Gin gwai (2002)

User Rating:

6.9/10   

Directors:

Oxide Pang Chun
Danny Pang

Writers:

Jo Jo Yuet-chun Hui (written by) and
Danny Pang (written by) ...

Release Date:

9 May 2002 (Hong Kong)

Genre:

Drama | Horror | Thriller

Tagline:

What if the reflection you see is not yours

Plot:

A blind girl gets a cornea transplant so that she would be able to see again. However, she got more...

Plot Keywords:

Ghost | Blind Girl | Eye | Vision | Surgery

Awards:

8 wins & 5 nominations

Cast

Angelica Lee	...	Wong Kar Mun (as Lee Sin-Je)
Lawrence Chou	...	Dr. Wah
Chutcha Rujinanon	...	Ling
Yut Lai So	...	Yingying
Candy Lo	...	Yee (Mun's Sister)
Yin Ping Ko	...	Mun's grandmother
Pierre Png	...	Dr. Eak
Edmund Chen	...	Dr. Lo
Wai-Ho Yung	...	Mr. Ching
Wilson Yip	...	Taoist
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Kanta Aeamsamang	...	Young Mother
Wisarup Annuar	...	Dark Figure
Cub Chin	...	Boy's Father
Wing-Wai Chin	...	Hospital Caretaker
Ousinthorn Chotphan	...	Mun as a Little Girl
Sungwen Cummee	...	Ghost in the Elevator
Damrongwiseeatpanich	...	Ling (Age 8)
Jinda Duangtoy	...	Old Lady in the Hospital
Sopol Duriensuk	...	Traffic Policeman
Pornchai Hongrattanaporn	...	Bride
Si Won Ho	...	Ghost in the Restaurant
Panpimol Jeamsakol	...	Thai Nurse 2
Pui Ho Jim	...	Boy in the Car Accident
Narongsak Junjiamrat	...	Young Father
Wirasinee Kuntipan	...	Groom
Mylio Lau	...	Wah's Secretary
Yuk Ha Lau	...	Waitress
Hing Kim Lee	...	Restaurant Owener
Somchai Leelanukul	...	Thai Mini-Bus Driver
Tao Leung	...	Ghost on the Highway
Vuanna Mahachanok	...	Thai Mini-Cab Driver
Tassanana Nuntasapee	...	Ling (Age 4)
Ming Poon	...	Boy with Cap
Dampongongtrakul Sawadee	...	Yee as a Little Girl
Nonlaporn Sombatruksasuk	...	Boy's Mother
Nittaya Suthornrat	...	Ghost in the Classroom
Busarn Thongtiw	...	Thai Nurse 1
Wasarat Thrasarchoti	...	Mr. Ching's Assistant
Sue Yuen Wang	...	Ling's Mother
Yuet Siu Wong	...	Ghost in the Hospital
Florence Wu	...	Nurse
Tian Nan Wu	...	Calligraphy Teacher
Ben Yuen	...	Mr. Ching

Also Known As:

The Eye (International: English title) (UK)
Jian gui (Hong Kong: Mandarin title)
Seeing Ghosts (literal English title)

MPAA:

Rated R for some disturbing images.

Runtime:

99 min | Argentina:110 min (Mar del Plata Film Festival) | Canada:94 min (DVD) | Sweden:94 min (DVD)

Country:

Hong Kong | Singapore

Language:

Cantonese | Thai | English | Mandarin | Hakka

Color:

Black and White | Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital EX

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Malaysia:18SG (uncut version) | Malaysia:U (cut version) | Portugal:M/18 | South Korea:15 | Netherlands:16 | USA:TV-MA (cable rating) | Argentina:16 | Denmark:15 | Finland:K-15 | Germany:16 | Hong Kong:IIB | Netherlands:16 (DVD rating) | Norway:15 | Philippines:PG-13 | Singapore:PG | Spain:13 | Sweden:15 | UK:15 | USA:R | Australia:MA

Filming Locations:

Hong Kong, China

Company:

Applause Pictures

Trivia:

The dark/black figure/person that constantly appears in the film when the characters die is the Daoist (Chinese religion) form of the Grim Reaper. In Daoist belief, there are two Grim Reapers, the White and Black "Wu Chang". The Black Reaper is the one that escorts the newly dead to the "other world" of "afterlife".

Goofs:

Continuity: When Mun is in Dr. Lo's office explaining her visions, her bangs hang down over alternate sides of her face.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Deadly Visions (2004) (TV)

Not so much a Scare Fest than a decent thriller

About three months ago, I was paging through cable and found a film that looked intriguing. After watching for about five minutes I had the pants scared off of me, so, being the complete wuss I am, I turned it off. Curiosity made me want to go back to it, of course, so about twenty minutes later I got up the guts to turn it back on. After about two minutes, I was full on terrified, and turned it off for good. I told some friends about this film, and all seemed intrigued, mainly because of the scare factor, so this weekend we got around to finally watching it. That movie of course, was the Pang Brothers' "The Eye", a film that ended up being something completely different than what I was expecting.

In "The Eye", Wong Kar Mun (Lee) is a young blind woman who gets a corneal transplant. Soon after her operation, as her eyes are adjusting, she begins to see some pretty scary images; shadowy black figures hanging around people who later die, dead people themselves, and her room keeps doing a pesky trick where it changes on her as she's looking at it, furniture and all. Her doctor, Dr. Lo (a really young looking Edmund Chen) doesn't believe her at first, but then realizes that there may be some merit to her claims, so they go in search of the donor in order to find out what history her eyes' previous owner had, and what kind of baggage Wong Kar Mun has to deal with now.

Based on my first impressions of the film, I was actually expecting a big scare fest like "The Grudge"; short on story, big on scares. What I actually realized is that the two parts that I briefly watched were actually two out of the three genuinely scary parts of the film. (The elevator scene was enough to make me take the stairs today at work, seriously.) The rest of the film is certifiably creepy, but there is actually a decent story to support those creepy parts. "The Eye" has no doubt been compared to "The Sixth Sense" in terms of theme, but it is also similar in substance as well. Even without the scares, the film would be able to stand on its other merits. Some of the special effects in "The Eye" were kind of cheesy (basically Sci-Fi channel made-for-cable television caliber) and in typical Chinese film fashion, the music was horrible, but all told, it is a decent film.

After doing a little reading on the film, I saw that Tom Cruise's production company bought the rights to the film and are planning a remake. I'm not very educated on Asian horror films and their American remakes, (yet) but I think I would see it just out of mere curiosity, because I would imagine that they would take this relatively small film and mess with it to make it "bigger". "The Eye" is definitely worth checking out because while it definitely scared the pants off of me a couple of times, the rest of the film was really was worth sticking around to see how it all would end. 6/10 --Shelly