The Eye

The Eye is a 2002 horror film from Hong Kong. The film is about a woman, Mun, who has been blind since the age 2, getting and eye transplant. She enjoys the transplant at first, but not for long as she starts seeing ghosts that foretell deaths. She goes on a trip with her doctor to track down the donor of the corneas. She is told that the previous owner was looked down on as a witch for seeing death. She warns everyone about a huge disaster but no one believes her. The disaster kills tons of people and feeling guilty, she kills herself. Her spirit possesses Mun until her mother rescues her and they make up. Mun feels a bit better until she sees ghosts while stuck in traffic. The traffic was caused by a huge tanker that had been tipped over and now Mun is in a similar situation that her donor was in. She knows that a disaster is about to happen but no one is responsive to her. The tanker explodes and a piece of glass goes into her eye. Mun is now blind again and doesn’t mind not seeing anymore. She says she has seen all that she was meant to see.

A theme in this film is not to mess with the way things were intended to be. In this film we see that Mun only achieves true happiness once she is blind again. She says at the end of the film that she saw all that she was meant to see. After getting the cornea transplant, she realizes she got into more than she bargained for. After seeing all these haunting visions, having vision is now more of a hassle than actually not seeing anything.

The Eye had an intriguing story with a good ending but I felt there wasn’t enough story in the film. It was nearly 100 minutes but the story could easily have been a highly entertaining 30 minute episode of The Twilight Zone. I felt things were padded out or went slower because they needed to fill time for a feature length film. Basically the first hour of the movie is Mun seeing visions of dead people over and over again. The most entertaining scene was probably the end featuring the explosion of the tanker. It was obvious that no one would pay any attention to her and that they would all perish considering that basically happened to the other girl. I liked how the ending wasn’t a typical horror movie ending. There was nothing screaming sequel, even though they made 2 more films after this one. The fact that she was now happy being blind after going through all that peril was interesting to see. The film was decent enough but I wanted something more. The scene with the dead man in the elevator was entertaining, however, I wanted more thrills, instead of scenes relying on high volume music to make you jump. The whole troubled ghost needing to be put to rest idea was a bit lame. The film was alright but considering its potential, it could have been better.