THE STORY – After the mysterious disappearance of their baby daughter, a young couple begins to receive strange videos, realizing someone has been filming their daily life—even their most intimate moments. The police set up surveillance around their home to catch the voyeur, but the family starts to crumble as secrets unravel under the scrutiny of eyes watching them from all sides.
THE CAST – Wu Chien-Ho, Lee Kang-Sheng, Anicca Panna, Vera Chen, Pete Teo, Xenia Tan & Maryanne Ng-Yew
THE TEAM – Siew Hua Yeo (Director/Writer)
THE RUNNING TIME – 125 Minutes
Patience is a virtue. So much so that it is no wonder why people say good things come to those who wait. Siew Hua Yeo’s mystery thriller “Stranger Eyes” is a meditation on that philosophy, not only for its main characters but also for viewers, who get to take in the satisfyingly slow-build film about a family searching for their missing daughter. With plenty of unexpected moments, “Stranger Eyes” will keep audiences guessing until the end. Despite its sluggish pacing at times, it ends on an emotional high note you won’t expect.
The joy of playing with their child in a park has been replaced with obsessively reviewing old family videos for Junyang (Chien-Ho Wu) and Peiying (Anicca Panna), who are desperate to find their missing Little Bo (Anya Chow). It’s been three months since that fateful day when Junyang watched his daughter play at a park, then took a quick phone call and realized she was nowhere to be found (well-crafted audio work featuring sounds from a playground comes in and out as he retells the story). The police can only offer so much help – “Go home and wait for my call” is all that Officer Zheng (Pete Teo) can provide at this point – and the family is desperate for any leads or answers. That leads to some bold decisions: Junyang goes so far as to follow one mother and her daughter through the mall because the little girl looks so much like his Bo. The chilling sequence is amplified by a tracking shot of Junyang watching and following their every move, as well as tense, pulsating music.
When all their efforts seem hopeless, the family begins to receive DVDs from their neighbor, Wu (Kang-Sheng Lee), who has been secretly filming them from his apartment and around town. Grainy recordings show Junyang and Bo walking through a supermarket and at the park, as well as Junyang’s flirtatious tendencies. The family is sent into yet another spiral, hoping to nail down how much Wu knows about their daughter’s disappearance and what else he has hiding in his apartment.
But that’s not the only tale being told here – again, it’s all about patience with this story. Yeo shifts perspectives over to Wu, where audiences see how he came to record the family and his fascination with Peiying, a DJ who livestreams her colorful and lively work online. Through Wu’s eyes, we see more of Junyang’s indiscretions around women and his own daughter and how much it impacts Peiying. Being seen is a constant theme of the film, and Peiying believes that her husband views her as air – totally invisible. But through Wu’s lens, we see all of her: her musical, motherly, and sexy woman dimensions, leading to a far more complete portrait of a character who, in most cases, doesn’t get much of the spotlight in this film.
As we watch the complex stories unfold in Stranger Eyes, cinematographer Hideho Urata’s lens captures all the various details vividly, making you fully aware of all the eyes on this family. Sometimes, the camera will linger behind them; other times, it’ll be overhead, as if the scene is captured by a street surveillance camera. The result fully drives home the film’s message about being watched and observing your surroundings, making one eager to see what will appear next on the screen.
There’s another shift by the end of the film that might get some viewers fatigued by this story, but it ends with a surprisingly emotional payoff and brings a lot of heart to this film about loss. Overall, Yeo’s “Stranger Eyes” is an excellent crime thriller that feels more fully realized and organized compared to his previous film, “A Land Imagined.” With his steady progression in this genre, we can’t wait to see what Yeo will craft up next.
