Stranger Eyes
After enduring months of a fruitless police investigation into the disappearance of their daughter, a young, estranged couple, Junyang and Peiying, realize they are bring filmed surreptitiously when they begin receiving mysterious packages at their door containing DVDs with footage of their daily lives. The moments captured are unnerving not only for the violation of their privacy, but for what is exposed about Junyang and Peiying’s relationship on a most intimate level. Suspecting their voyeur is responsible for taking their daughter, the couple embark on a desperate mission to seek him out, only to find the truth of his identity is more complicated than it seems.
Featuring legendary Taiwanese actor Lee Kang-sheng, STRANGER EYES “transmogrifies what looks at first like a creepy crime thriller into something much more tricksy, potent and ultimately puzzling, yet still rooted in recognizable human fragility,” (The Hollywood Reporter). Referencing other surveillance thrillers like Michael Haneke’s CACHE and Alfred Hitchcock’s REAR WINDOW, Singaporean filmmaker Yeo Siew Hua’s latest feature is a timely update to the genre as a meditation on voyeurism in the digital age and the contradictory desires around being seen.
Cast
- Lee Kang-Sheng
- Wu Chien-ho
- Anicca Panna
- Vera Chen
- Pete Teo
- "What begins as a crime thriller ends as a transfixing meditation on our personal need for recognition and the difficulty of finding this for ourselves or providing that for others."
- "It’s a testament to the tremendous subtlety of Lee’s acting that it only becomes obvious in retrospect how much of Stranger Eyes is about him, and how much its world bends and refracts around his presence. "
- "Glisteningly atmospheric and elegantly non-linear.... [T]he grave, sorrowful reserve of Lee’s presence gives the film a well of emotion beneath its sharp narrative design, shimmery-cool cinematography and timely technophobia."
- "[A]n engrossing watch that becomes more intriguing as the story unfolds, unveiling hidden facets of the central characters that add great depth to Hua’s film."
- "[I]t’s never less than intriguing...."
- "The discordant strangeness [of the film is] its allure."
- "[A]n excellent crime thriller...."
- "Stranger Eyes can sit comfortably alongside such classic voyeuristic thrillers as Rear Window, Blow Up and The Conversation...."
- "Singaporean director Yeo Siew Hua's film offers unexpected rewards."
- "With Stranger Eyes, ascendant Singaporean filmmaker Yeo Siew Hua transmogrifies what looks at first like a creepy crime thriller into something much more tricksy, potent and ultimately puzzling, yet still rooted in recognizable human fragility."
- "Stranger Eyes is a chilling mystery film about social isolation in the modern day that becomes increasingly unpredictable and enthralling."
- "[I]ts narrative point of view rewardingly shifts across different modes of watching and spying on others, from mass surveillance, through amateur sleuthing, to disturbing voyeurism."
- "Co-writer/director Yeo has hit a nerve for all of us in today’s world.... It’s a warning embedded in a suspenseful film."
- "Stranger Eyes belongs to Lee. Whether or not Yeo wrote it with him in mind, I can’t think of a better performer to flesh out the chasm that powers the film: between different ways of looking, between fears as old as time itself and the state-of-the-art technology used to bring them to light."
- "A satisfyingly slow-build film about loss, patience and being watched that ends with a highly emotional payoff."
- "Yeo Siew Hua asks intelligent questions about the effect of surveillance on the psyche in a brilliantly-cast mystery about a child’s disappearance."
Gallery
Awards & Recognition
Silver Spike - Best Film
Valladolid Int'l. Film Festival
Best Original Film Score
Golden Horse Film Festival
Golden Lion
Venice Film Festival
Grand Prize
Tokyo FILMeX
Best Cinematography
Asia Pacific Screen Awards
5 Awards inc. Best Picture, Director, Actor
Golden Horse Film Festival
New York Film Festival
BFI London Film Festival
Stockholm Int'l. Film Festival
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