The Eye / Gin gwai

In celebration of the downright Americanized crappy copy of the Chinese film Gin gwai, I've unearthed my copy of The Eye and revisited the awesome horror for purposes of review. It's going to be hard not to tell you about the biggest difference between the two, but I can just say "hollywood-ized."

This film was unlike any Asian horror I've ever seen. Angelica Lee remains so incredibly gorgeous, even as dulled down to 'Plain Jane' as she was. I was saddened with how Hollywood-esque they made the lead in the American version (and on top of that, she wasn't a very convincing blind-nearly-her-whole-life), but what can you expect? But the new one was almost exactly like the Pang Brothers' one, save for the ending.

I would have liked to have seen more develop between Mun and Dr. Wah (he had mentioned that she was more than a patient to him about halfway through). I also wanted to see more ghosts. I mean, don't get me wrong. The ghosts were great (the woman in the window of the diner was extremely creepy with that scary tongue and all). I had hoped that each ghost revealed would also reveal perhaps how that ghost had died, but that wasn't so for a couple of them.

The effects were classically cultist of original Asian horror cinema. Of course, that means they were home-made, yet awesome. The 'pop out and scare you' vibe was first class. They used the music well to keep the tension alive. And holy crap, the fiery bodies. You must see them.

fx: 8/10. story development: 9/10 fear factor: 8/10