Friday, December 23, 2005

Movie Notes: The Eye 2


The Pang Brothers remake their superb horror film with a strikingly different story of ghosts, reincarnation and karma. Yes, that's right- this is a Buddhist horror film, and it works surprisingly well. What it means is that the main character can see ghosts- one of which wants to crawl into her womb and be reincarnated as her unborn child- and she has to learn to let go of her fears and accept that death and reincarnation and suffering are parts of life. So, she has to accept all the freaky things happening around her and end her desire to be safe. It is actually very Buddhist.

My only complaint is that I never understand why it is that characters in these movies can see ghosts that they know nobody else can see, yet they keep freaking out in public. After the second time, you'd think they would want to keep it to themselves, but oh, no- freakout city!

Otherwise, the visuals are chilling, the pace is fast, and the idea of a Buddhist horror film, while rendered a bit literally, works surprisingly well.

No comments: