'Stranger Eyes' Review: Surveillance Mystery Thriller Is a Boring Drag (2024)

Privacy, surveillance, and humanity's dependence on technology have been at the forefront of several movies. Peering into other's lives has always been great fodder for mystery thriller films. Pair this with the terrifying access that social media and technology have given us to the lives of others, and you have a perfect recipe for an invasive thriller story. And yet, Singaporean writer-director Yeo Siew Hua fails to do anything fresh or even somewhat unnerving in his latest venture, Stranger Eyes.

The story of a kidnapped child and the parents’ attempts to find her tries to comment on how much we can glean from how strangers live their lives, and how vulnerable we are rendered by consistent surveillance across the world. It then becomes a proto-One Hour Photo, as the introduction of a lonely grocery shop manager steps in as the Robin Williams-type character, a man driven to a life of invasion by his inherent loneliness. While it isn’t an insult to compare a film to One Hour Photo, it’s not the most telling of a groundbreaking masterpiece when a movie from over 20 years ago executed the very same idea much better. There’s nothing new in Stranger Eyes, and it doesn’t seem to have much to say. This would be forgivable if an unsettling atmosphere substituted for a concrete plot or searing social commentary, but alas, that is not the case.

What Is 'Stranger Eyes' About?

The movie opens with the young couple, Junyang (Wu Chien-ho) and Peiying (Anicca Panna), happily playing with their infant daughter, Little Bo, in a home movie. It’s clear the child is adored by her parents, and even though it’s a happy setting, it’s also obvious that it’s a distant memory. The film then cuts to the present day, as the dejected and numb Peiying searches the home video looking for anything suspicious. Little Bo was taken while being watched by her father at a public playground while he was distracted on a phone call. Peiying continues to catatonically watch home videos, looking for some sort of answers. Junyang meets his mother, Shuping (Vera Chen), who continues to hand out fliers about Bo and ask people if they have seen her, which scares young mothers.

The despair and plight of the family are inescapable, and it seems like all hope is lost in finding Bo. But then, the family starts receiving DVDs containing shaky footage of Junyang shopping with Bo before she disappeared. The next DVD shows Junyang the day before, as he follows a young mother around because her child looks like Bo. It shakes the family, as they naturally believe whoever is sending these DVDs is the person who kidnapped Bo. The identity behind the stalker is soon revealed to be the lonely shop manager Wu (Lee Kang-sheng), and the movie shifts to his perspective, exploring his reasoning for following and documenting the couple without their knowledge. The lives of the many unhappy characters cross over, and the line between public and private starts to blur.

'Stranger Eyes' Is Weighed Down by Its Depressive Mood

'Stranger Eyes' Review: Surveillance Mystery Thriller Is a Boring Drag (1)

Stranger Eyes is a deeply melancholic film where everyone looks and acts broken beyond repair. That’s fair enough for a couple who don’t know where their young daughter is, but the extremely desolate tone of the movie never lets up. The plot might have you think it’s an exciting mystery, following a hardened detective who won’t give up on finding the young girl. However, Bo’s disappearance, even though there are few things more serious than a child gone missing, gets relegated to the backburner. The movie makes the mistake of setting up such a colossal event and then expects us to follow the meandering movements of a bunch of lonely depressed people. We do find out what happened to Bo, but by then, you almost don’t care because the film has been such a test of patience.

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Stranger Eyes intentionally wanders back and forth through the lives of the different characters, both on their own and how they relate to each other. However, it asks you to invest and be extremely interested in characters who are defined only by their sadness and tragedy. The female characters are brought to a much more vivid life, able to go beyond the desperate and cold feeling of the movie. But the film very much focuses on the two male leads, who aren’t empathetic enough to invest in for a grueling two hours.

It's Hard to Invest in the Characters of 'Stranger Eyes'

'Stranger Eyes' Review: Surveillance Mystery Thriller Is a Boring Drag (3)

There’s something of a twist in the final act, but it regards a new character only introduced 15 minutes previous, another example of the movie thinking you care more about someone than you do. How intertwined peoples’ lives can be even though we feel so utterly alone is a resonating idea to explore, particularly in the age of social media being inescapable, but Stranger Eyes’ aimless plot doesn’t do anything with these themes. The story runs on and on, feeling so far away from the movie’s beginning that it’s hard to stay connected with anything going on. It feels as if Stranger Eyes has no idea what type of movie it wants to be, as it's written like a mystery thriller but directed like a dour tragic drama. Pair that with Yeo Siew Hua’s stiff and removed directing, and it makes for a cinematic experience that just can’t pull you in. Of course, a movie about being followed and recorded would take an approach more akin to found footage than a big-screen spectacle. Still, as the camera tracks behind a character, it loses the tether to the story and feels like there is no intent behind it.

With such stiff characters defined by tragedy and sadness, it’s a tall order to make them somewhat lively. Wu Chien-ho as Junyang isn’t the most engaging protagonist, barely reacting to major events in the movie, making the audience feel just as removed. Anicca Panna as Peiying and Vera Chen as Shuping most resemble real people, with anger, and sadness that aren’t being repressed, bringing complex human emotions to a movie that feels devoid of them. Lee Kang-sheng does his best to make Wu an empathetic character, and he does bring a heartbreaking loneliness that radiates throughout every one of his scenes. However, the movie fails him by doing little to explore why a person would be driven to invade people’s lives without being an outright villain.

Stranger Things, more than anything else, feels passé. With a plot that revolves around such timely topics, it barely acknowledges the frightening access social media has granted to strangers about people’s lives, and just how much being able to peer into others’ seemingly happier lives affects those who feel they're inferior. There are traces of a better story, but its emotionless atmosphere and disjointed plot ultimately render it a stilted and hollow mystery thriller.

'Stranger Eyes' Review: Surveillance Mystery Thriller Is a Boring Drag (4)

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Stranger Eyes

Stranger Eyes is a cold, disjointed, and stale mystery thriller with a thin plot and no atmosphere.

Pros

  • Lee Kang-sheng, Vera Chen, and Anicca Panna give good performances.

Cons

  • The plot feels aimless and meandering, as if the movie can't decide what type of story it wants to be.
  • Wu Chien-ho's Junyang isn't a compelling protagonist.
  • The movie has barely any sense of atmosphere or mood.

Drama

Crime

Mystery

Thriller

Release Date
September 28, 2024

Director
Yeo Siew Hua

Cast
Wu Chien-Ho , Lee Kang-sheng , Anicca Panna , Vera Chen , Pete Teo , Xenia Tan , Maryanne Ng-Yew , Mila Troncoso

Runtime
126 Minutes
Main Genre
Thriller

Writers
Yeo Siew Hua

Character(s)
Junyang , Lao Wu , Peiying , Shuping , Officer Zheng , Ling Po , Mother Wu , Ana

Stranger Eyes screened at this year's BFI London Film Festival.

'Stranger Eyes' Review: Surveillance Mystery Thriller Is a Boring Drag (2024)
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