begob
After a cornea transplant heals her long standing blindness, a young woman sees visions of the dead that lead her into the tragic future. Or is it the past?Good ghost concept diluted by melodrama. Asian horror is so neat with its plot hinges as layers of deception are unfolded, and often it's grim and spooky. Here we have the usual scenario where a sensitive innocent is burdened with the task of uncovering an old injustice. Plenty of character - but too much dialogue, too much romance, as the story bobs about on a slack current.The pace tightens up at the end, only to deliver a false climax followed by an overblown emergency. Music is big, sometimes interesting before descending into plink-plonk piano. The photography messes with the concept of blindness, but fails to create a visual world and relies too much on ramshackle CGI.The performances are OK, and the heroine's mother and the boy with the tumour had good parts. No memorable lines, although it was interesting to see English briefly used in a HK/Thai crossover.Overall, I guess the problem is with the directors/producers, who seem to have bought a good story then splashed it with marketing gunk.
David Arnold
I'll start off by saying that this original Hong Kong version of The Eye is MUCH better than the remake that stars the useless Jessica Alba, and is much creepier also.I'd actually seen the remake before seeing this original version, and while I thought it was OK, I couldn't get into it because of Alba. Having now recently watched this original version, there's no doubt which one I thought was better.Ringu was good. Ju-on was good. Dark Water was good. The Eye, however, surpasses those, and is definitely the best Asian horror film that I've seen to date. I loved everything about this film, and even the acting was really good (which is sometimes one of the things that ISN'T good about these films). The music score was excellent adding to what was already a creepy atmosphere; the story was intriguing and well written; and the cinematography was well executed, bringing us some great shots especially during the more creepier scenes.Speaking of creepy scenes, The Eye has some of the best I've seen in a horror movie for quite a while, and I think the only recent movies to match atmosphere and true tension for me was Sinister, Insidious, and As Above, So Below. The scare scenes in this film WILL freak you out. I mean just to name two alone...the hospital corridor with the older woman and elevator scenes. I defy anyone to watch those scenes and not feel at least a little uneasy.CGI is usually very minimal in Asian horrors, and it's no different in The Eye with the majority of the SFX coming in the last few scenes of the movie. There are the odd moments CGI used for the scarier scenes, but they're really used as "touch up" techniques, so it's not as if this is a CGI-fest, which is good as practical effects can actually be scarier if done right, which they are here.I honestly can't speak highly enough for this film, and if you enjoy Asian horror, like the films I mentioned earlier, then you (should) enjoy The Eye.Definitely recommended.
Rohail Ali
Writing my first ever review here on IMDb, because this movie really don't let me to sit quietly, Well "The Eye" is a movie which really holds a genre of Horror, I'd never seen a movie like this before which really scared me & tend me to pause & take a break several times during its playback, It's first time i really felt scared by watching this movie alone! Specially the scene when the girl was in the art class & a ghost appear & said "Why are you sitting on my chair?" Will highly recommend this movie for horror maniacs! Congratulations to Hongkong cinema for creating such an amazing movie! It's really something which i'd always expected from hundred's of Hollywood horror movies but unfortunately most of them are purely based on some hill side cannibals, zombies, or a group of psycho mass murderer's.
ebiros2
When it comes to understanding the creepiness, I think Asian film makers have better grasp of horror than their western counter parts.There are no statistics about the number of Asians vs Westerners about their ghostly encounters during their youth, but many places in Asia seems to be naturally haunted (like the hospital in this movie), and percentage of people who have direct experience with ghosts may be higher there. The creepiness of many good Asian horror films are based on these first hand experience, only amplified about ten times. They really know how to hit your subconscious fear. On the other hand, Western horror films seems to be focused more on physical violence (like seen in "1408"), which really isn't as terrifying.The Eye is good, because the horror is intensely personal. We can really emphasize with the fear of the main character. This is an excellent film that has no violence, but still has high creepiness factor to it.
AD
