Shuang tong

The baby who died at the beginning actually was elevated to a xian, while her twin sister Xie, the girl found in the temple, does not, and seeks to follow her sister's step. Both of them have double pupils in one eye, a sign of emperor and God since ancient time. Turns out the twin tried to became Xian in previous life but failed. In this life, xie, with the help of her sister haunting the detective's daughter, rendering her not able to speak, has to kill five morally reprehensible people to represent the hell of ice, fire, heart-removing, intestine-removing and tongue-removing. The two men were their apprentices in last life and are there to help Xie in this one. The finishing step is for the detective to kill her. And for that, he is allowed to elevate with her. But in the end, his daughter who can finally speak makes him shed tears. Maybe he comes back to life. Maybe not. But the text running at the very end shows that with love there is no regret, or with love, one is there to stay(in two different versions of the ending).

Hrmm, I don't know about this one. An American criminal investigator from the FBI is sent to assist a Taiwanese police group to figure out a bunch of creepy murders. How and why this guy is assisting them is sorta unexplained, but okay. The first half of the movie builds up the suspense pretty well, but the rest of it gets kind of clunky and includes a lot of CG clipshows and gore, segway that relies on music, unnecessary (and yet somehow predictable) plot twists full of tepid villains or lazy pacing. I do like the Taoist mysticism they try to throw into the whole thing, but it ends up being a lot less cool or scary than "Ghostbusters" by the end. The mysticism isn't explained in very much detail, which I suspect is to deliberately cover up its lack of depth. There are a few points where the movie is a launchpad for typical conversations about mysticism/religious belief vs. science. *snore* Tony Leung's main role is pretty cliché'd, at least as far as western cop dramas go. Some event from his past haunts him, isolates him from colleagues, his family, blah blah blah. David Morse is okay, but there's no real point to him being there. We also get almost zero character development out of him. And the script's attempts to get one-liners or sarcastic quips from his character are pretty poor. Seriously, if you hadn't seen these characters already a million times before in better movies, you'd be pretty damn confused by their stories and motivations. The flashbacks and home movies and whatever else you see here, they're so random, they're given almost no introduction so you have no idea what you're seeing or why it's relevant to the story. So it's a typical cross-cultural cop-drama, which mixes with light mysticism and horror instead of comedy or martial arts, and with somewhat choppy editing and pacing. Don't get me wrong, I really loved getting to see Taiwan and all the Taoist symbolism and what-have-you. It just wasn't implemented that well. It's like the movie couldn't decide on what to be. Oh, and the ending is poorly thought out too. The '80s flick "Black Rain" with Michael Douglas does the serious cross-cultural cop-drama thing much better. That one has finer ambiance, a cheesy soundtrack with charming characters as well as a better look into the customs of Japanese law enforcement and organized crime.

Stylish hybrid of serial killer and supernatural horror flicks is well shot and fairly slick, with mostly good acting and some mild suspense. Tony Leung Kar-fei is soulful and very effective as the troubled police officer who is partnered up with FBI agent David Morse. While usually a fine actor, Morse seems out of synch with the rest of the cast--which seems appropriate for his character, at least initially, since he is the unwanted lone American lending his expertise to resentful Chinese police. Unfortunately, as is usually the case with English language characters in Hong Kong movies, his dialogue sucks and the director doesn't seem to have a clue of how to direct his non-Chinese cast member. The murders are kind of ridiculous, colorful but impossible unless the supernatural is involved, making the movie's early attempts to provide a scientific basis for the deaths seem like a ludicrous waste of time. Still, Double Vision is fairly creepy and effective for most of it's length, building to a shockingly violent confrontation in a Taoist Temple that was constructed within the walls of normal looking office building. The scene is good but would have been even more effective without several obvious and not very good computer effects that are both unnecessary and distracting. (Why do a decapitation with a computer effect and make it look like something out of a Playstation game when old fashioned make-up effects look so much better?) Unfortunately after this scene Double Vision goes completely off the rails, going on for an unnecessary twenty minutes more filled with trippy effects and seemingly endless scenes that make no sense. All in all this one's more than worth a look, but it could have been a lot better.

Double Vision is a horror movie from Taiwan that may be "The Next Big Thing" amongst Asian film lovers. It stars Tony Leung Ka-Fai as an intense, troubled Taiwanese detective and David Morse as an FBI agent sent to assist the Taiwanese cops in the investigation of a serial killer (since America produces more of those than any other country, the FBI are considered to be the world's experts). It doesn't take much to discover that there's something very strange about the killings. The first victim is a business man, found frozen to death in his office on a hot day when the air conditioning was off. The second, a politician's wife is found burnt to death in her home - which shows no signs of fire damage. The Taiwanese cops are convinced the case is simply insolvable, as it is clearly the work of devils or demons. David Morse, sceptic that he is, is quite convinced the deaths are the work of human hands. Playing out rather like a multinational episode of the x-files, the film is infused with Taiwanese Taoism and the notion that there is more to the world than the ordinary human eye can see. Well, what good horror movie isn't? Tony Leung gives a fantastic performance as the intense, haunted cop, and David Morse fares better than most Western actors do in Asian productions. The film is very slick, with high production values and great cinematography (from Hong Kong legend Arthur Wong). It doesn't all make a lot of sense, if you try to think about it too much, but that's just an aspect of horror movies I guess I will get used to one day. Scares are not constant, but are effective. The script mixes together a large number of elements, and in particular contains far more political content than usually makes it into horror movies. Although clearly made with the international market in mind, it is very much focused on Taiwanese culture and history. Although the film tries to be smart, and perhaps by horror standards is, the presence of several lapses of logic frustrated me quite a bit. I never seem to get it, but I always wish a horror movie would actually make logical sense. I guess this is usually compromised for "I didn't see that coming" type scares and twists, and so it is in DOUBLE VISION. This is the primary reason why I'm not a horror movie fan, and was never going to *love* DV. For those that enjoyed THE RING and its ilk, I'm sure DOUBLE VISION will be perfectly satisfying. It's certainly a glossy production that attempts to cover a lot of ground, sometimes with success.

This flick is worth seeing simply becase the plot stays pretty unpretentious throughout the whole movie. The two main characters, Huo-tu and Kevin, are living, breathing humans, a refreshing change than those of most East-Meets-West stereotypes, where the local cop is a kung-fu god and the FBI agent/US cop cares only about the mission and nothing else. Here, every character has human problems, even the inhuman enemy behind it all. Even in the mind-trip ending, the actor manages to retain that human touch to what would otherwise be a melodramatic performance. Check it out if you want to see some interesting and original character dynamics.

I didn't really know what to expect from this. I got more than I could ever have imagined. It's an atmospheric tale, which is part mystery, part horror. Not horror in gory or bloody, but as in disturbing and just creepy. There are really two story arcs which increasingly intertwine, the mystery killings and the personal life of Tony Leung's character, who made the mistake of being an honest cop and has ended up with nothing but trouble for it, having family trouble and being transferred to the foreign division, basically exiled from the regular police. Two seemingly inexplicable and possibly supernatural killings take place, then a third involves a foreigner. This is where Leung really enters the case, when an FBI Profiler (David Morse) is brought in to help, and as a foreign division officer, Leung liaisons with him. The two slowly unravel the mystery of the killings and slowly bond, in part because both are outsiders to the the rest of the police. Morse a foreigner, and Leung, exiled for his past deeds and his own troubled past. I really can't get into the plot without giving spoilers, but it is largely based on Taoism, which at least for western audiences is pretty fresh. Some may make a comparison to the movie Seven, but I really don't think that's fair, as only 1 killing in this is really ritualistic. I really can't think of anything like this movie, I really found myself glued to the set, intrigued by the mystery and not knowing what was coming next. Leung amazed me in Infernal Affairs, and he does just as good a job here. I've always thought Morse was an underrated actor (since he mostly is a character actor), and indeed with a lead role he turns in a great performance. The rest of the cast also turns in great performances, though those two are the only ones I recognize. My only real complaint is the the ending, or parts just before the ending, are a bit confusing and somewhat muddled. But I suspect that was the point. The movie really looks great. The cinematography does a great job of capturing the mood and the sound is also quite fitting. All around a really classy movie.

Double Vision is definitely one of the best Asian horror films I've seen in the last few years, and definitely the best out of China/Taiwan. A dark film with a good storyline (though yes, the last part of the film is a bit hazy), and excellent characters and actors. A real unexpected pearl, far better than what I had expected from promotional material when it was first released. A very refreshing change to the usual Korean/Japanese/Thai ghost films, it is genuinely frightening without being deliberately gratuitous. The temple scene mid-way through the film remains my favourite scene, so fast and well done that you're left utterly shocked by the time its over. For a good dark supernatural horror film, or for something completely different to the increasingly done to death Asian ghost/horror film with long black haired ghosts, see this one.

This trashy Taiwanese-American cooperation tries to mix all stereotypes of U.S. police buddy-movies/serial-killer thrillers and Asian supernatural horror films into one brew... unfortunately, its taste is revolting. Mind me, the technical aspects and even some of the otherwise typically hammy acting is okay, but the convoluted plot kills it all, particularly after confusing Taoist prophecies, silly modern killer monks and, most annoyingly, lofty melodramatics are introduced. And I won't even speak about the ridiculous finale. I seldom cared less about a thriller's outcome. 2 out of 10 lethal air conditioners

David morse is a underrated actor that is for sure. He and Tony lueng balance alot of this film on there shoulders which is ok since they can pull it off. Between them and the director they did a good job creating sympathy for the main characters. This is dark and brooding some times brutal serial killer mystery that has a few really well crafted surprises. I missed a chance to see this on the big screen at the SD asian film fest and i regret missing it. Too bad it played at the same time as giant live action transformers in the returner. Good pick for fans of asian horror but in that genre nothing beats tell me something and the eye.

DOUBLE VISION (Shuang Tong) Aspect ratio: 2.39:1 (Panavision) Sound formats: Dolby Digital / SDDS Following a series of murders in which the victims died under mysterious circumstances (one drowns on the top floor of an office complex, another is disembowelled in his sleep, etc.), Taiwanese police engage the services of an FBI agent (David Morse) who joins forces with a disgraced cop (Tony Leung Ka-fai) and traces the clues back to a murderous religious sect... Produced by the Asian wing of Columbia Pictures, DOUBLE VISION is a beautifully-made bore. With its moody visuals and stately pace, Chen Kuo-fo's torturous film aspires to something more upmarket than your average 'slasher' movie, and the results are pretty mixed, to say the least: Too 'arty' for the multiplex crowd, and too commercial for Art-house audiences, DOUBLE VISION swaps atmosphere for action at almost every turn, save for a violent massacre toward the end of the film and a confusing climax which suggests a supernatural explanation for the murders before going off in a different direction altogether. In fact, Chen's kid-glove treatment of the established 'serial killer' formula - a series of outrageous crimes, followed by an investigation in which an assortment of details lead to a final confrontation with the killer - suggests an aversion to the material that extends all the way down to the murders themselves, few of which are especially graphic, except for a couple of CGI-enhanced eruptions early in the movie, and the narrative suffers accordingly. On the plus side, Morse and Leung (not to be confused with Tony Leung Chiu-wai, star of Wong Kar-wai's HAPPY TOGETHER) are well-matched as cops from opposite sides of the world, forced to set aside their cultural differences in order to track the killer to his/her lair. Morse is OK, as usual, but Leung has the showier role, playing an honest man whose life is in turmoil following a recent tragedy in which his young daughter was taken hostage by an officer whom Leung had accused of corruption. Rene Liu (FLEEING BY NIGHT) plays Leung's wife, a lost soul struggling to cope with the fall-out from her husband's guilty conscience. Grim stuff, in every sense of the word. The uncensored director's cut - available on DVD in Asia - adds more gore to the proceedings, but little else. Gorgeous production values, expansive widescreen compositions and a busy soundtrack aside, the movie is a wash-out. (Mandarin and English dialogue)