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Film: The Eye III (Gin gwai 10)
Year: 2005
Director: Danny Pang and Oxide Chun Pang
Writer: Mark Wu
Starring: Bo-lin Chen, Yan Kam Ching and Ng Wing Chuen
Review:
This film starts off showing us a woman, played by Tanyapan Jansiw, that is possessed. She is placed in a circle of monks and we see they are chanting. She levitates off the ground and spins around. She starts to attack the monks with her tongue and other parts of her body.
We then shift to follow a group of five people that are on vacation in Thailand. They are at an amusement park having a good time and get on a bus. They are played by Bo-lin Chen, who has a video camera. His cousin is played by Kate Yeung. There is a couple played by Isabella Leong and Yu Gu. Then finally Ray MacDonald is their other friend on this trip. The bus slows down when it comes upon an accident where a young woman was killed. Chen videos it as they go by, with Yeung hitting him for it. A woman then gets on the bus with two little boys, she is played by Bongkoj Khongmalai. The group messes with the kids until they get her to smile.
They go back to MacDonald’s house and tell ghost stories. When it finally comes to him, he tells them about a book he purchased that tells you how to contact the dead. The first two stories in it are actually the stories from the previous two films, the first of a transplanted corneas making a woman see ghosts, while the other is a pregnant woman attempting to commit suicide. He was warned when he bought the book never to turn to the final page though.
The group then decides to do this to try to see ghosts. It is pointed out that they might not all see them as people are different with their abilities. The first one they try is an Asian version of an Ouija board. Gu sees a smoky thing come into the room and help move the glass. They all start to scream and MacDonald’s mother scolds them for being up and loud, she is played by Pisamai Pakdeevijit.
The next one takes them outside where they try to lure hungry ghosts with a meal and tapping chop sticks on bowls. This draws a lot of them freaking out Chen. Everyone ends up seeing the ghosts, but Yeung. She forces them to continue on to the next one.
This one takes them out into the woods to play hide-and-seek. One of them will not be able to be found due to ghosts. They have a cat with them that will help break the spell. The person ends up being Gu. He urinates on a ghost without knowing it and disappears. The cat dies and they can’t find him.
Leong freaks out. She wants to find her boyfriend so she tries to do the next one. This involves her digging up a corpse and rubbing the mud of it on her eyes. She has visions of the spirit world and her eyes falls out. There is a red world behind it. She is saved by Pakdeevijit who cleans her eyes off and scolds them for what they are doing. She doesn’t know how to save Gu who is still missing.
Chen and Yeung return to Hong Kong, much to the displeasure of Pakdeevijit, who thinks they are cowards. Leong continues to try to find Gu and does the next one, which involves combing her hair at midnight. MacDonald looks more into the book and finds at the bookstore there is a bunch of copies, but the drawings inside have changed. It now shows him and his friends inside of the version he has. Pakdeevijit claims that he has casted a spell on them and that they have to finish what they started to break it.
Can Chen and Yeung flee from this or will it follow them to Hong Kong? Chen starts to see Khongmalai from the bus ride as well. Leong also vanishes and MacDonald tries to get the two to come back to Thailand. Can the two missing friends be found before it is too late?
I have to say that I liked the original film in the series as well as I thought the sequel wasn’t bad. I wasn’t a huge fan of this one. This one went too comedic at times for me and doesn’t feel like it belongs in the series. What I did like was all of the different ways that they state could conjure up spirits. I don’t know if this is really part of their culture or not, but I found it interesting if it was. There was a twist at the end that I liked, but it kind of doesn’t make sense though. The person wouldn’t have disappeared like they stated or it just wasn’t explained enough. I did like the ending though and thought it was against the norm of what you see in a lot of films.
The acting in this film was not as good as the other films in the series. I had to watch it with subtitles on, since I don’t speak the three languages used, so that does make it harder for me to judge as well. Much like I said with the story though, this one took the roles a little bit more comedic and it didn’t fit the film or the series to me. I did like Leong and wanting her to find her boyfriend. Same with MacDonald, even though his mother is a medium and he still tempted the spirits like he did. I did feel that all the actors did show genuine fear, even if they kept tempting the spirits after they were seen early on.
I was not impressed by the effects of this film. All the films in the series seemed to use CGI, but this one was the worst with it. During the Ouija game, the ghost looked fake in that. When they are in the spirit world trying to keep spirits away was another point that I was annoyed with the film. The spirits during the food one I did like though. The editing of the film was fine. It has a low running time and I felt it did build tension that you need to the climax. The score of the film didn’t stand out to me though. It also doesn’t hurt the film either.
With that said, I was disappointed in this film and it doesn’t seem to fit in with The Eye series of films. I did like the continuity of referencing the previous two, which was a good touch. I also liked all the different ways they could contact spirits. My issue came that they tried to go comedy with this one and I felt it didn’t fit. The acting for the most part is pretty good, but there are some moments I had issues with. The CGI was bad aside from a couple spots to me. The editing was okay and the score didn’t hurt or help the film. I felt this was just average by itself of people being haunted by ghosts that they conjure up for fun. I will warn this film is from Hong Kong and I had to watch it with subtitles, so keep that in mind coming into this one.
My Rating: 5 out of 10