Stranger Eyes – Review

Junyang (Wu) and Peiying’s (Panna) daughter little Bo has been kidnapped. It happened as Junyang was at the playground with her, and a flurry of other children. As he takes a quick call from his mother, Bo, who was on the slide, is mysteriously gone afterwards. No one noticed anything helpful. Now, Junyang, Peiying and Junyang’s mother Shuping (Chen) scour old family video recordings of Bo and spread community awareness to try and get any clues as to the girl’s whereabouts.

However, strange events are only just beginning. As the stress of their missing child sets in, Junyang winds up following a woman and her similarly looking daughter one afternoon into the mall. Strangely enough, he soon receives a video recording of this event, from just behind him. Someone has been following him.

As the police set-up cameras outside their apartment, Junyang is supposed to wait at home, but instead heads back to the mall to see if he can find the culprit recording him, and likely related to his daughter’s kidnapping. Officer Zheng (Teo) notes that the family’s next building over neighbor Lao Wu (Lee) dropped off a video disc, all caught on the hidden camera. Wu’s video playback shows more creepy surveillance…

What does this all mean? Is the neighbor the cause of the missing daughter? Why was this couple targeted, and what is all the surveillance about? Where is little Bo? What are all the video DVD’s going to show as they keep coming? Can Yunjang and Peiying cope with the non-stop recordings and being watched at all times? Is everything as it seems?!

Stranger Eyes enters the modern world of cameras catching virtually everything everyone does, and amplifies this by bringing the idea into intimate moments at home. This creates an unsettling atmosphere, and makes even the film’s viewer feel like there are eyes behind them somewhere. It is well shot giving a claustrophobic feeling, as well as some nuanced shots to replicate surveillance and scrutiny.

Stranger Eyes moves slowly, but features some surprising story turns and covers plenty of dramatic ground using the current technological world. Themes of voyeurism, family, control, love, stress, loss and modern society are examined to bring some emotional resonance to the film’s characters. The acting is well done and it is a serious affair all around with no humor to be found in its plot. If you can handle dark, deliberate and mysterious crime stories, this one may work for you.