Danny and Oxide Pang follow-up their 2002 horror movie with this non-related sequel. It's not as effective as the original, but still has a few scenes worth watching for.

Joey Cheng (Shu Qi, who you might recognize from her terrible performance from Transporter) is a young, pregnant woman who attempts suicide, and fails, only to obtain the ability to see ghosts. There's no plot though. Some of the ghosts seem cursory and are never fully explained. They're weird and visible just for the sake of it, with no explanation. There's a slight mystery involving the woman Joey sees lurking in the train station which leads to sweet ending, but it's not really enough to sustain a 95-minute running time.

It falls short of the Eye, though there are a couple of tense moments and it's not completely dissatisfying.

As this Hong Kong horror sequel opens Joey is shopping in Thailand; she phones her boyfriend back home in Hong Kong but he doesn't seem to want to talk. That evening in her hotel room she takes an overdose. She doesn't die but afterwards she starts seeing ghosts; in particular that of a woman who, as far as she knows, she has no connection to. Once back home she learns that she is pregnant; and things get more frightening for her as she fears the ghostly woman wants to reincarnate as her child.

While this may officially be a sequel to 'The Eye' it is only in a thematic sense. No characters return and the method by which our new protagonist starts seeing ghosts is different... so there is no need to watch the first to enjoy this. It is an effective chiller though with plenty of spooky moments and some good scares. The way Joey fears the one ghost has designs on her unborn child are effective and despite the fact that there are obvious Buddhist connections the fears are universally understandable... nobody wants to think there is something potentially wrong with their unborn child. The cast does a solid job, most obviously Shu Qi, in the role of Joey, who is rarely off screen. Overall I enjoyed this film; it was nicely creepy without obvious violence. I'd certainly recommend it to fans of Asian horror films.

THE EYE is one of my favourite Asian horror movies: a sublime ghost train ride of a movie, packed full of spooky sequences (not to mention THAT famous lift scene). So, from the outset, THE EYE 2 has its work cut out to even be mentioned in the same territory, let alone equal that first film's success. Having just finished watching it, I can confirm that, while it's nowhere near the same level of quality as the first movie, it turns out to be a fairly decent horror film in its own right.

The story follows on from the first film's but goes off on a tangent. This time around, the lead is a suicidal woman (played by THE TRANSPORTER's Shu Qi) whose attempt to kill herself leads to her being able to see ghostly spirits. Oh, and she's pregnant. The whole storyline is centred around the pregnancy and pregnant women in general, which makes for an intriguing slant on the first film's story. Of course, it's also an excuse for lots of creepy shots of ghosts just hanging around.

The material definitely feels looser this time around. Danny & Oxide Pang paint their film in broader strokes, throwing in a couple of Hong Kong urban legends (the faceless woman and the voice at the bus stop) that make no sense in relation to the plot but which make good fright scenes anyway. Although an attempt to emulate the first film's lift scene is an unmitigated disaster (those underwater swimming-style effects shots made me chuckle if anything) a lot of the other scary moments are effective, particularly a moment involving a couple of ghosts at the bus stop.

It's not a great movie, which is mainly down to the writing; the script dictates that the leading character is selfish and repellent for much of the running time, so there's a distinct lack of somebody to root for. Shu Qi acquits herself well in the fright stakes, but fails to elicit any sympathy for her character's plight. Watch out for a welcome cameo from HARD BOILED's Mad Dog, Philip Kwok, as a Buddhist master. Overall, as Asian horror films go, this is one of the better ones (and trust me, I've seen my fair share of ones that aren't).