Tags:
Film: The Eye II (Gin gwai II)
Year: 2004
Director: Danny Pang and Oxide Chun Pang
Writer: Yuet-Jan Hui
Starring: Qi Shu, Eugenia Yuan and Jesdaporn Pholdee
Review:
This film begins with a woman in a store; she is played by Qi Shu. She is trying to buy a tie for her boyfriend, but he won’t answer her. He tells her that he can’t talk right now. She gets upset and continues on her shopping spree. She ends up getting a hotel room where she goes to commit suicide. This is a cry for help. She takes a lot of pills in a new red dress. She hallucinates that there are people around her bed that she talks to. It turns out to be ghosts. She tries to call her boyfriend back and he shuts her down again. People bust in to save her.
She recovers and learns that she is pregnant. She tries to call her boyfriend again, but he is ignoring her. The other problem is that she is seeing ghosts everywhere. At first she doesn’t know they are, but the more they go on she starts to lose her mind.
Her boyfriend is played by Jesdaporn Pholdee. We see him leaving his office and checking his phone. Shu is watching him as she is ignored. She then goes to the doctor and she asks to abort this baby. He informs her that this would be her second abortion and he doesn’t recommend it. She might not be able to bear children when she decides to if she takes this route. He talks her out of it.
Pholdee finally breaks down and visits her. She was having her furniture taken out, but she stops them. They talk for a little bit and we see that he doesn’t want to be a part of her life. Also around this time, there is a moment where Shu sees a woman staring at her. She has a stroller and moves toward the rails of a subway. The woman is played by Eugenia Yuan. Shu tries to save her and then she blacks out.
Shu then wakes up in the hospital. They accuse her of trying to kill herself again and she informs them that this is not the case. She was trying to prevent the other woman from doing this.
We then see that Shu has decided to keep the baby and starts going to a class to prepare1 for having her baby. There is moment where she goes into the locker room and sees someone from the class crying, she is played Yuan Yuan Ren. She tells her husband has disappeared. Shu then asks about the man that is sitting across from her, played by Chuwong Earsakul, if that is her husband. Ren tells her not to try to scare her.
Shu sees more ghosts as she goes that freak her out. She sees some fall to their death in front of her. She also sees on in the back of a taxi that causes her to vomit. She also goes to the hospital with bleeding from her vagina. While in the elevator, she sees a ghost float down and try to go into a pregnant woman. She freaks out.
We also get a scene where Shu is almost raped and she attacks her attacker. She goes into a trance and leaves the rapist, played by Chi Tai Lam, with bad injuries. She is shook by this as well as realizing who Yuan really is. Knowing now what the ghosts are out to do, can she prevent Yuan from taking over her baby? Is there a way to prevent it without hurting herself or her child?
Now I watched this one, because I didn’t mind the American remake of the original film, which led me to the sequel of the Japanese film. I liked that they did something different with the story here. The myth they use for this film is that near-death experiences or having a baby cause people to see ghosts. Shu has experienced both of these recently which is why she is plagued. I also liked that we see why those that are pregnant tend to see ghosts and it makes sense. It is an interesting concept that I didn’t mind. I did find the film to be a little bit boring. We did get to see more ghosts in this one, but it didn’t carry as much fear with me. That was disappointing. I did enjoy the ending though.
The acting is something hard for me to grade in this. I thought everyone I saw was solid, but it is hard when you are watching a film with subtitles on and trying to focus on the performances. What I saw I thought Shu did solid. She comes off very immature to start, but being pregnant really makes her grow up. I thought there was a lot of character growth there and it was solid. Pholdee wasn’t bad and his character is realistic. I feel overall the acting was solid.
This film was good in the effects department as well. Some of the ghosts were done with practical effects and they looked realistic which is a plus. Some also had to be CGI and I thought those even looked real. I’m impressed that they utilized both of these very well. The editing of the film was okay. I did find myself a little bit bored at times and think that it could have been tightened up. I think they tried to show more ghosts, but it doesn’t add more tension. Some of just seemed unneeded. The score of the film also didn’t stand out to be, but also doesn’t hurt the film either.
Now with that said, this isn’t a bad sequel. I would recommend this one, especially if you liked the original film. I think this one tried to add to the mythology with doing something different. I didn’t mind this at all. The point they are trying to get across with the ghosts was good. I thought the acting was solid from what I could tell. The practical and CGI effects of the film looked good to me and I had no complaints there. The editing could use some work and I think needed to be tightened up. The score also doesn’t add or hurt the film in my opinion. Now I will warn you that I watched this with subtitles on, but I also think there could be a dubbed version as well. If that is an issue avoid this. If not, I feel that this is an above average ghost/haunting film with an interesting premise.
My Rating: 6 out of 10