Double Vision (2002)

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.