Search - Double Vision on DVD

Reckless collision of art and commerce

Libretio | 09/15/2004

(2 out of 5 stars)

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DOUBLE VISION
[Shuang Tong]

(Taiwan - 2002)

Aspect ratio: 2.39:1 (Panavision)
Theatrical soundtracks: Dolby Digital / SDDS

Following a series of murders in which the victims died under mysterious circumstances (one of them drowned on the top floor of an office complex, another was 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 HAPPY TOGETHER [1997]) 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 Re-ying (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.
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Seeing Something Very Evil: Atmospheric But May Not Be Exact

Tsuyoshi | Kyoto, Japan | 03/02/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

"`Double Vision' is an interesting mixture of Taiwanese culture and occult thriller. The basic story goes like Thomas Harris novels, with a series of gory deaths in the city of Taipei, but there is another, more familiar aspect in `Double Vision' so-called buddy-buddy cop drama.

The film's star is Tony Leung Ka Fai ("L'Amant") playing Taiwanese police detective Huang Huo-tu tormented by his bitter past. Huang Huo-tu investigates strange cases of deaths in Taipei. The corpses are all unnatural - one of them looks as if frozen, and another burnt, although the rooms where they were found are all intact. One FBI agent Kevin Richter (David Morse, "The Green Mile") flies to Taiwan to help the investigatation of the local police about the bizarre deaths, but the truths turn out much more astonishing than standard thrillers.

`Double Vision' poses more questions and mysteries than it can explain in its two-hour running time. Though FBI profiler appears, the film's strength does not lie in his scientific methods to analyze the mysterious case. Actually I still am not sure if an FBI agent would be really sent to Taiwan even in his capacity as advisor, and also David Morse's slightly bland acting fails to convince us of the situation.

In fact, the merit of `Double Vision' can be found in its Taiwanese culture, especially its blend of the bureaucratic system of the modern police and the religious background including Taoism which has a long history. One (probably) fictional sect of Taoists plays an important role in the film, of which logics are not always clear to us in spite of the film's well-presented dark tone. The pace is always good, and you seldom get boring while seeing some surprises, but as the film reaches its conclusion, it tries to show too many things at the same time. And though the film's creepy occult elements have considerable appeal, the relations between the two cops look strangely like those of Hollywood films.

`Double Vision' is most appealing when it uses its cultural backdrop to the full, in order to set up the mysteries. The film's best part is its overtones and occult mysteries that refuse to be solved in a simple and normal way. And like any other thriller, when it is solved, it leaves holes in the logics that preceded the conclusion. Or maybe I am missing something in its logics. I don't know. For all (or because of) still unanswered mysteries, the film is worth watching."