Double Vision (2002)

An FBI Agent pairs with a troubled Taiwan cop to hunt for a serial killer who's embedding a mysterious fungus in the brains of victims.

Director:

Kuo-Fu Chen

Writers:

Kuo-Fu Chen, Richard Epcar

Stars:

Tony Ka Fai Leung, David Morse, Rene Liu

2 wins & 10 nominations.

Cast

Credited cast:
Tony Ka Fai Leung	...	Huang Huo-tu
David Morse	...	Kevin Richter
Rene Liu	...	Ching-fang
Leon Dai	...	Li Feng-bo
Kuei-Mei Yang	...	Coroner
Sihung Lung	...	Taoist Expert
Brett Climo	...	Serial Killer
Wei-Han Huang	...	Mei-Mei
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Han Chang	...	Detective Chang
Akio Chen
Hui-Hui Chiang
King Chin
Heng-Yin Chou	...	Reporter
De-Hai Chu
Judy Ya-Hsin Ko	...	Xiao Ya, betelnut girl

Storyline

An FBI Agent pairs with a troubled Taiwan cop to hunt for a serial killer who's embedding a mysterious fungus in the brains of victims.

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Plot Keywords:

fbi federal bureau of investigation | taiwan | serial killer | two word title | throat slitting | 

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Taglines:

There Is Only What You Believe.

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Genres:

Fantasy | Horror | Mystery

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for strong violence/gore

Did You Know?

Trivia

Broke the record for the largest production budget of any Taiwanese movie.

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Alternate Versions

The Hong Kond DVD includes an Unrated version of the film with a running time of 113mins NTSC. The R-rated version runs aprox 109mins NTSC. The extra footage in the Unrated version is to the Temple massacre sequence - Graphic beheadings, arms cut off, more bullet hits etc. Also a short scene at the end of the Temple massacre showing the last 2 police officers and 2 cult members in a stand off. Which quickly turns into a graphic killing of one of the policemen and cult member.

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Connections

Featured in The Making of 'Double Vision' (2002)

User Reviews

Above average horror

Double Vision is a horror movie from Taiwan that may be "The Next Big Thing" amongst Asian film lovers. It stars Tony Leung Ka-Fai as an intense, troubled Taiwanese detective and David Morse as an FBI agent sent to assist the Taiwanese cops in the investigation of a serial killer (since America produces more of those than any other country, the FBI are considered to be the world's experts).

It doesn't take much to discover that there's something very strange about the killings. The first victim is a business man, found frozen to death in his office on a hot day when the air conditioning was off. The second, a politician's wife is found burnt to death in her home - which shows no signs of fire damage.

The Taiwanese cops are convinced the case is simply insolvable, as it is clearly the work of devils or demons. David Morse, sceptic that he is, is quite convinced the deaths are the work of human hands.

Playing out rather like a multinational episode of the x-files, the film is infused with Taiwanese Taoism and the notion that there is more to the world than the ordinary human eye can see. Well, what good horror movie isn't?

Tony Leung gives a fantastic performance as the intense, haunted cop, and David Morse fares better than most Western actors do in Asian productions. The film is very slick, with high production values and great cinematography (from Hong Kong legend Arthur Wong). It doesn't all make a lot of sense, if you try to think about it too much, but that's just an aspect of horror movies I guess I will get used to one day. Scares are not constant, but are effective.

The script mixes together a large number of elements, and in particular contains far more political content than usually makes it into horror movies. Although clearly made with the international market in mind, it is very much focused on Taiwanese culture and history.

Although the film tries to be smart, and perhaps by horror standards is, the presence of several lapses of logic frustrated me quite a bit. I never seem to get it, but I always wish a horror movie would actually make logical sense. I guess this is usually compromised for "I didn't see that coming" type scares and twists, and so it is in DOUBLE VISION. This is the primary reason why I'm not a horror movie fan, and was never going to *love* DV. For those that enjoyed THE RING and its ilk, I'm sure DOUBLE VISION will be perfectly satisfying. It's certainly a glossy production that attempts to cover a lot of ground, sometimes with success.

Details

Country:

Taiwan Hong Kong

Language:

Mandarin Hokkien English

Release Date:

20 October 2002 (Taiwan)

Also Known As:

Double Vision

Filming Locations:

Australia

Box Office

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$1,501,021

Company Credits

Production Co:

Columbia Pictures Film Production Asia, Nan Fang Film Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

110 min 110 min (R-rated)

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color (Fujicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1