The Eye Infinity (Gin gwai 10)

…

Rating 2¾


Directed by Oxide Pang Chun and Danny Pang Fat

Written by Mark Wu, from a story by Oxide Pang Chun and Danny Pang Fat

Starring Chen Po Lin (Bo-lin Chen), Kate Yeung, Lok-si Leung (Isabella Leong), Ray MacDonald, Kris Gu (Yu Gu), Pissamai Pakdeevijit and Bongkoj Kongmalai


A group of five friends visit Thailand, staying at the family home of Chongkwai (Ray MacDonald), where they tell each other ghost stories and engage in magic rituals to summon up spirits. Kofei (Kris Gu) disappears during one of the rituals and afterwards Ted (Chen Po Lin) and his cousin May (Kate Yeung) immediately return to Hong Kong, each trying to forget what happened. April (Lok-si Leung), Kofei’s girlfriend, remains in Thailand, shutting herself away from her friends. Chongkwai also remains there, staying with his mother, who is a medium. Slowly but surely, Chongkwai, Ted and May realise they have unleashed something they cannot control.

This is the final part of a trilogy of films made by the Pang Brothers. It references the first two films, although it is not a continuation of a single storyline and it is not absolutely necessary to have watched the previous films before this one, although a couple of scenes do require prior knowledge of the other films to make sense and be fully effective. The three films share some common themes, for example, suicide.

Unlike the first two films, ‘The Eye Infinity’ is largely played for laughs, such as the breakdance standoff that isn’t. It even finds room for a fart joke, something that immediately distances it from its predecessors, which are much more serious. In that respect, it is best viewed as a stand-alone film, rather than expecting a continuation of the style established in the previous two instalments.

It retains the signature style of the Pang Brothers work, although it did take me a while to get used to the humour. This almost turned the film into a kind of Hong Kong version of ‘Scary Movie’. Although it is not laugh out loud, I enjoyed it.

‘The Eye Infinity’ is also known as ‘The Eye 10’, the number of ways described in the film to see ghosts.



…