Nostalgia Kinky

Arrow Home Video has released The Eye (2002) on 4K and Blu-ray, featuring archival and new bonus supplements. One of the key Hong Kong horrors of the early 2000s, The Eye is a fascinating film filled with unforgettable, often haunting imagery, and it has certainly never looked better on home video than it does in this new Arrow edition. Order now directly from Arrow or MVD.

One of my personal favorite things about The Eye since I first saw it more than two decades ago, is how relatively simple its story is. When a blind young musician receives a corneal transplant, she begins to see ghosts along with the living, which leads her to question the origins of her new eyes. Like isn’t that great and The Eye really is that concise. It is the conciseness of the narrative that helps give The Eye so much soul, making this among the most moving horror films of the early 2000s.

The Eye is the work of The Pang Brothers, a young pair at the time and still perhaps best known as the directors of Bangkok Dangerous (1999). The duo is of their time, meaning The Eye drips of late 90s/early 2000s core. There’s no way to watch or listen to a minute of The Eye without recognizing the period that gave it life.

The Eye offers up one of pop-star Angelica Lee Sin-Jie’s first roles, and she turns in a powerfully subtle performance for The Pang Brothers, appearing in almost every moment of the film. The entire ensemble is fine, although ultimately, The Eye is about certain images, certain moments, such as the crushingly haunting moment we see a lonely man standing alone on a freeway facing oncoming traffic.

The Eye is neither as scary nor as great as some of Asian horror classics of this period that eventually got American remakes like this one did. Regardless, this is still a strongly effective film that retains its power after 25 years. Along with the new 4K restoration and booklet, Arrow offers up two new extras for this release in the shape of a new interview with producer Peter Ho-Sun Chan and a new visual essay on the film by critic and horror specialist Heather Wixson. Older archival interviews and other promotional material are also on hand. This isn’t one of Arrow’s most expansive sets, but this is a very strong collection dedicated to a special film.

-Jeremy Richey, June 2026-