Superficially a kidnapping thriller, “Stranger Eyes” turns into a free-floating meditation on the nature of voyeurism in Singapore, where cameras are omnipresent, but the people watching don’t always see all that meets the eye.
Written and directed by Yeo Siew Hua, the film opens with a mother, Peiying (Anicca Panna), poring over footage showing her young daughter, Little Bo (Anya Chow), who disappeared from a playground three months earlier. An inspector has advised Peiying and her husband, Junyang (Wu Chien-ho), to scrutinize old videos for anything suspicious.
But their obsessive searching may have a dark side. With unnerving, perhaps implausible ease, Junyang begins trailing another playground parent and her child through a mall. On an escalator, he reaches for the mother’s hair to touch it. When she isn’t looking, he lifts the girl from her stroller.
In the tradition of David Lynch’s “Lost Highway” and Michael Haneke’s “Caché,” mysterious DVDs start arriving at the couple’s door. Someone has been filming them. But in a twist, Yeo does not hide the identity of the disc-toting stalker for long. (Readers who wish to go in absolutely cold can stop here.) Flashbacks reveal him as Lao Wu (Lee Kang-sheng, the taciturn leading man of Tsai Ming-liang’s films), a supermarket manager and across-the-street neighbor. Is he the kidnapper, or just somebody with a disturbing fixation?
The husband and wife keep secrets from each other. They pursue one angle while the police pursue another. Lee’s character monitors them from afar, and Yeo observes them all, sometimes leaving important narrative information offscreen. Always intriguing, “Stranger Eyes” proves stronger on concept than coherence. Perhaps the loose ends are Yeo’s way of suggesting that a film director, too, lacks omniscience.
Stranger Eyes
Not rated. In Mandarin, with subtitles. Running time: 2 hours 5 minutes. In theaters.
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