retty Hong Kong fashion editor Joey Cheng (The Transporter's Qi Shu) is on a lavish shopping spree in Thailand. But something is strange about what should be an extended state of mall-induced bliss. While shopping for ties, Joey makes a phone call to a male friend, who seems worried about her. "I'll be fine after I spend all my money," she tells her friend. Joey finds a lovely red dress that seems to appeal to her. She buys it, apparently for a special occasion.
At her hotel, Joey tells the helpful desk staff that she'd like to be awakened for a very important appointment at 8 p.m. In her room, Joey puts on the red dress and stretches out on her bed. ...
The next day, after she has spoken to the Thai police, Joey tries to re-enter her hotel room, but the staff have moved her to another room. Her old room now is occupied by a group of Buddhist monks, who have been brought in to perform a very specific kind of ceremony.
Back in Hong Kong, things are different for Joey. Strange people appear in the periphery of her sight and then vanish. Friends and colleagues begin to worry about Joey's mental health. Her former boyfriend seems to be ignoring her, which upsets her greatly, as does the trauma of watching a young woman commit suicide in a very messy way. But no one else, among the scores of people standing near Joey at the time, has seen the suicide, and there is no body to be found. Later that same day, Joey has a life-changing talk with her doctor. But what is the relationship between this life-changing moment and the sudden intrusion of the dead into Joey's awareness?
This Eye has it
The Eye 2 is not a true sequel to The Eye, but a thematic follow-up that builds upon some of the same mythology and premises. It is a stand-alone movie that might be enriched by a previous viewing of The Eye and that, conversely, might enrich a viewing of The Eye if seen first.
The protagonist of The Eye 2 is a very fragile young woman, and the directing team of the Pang Brothers creates a very fragile reality to surround her. The opening shots of the film take place in an utterly mundane and banal upscale shopping mall, yet, as with the opening shots of John Frankenheimer's Seconds (which takes place in the mundane and grimy world of New York's Grand Central Station), camera angles are carefully chosen to throw the world a few degrees off-kilter, to illustrate deftly that the person the audience is watching is drifting into a "between state," in which his or her reality can be undermined or redefined with a slight push.
The Eye 2, as a movie about ghosts, makes great use of the urban riot that is Hong Kong. As Joey is confronted by an increasingly intrusive spirit world, the city becomes more and more threatening and unreal, leading to a climax in a grim and murky hospital that is almost unbearable to watch. The Eye 2 is more than just another post-Sixth Sense spook show. The film has a very deeply intelligent and spiritual core that in many ways treats of Buddhism the way that The Exorcist treated of Catholicism. It is this intelligence and spirituality that gives strength to the film's oddly touching final act.
