The concept of the song is very similar to that of Michael Haneke‘s movie. The husband and wife are sent a disc and the disc contains a recording of them going about their daily activities in secret. Strangers Eyes, which is Haneke’s Le film rework, asks a lot of questions, more than what is the relevance of the videotape. And, starting with surprising themes and bounding looking for deeper facets Of Yeo Siew Hua’s third feature, I wait for the star-seared willingness for a film that astonishes me. She exposes that which lies concealed beneath the ‘cool’ style of the movie which is a broken heart.
The concept of the song is very similar to that of Michael Haneke‘s movie. The husband and wife are sent a disc and the disc contains a recording of them going about their daily activities in secret. Strangers Eyes, which is Haneke’s Le film rework, asks a lot of questions, more than what is the relevance of the videotape. And, starting with surprising themes and bounding looking for deeper facets Of Yeo Siew Hua’s third feature, I wait for the star-seared willingness for a film that astonishes me. She exposes that which lies concealed beneath the ‘cool’ style of the movie which is a broken heart.
Yeo has gained a reputation as an auteur after winning the Best Director award at Locarno in 2018, a result of the release of his movie “A Land Imagined,” which is a fluorescence neo-noir. Given that, following the overtly experimental breath of his 2009 inception film In the House of Straw, he signals an orientation of himself that he broadens in his myriad explorations of genre-oriented narratives that structurally, abuse time and do not shy away from political issues, a scenario that has grown from his pseudo-documentary work. Stranger Eyes has a similar tonality and non-linear narrative features as well, however, its usage is catered more towards character and emotional depth rather than the intricate weave of the progression of events. If Yeo’s proportion evoked such interest that the respective multi-territory rights deal with Netflix was undertaken, Yeo’s new title managed to at least garner the same amount of global interest after its Paris on Venice competition showing.
Certainly, Singapore is densely populated which makes it such that it is almost impossible for one’s activities to remain private. Wu Chien-ho and Anicca Panna who play Junyang and Peiying, the young couple at the center of the film, do not have any privacy and reside in this vast high-rise that is in a very densely populated environment. With that concept in mind, another narrative for the story comes into being. They live along with Junyang’s mother and their infant daughter Bo. This is exactly what has altered the dynamic of Peiyang and Junyang’s relationship, as Chinese tradition in this context is such that they believe that their children must be given the care and attention it requires, therefore they have just moved to a new place so that they can enjoy some privacy.
Bo’s unexpected disappearance is what initiates this sad saga, which after a while is followed by a compelling DVD that later is accompanied by several other DVDs. They all depict mundane life and intimate elements as well. The relentless attempts aimed at stalking the couple coupled with the apparent abduction of their child seem to be interconnected, and even liable indeed, but while watching an encased video Zheng, a cop, inquiring about the case proposes gives vague to, her merely poking in the villa’s shadow. An apartment surveillance camera is fixed by the investigators in a long work embedding into the milieu of the city.
Since this is a tragi-comedy, and the spy versus spy expects the animal’s praise, it does not come across as a surprise. This strange anecdote allows Wu, a miserable romantic Jedi who works exclusively with muggles and defeats dark wizards with his love-centric superpower to be effective. Wu’s companion, a middle-aged weepy man living with his old mother and from the house across the street is situated deep inside a spy technology storyline.
Despite this, Junyang and Peiying are disturbed by the concept of outsiders, and the tapes do fulfill their purpose they are not red herrings for the audience, but instead, they are the means to start what looks like an out-of-place tango to the characters. The effort by the couple to trace their daughter’s whereabouts weakens them together, as well as their parental aspects.
The film attempts to unravel another plot twist just when it feels like the end has been figured out, And so we begin the one-time frame and find ourselves confused as to the time it is and the time it was. As bits of the family life timeline are added together, it is the nagging hurricane-manufactured eye of Anak Chiu that puts out to us how little Junyang and Peiying met each other.
Let me genuinely say as a positive note to this, that Wu is definitely played by Taiwanese legend Lee, though presumably the only role in moving image he has done outside his extensive ties with Tsai Ming-Liang, which was an indicator that there was more to the character than as it were eyeballed or captured by the grainy surveillance cameras. Wu Bai feels evasive of human emotions, well, he is of soundless motion. As “Stranger Eyes” changes its anchor point, it gradually embeds itself to Wu and his downright chilling self-imposed silence which for some reason didn’t come out as a character for Lee cut off from everything out there and feeling the need to have several one-sided relationships spread all over the world just to ward off feeling lonely, deep mournfulness envelops Lee to an extent that the narrative intensity slightly shudders making Lee’s looking too colorful and the quiet stories too melodramatic.
Certainly, there is a broader social dimension that is not limited to the impressions the Patriot feels, for as “Stranger Eyes” reflects, there is slow ‘screening’ of the private life and ‘densifying’ of the social.’ Zheng gives the couple his professional advice “All you need is a single man to sit and watch for a long enough period of time, regardless of whether he is a criminal or not, he will sooner or later become one.” It is one thing to be ever in the thriller, paranoid, and taut modes that this film has no difficulty portraying. In close-up, it is also a love song in the key of nostalgia, a character’s collage of the time with the note of sorrow in it that Chinese director Yeo’s film manages to portray.
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