Ghost Eyes
Director: Kuei Chih-hung
Year: 1974
Rating: 7.5
Though director Kuei
Chih-hung’s classic 1973 film “The Bamboo House of Dolls” was filled with
lurid details of sex and torture and “The Killer Snakes” made the following
year oozed with perversity, he keeps this 1974 film surprisingly free of
exploitation. “Ghost Eyes” certainly has ample opportunity for large
portions of sex and violence, but Gui steers oddly clear of them. One might
wonder if the inclusion of some of these graphic elements would have given
this film a higher profile over the years as opposed to becoming one of his
more obscure works. Instead the director creates a moody supernatural
tale that though never truly frightening is effectively dark and pessimistic.
Kuei paints a claustrophobic Hong Kong landscape that seems to almost be
perpetually dark and rainy and in which danger is resident in all things
natural and unnatural. The city is almost a breathing sore waiting for infection
to settle in. Often Kuei utilizes off-setting camera angles that give much
of the proceedings an uneasy feeling and the tight enclosed interiors, deserted
exteriors and use of shadow and light only add to the disturbing melancholy
that overlays everything. In this sinister world nothing is as it appears
– often the dangerous looking is mundane and the mundane can be deadly. The
simple act of crossing the street has inherent risk and something as ordinary
as a contact lens can be utterly destructive. Hong Kong is a battlefield
in which both the supernatural and the real world are out to hurt you. The
tone is set immediately when the film opens with a razor being rapidly sharpened,
but this turns out only to be a barber readying himself to shave a customer
– the real danger is in the well-dressed man who just walked in for a manicure.
Bao Ling (Chen Szu Chia) is an attractive manicurist in the shop and makes
small talk with her new customer Shi (Antonio Ho a.k.a. Sze Wei) who has arrived
as dusk sets and pointedly avoids being caught in a cross-mirror image. After
leaving work Bao is nearly hit by a car and has her glasses broken in her
fall. Her friendly customer turns up suddenly and tells her that he is an
optometrist and that he will provide her with a pair of contact lenses. The
next day she comes to his shop and is outfitted with the lenses. Later that
night in the pouring rain he makes a house call to make sure everything is
going well and he shines a light into her pupils – the next thing she knows
it is the next day and something sexual happened to her in the interval. This
doesn’t seem to faze her nearly as much as it would us, but soon other very
strange things begin to happen. In the washroom of her work place she sees
an old man washing his hands – but it turns out he died over a year ago and
on her way home she comes across a mudslide with numerous people gasping
to fight their way out – except there is nothing there and a passerby tells
her to stay away from this area because many people died in a mudslide long
ago.
When she goes to visit his shop to confront him it turns out that it was
burnt down years before and the proprietor died in the fire – clearly these
are contact lenses from Hell and she can't take them off! She keeps waking
up in a broken down house on a ratty mattress and can’t recall how she got
there and her appearance is soon that of the walking dead. Shi soon tires
of having sex with her and demands that she bring fresh meat in the form of
her pretty co-workers to this house and they are never seen of again except
as desiccated corpses. Freaking out at this point she finally tells her boyfriend
(Lin Wei Tu) what has happened and they realize that she must be possessed
and they bring in a Taoist priest to take on this creature of the dead who
will neither kill her or let her go – but the horror and hopelessness of the
situation only increases.
This is a fairly enjoyably taut supernatural thriller that crosses you up
a few times in your expectations and is unremittingly grim. It is not graphic
though for the most part – the sex is always off screen as are most of the
killings – though one is carried out quite nicely with the simplicity of a
bloody arm reaching out of the water. Kuei also increases the tension in other
simple but effective ways – at one point the boyfriend is anxiously waiting
for a phone call from Bao to see if she is alright and an annoying fat child
is frazzling his and our nerves by playing a screechy laughing box. Another
effective ploy is having Shi whistle the famous tune “The Love I Cannot Forget”
from the film “Love without End” whenever he approaches to do evil. Was he
a Linda Lin Dai fan? It will be hard to think of this hauntingly romantic
song in the same way. The leading actors were certainly not high profile
indicating that this film was far from first tier and the budget was probably
in line with that but Kuei compensates for this lack of quality acting and
money with great technique and smarts – simple everyday sets, filming primarily
at night, utilizing a jangly soundtrack, having a tight fast moving narrative,
some fun make-up, scary looking extras, a few jolting moments, crisp editing
and great camera placement. Appearing also is Ha Ping as one of Bao’s co-workers.