartan Video
- Cert:
- Cat.no: TVD 3407
- Running time: 95 minutes
- Year: 2002
- Pressing: 2002
- Region(s): 0, PAL
- Chapters: 16 plus extras
- Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0 (Dolby Surround)
- Languages: Chinese/Mandarin/Thai
- Subtitles: English
- Widescreen: 1.85:1
- 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: No
- Disc Format: DVD 9
- Price: £19.99
- Extras: Trailers, Teaser trailers, Filmographies, Film Notes,Asia Extreme Trailer Reel, Pang Brothers documentary, Making of documentary
Director:
- Oxide and Danny Pang
(Bangkok Dangerous, The Eye, One Take Only, Ta fa likit)
Producers:
- Peter Chan and Lawrence Cheng
Screenplay:
- Jo Jo Yuet-chun Hui, Oxide and Danny Pang
Original Score :
- Orange Music
Cast :
- Mun: Angelica Lee
Dr Wah: Lawrence Chou
Ling: Chutcha Rujinanon
Ying Ying: Yut Lai So
Yee: Candy Lo
Mun’s grandmother: Yin Ping Ko
Dr Eak: Pierre Png
Dr Lo: Edmund Chen
Mr Ching: Benjamin Yuen
Taoist: Wilson Yip
From the age of two,Mun (Angelica Lee) has been blind, but around eighteen years later shegets the chance of a cornea transplant and, aside from the initial pain ofeye-to-brain co-ordination, it appears to be a success.
The plus points are that she gets to see videos of herself as a young girl,recorded by her father who now lives in Vancouver, so she can see them laterif her eyesight was ever restored. She also gets to see the girl with whichshe’s made friends, Ying Ying (Yut Lai So), who’s suffering from cancerand undergoing chemotherapy treatment.
However, there’s downsides to be expected such as when she’s axed from aconcert with classical star Vanessa Mae because Mun is performing for a blindorganisation – and now she’s not blind. Can things get worse? Just slightly…
Mun begins to see things which aren’t real – past echoes, such as a little boylooking for his report card, the same boy who committed suicide recently andfor whom his parents are still coming to terms with. Echoes of the future arenot long off either, and quite disturbing ones at that which makes Mun’splight all the more involving.
Brown-trousers-time began when Mun saw more frightening things like a youngwoman, who looks similar to herself, shouting, asking why she’s sitting in herchair during a caligraphy lesson. Clever special FX are also employed, mixingwhat she sees and what the reality should be, making her room look like it hasthe texture of paintings.
I could comment on the film further, but to do so would bring spoilers intothe review, as would showing screengrabs from the movie.
The Pang brothers make full use of the entire 1.85:1 widescreen frame, causinga drab landscape to look inviting. It’s frustrating that such a recent filmhas a large number of small print defects on view. While the sound is only DolbySurround, it still has an exceedingly haunting theme tune that sets you onedge perfectly.
The extras begin with four trailers, all in 16:9 non-anamorphic, twoof which are 45-second teasers and the other two are longer ones, around twominutes each but slightly different from each other, plus the fact that onehas an American commentary over the top and the other doesn’t.
The Making of The Eye (8 mins) sees interviews with the cast and crewtalking about their inspirations for the film and how they’ve collected momentsfrom their lives that they’ve seen so they can turn them into a weird-as-fuckmovie, interspersed by non-anamorphic film clips.
Pang Brothers Documentary (7 mins) concentrates on the sibling directorsin similar fashion, with the rest of the cast and crew enthusing greatly aboutthem and their work.
The rest of the extras include Filmographies for the Pang brothers,Angelica Lee and Lawrence Chou, a few pages of Film Notes from JustinBowyer, a Promotional Art Gallery, showing some designs for the artwork,plus the Asia Extreme Terror Reel – trailers for Dead or Alive 2,City of Lost Souls, Battle Royale, Bangkok Dangerous and Ring.
There are subtitles in English only, plus the option to remove them which isgood as a video would have to have them burned into the print, just 16chapters, and a short piece of the music on the main menu.
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
OVERALL
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.