Double Vision (2002) User Reviews (28)

Unusual serial killer thrills from Taiwan

[Leofwine_draca · 6/10 · 24 December 2016]

DOUBLE VISION is a weird little serial killer film from Taiwan with some surrealistic touches and some memorably gruesome set-pieces. The clear influence here is SEVEN, which comes as no surprise during this era, although I was also more than reminded of THE X-FILES as DOUBLE VISION has the same kind of spirit of investigation as it charts the two cops going after a serial killer who employs a very unusual method.

This is a slick, glossy production which works well and keeps you watching just because the plot elements are so unusual and bizarre. It's not the type of film that you'd describe as a classic and it's not really one that sticks in the mind either, but it works well enough and keeps you watching throughout. Tony Leung is expectedly good as the lead but the real stand-out is imported American star David Morse, one of the most underrated character actors working today, and of course he's excellent here.

Worth Viewing

[sep1051 · 7/10 · 4 September 2003]

I am not a devotee of Hong Kong or Asian movies. What initially attracted my attention to Double Vision was the presence of David Morse. Over the years he seems to have had a knack for showing up in interesting, if offbeat, films. This movie is no exception to that pattern. The acting of the leads is good to above average. I don't want to duplicate the comments expressed so well by others. Let me just say that I concur with the general opinion that the film goes offtrack in the third act. Up to that point it relied on the characters of the leads and exposition on Taoism. After that point it veered off into supernatural confusion. However, all in all, worth the viewing.

Above average horror

[simon_booth · 7/10 · 28 April 2003]

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.

A taoist version of seven,pretty good.

[veganflimgeek · 7/10 · 25 December 2003]

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.

A good stir-fry

[dromasca · 7/10 · 2 January 2004]

I am not a fan of Asian action movies, and I was concerned when I rented this film. It actually proved to be something very different - a mix of many well known themes with exotic (for us) Taiwanese culture flavor, and all is quite well done. We have a lot in this film - the righteous cop who pays for his integrity with the cost of his family life, the cop partners who hate one another, and learn later to work together and respect each other, the clash between the American and local (in this case Taiwanese) cultures, the X-files like conflicts between science and super-natural, between believers and skeptics. It is like the Taiwanese movie industry (which I know very little about) tried to catch back with all these themes in one single film. Surprisingly it works not bad, mostly because of a director who know how to keep the balance, and to direct the actors in this maze of themes. At the end the films fails to be memorable not because it is over-charged, but because the ending plays too much tribute to the mode of the openness to bizarre and as in many other films recently it is too long and too elaborated. However, it is worth seeing, and a different experience for the mystery-action films fans. 7/10 on my personal scale.

Not enough horror

[eddax · 6/10 · 6 September 2010]

I always like it when East meets West so I had high hopes for this movie, which is a horror with Tony Leung Ka Fai and David Morse as the two collaborating cops investigating a series of supernatural deaths. They're both good actors so it's very disappointing that the movie decides to focus more on Leung's background melodrama than the supernatural elements of the story. I mean, they plugged this movie as a horror, so I didn't really need to know about his exposing corruption on the police force, his crazy criminal cousin, or his apparent lack of a sex drive. And when the few horror scenes do come on, they sometimes wander into FX-ed out fantasy sequences that don't work.

Rene Liu won best supporting actress at the Hong Kong Film Awards for this movie and I've no idea why. She's not unconvincing but it's not much of a role. Sometimes I think the Hong Kong-ers judge acting by different standards - many of their past winners have been quite inexplicable.

not very understandable

[Chinesevil · 7/10 · 30 August 2021]

Good quality movie, with a complex and mysterious plot, but not very understandable.

A Perfect cast in an Evil Intention Plot Thriller

[esteepswong · 9/10 · 26 October 2002]

A Perfect cast in an Evil Intention Plot Thriller

With Double Vision, multi-talented director Chen Kuo-fu pierces the evil of the unexpected whereby he has taken a typical corny Hollywood story line, infused it with millennia-old Chinese mystical beliefs and placed it in the sweat soaked, politically charged atmosphere of 21st -century Taiwan.

This thriller is about a troubled police detective Huang Huo-to (Tony Leung Ka Fai) whose is about to suffer from a severe mental breakdown as his life is falling apart. The reason for this is as payback for blowing the whistle on corruption in the force. He's then relegated to a do-nothing job as a Foreign Affairs Officer. His fellow policemen colleagues have turned on him and his wife Ching-fan (Rene Liu) is filing for divorce. Then suddenly three grisly murders shake up the department. The victims are unrelated but the coroner (Yang Kuei Mei) finds a mysterious black fungus in their brains, along with evidence that they had all died in a hallucinatory state. Clearly there is a serial killer on the loose, but the first in Taiwan's history whereby the police are unequipped to handle the case. With the public on the verge of panic, the high command of the Republic grudgingly calls on the United States for assistance. The FBI comes into the picture and sends its top expert, Kevin Richter (David Morse) to help Huang to wrestle these mysterious cases. The suspenseful ride is now on..... sit tight!

Besides its suspense and thrills that you would find in this movie, the perfect cast of Double Vision is also worth a mention. Tony Leung who shot to international stardom in the box-office hit The Lover, plays a demanding role as well as the main foundation bearer of the movie. His role is certainly worth a nomination in the Best Actor category in the coming Film Awards in Taiwan and Hong Kong. As for the graceful, azure-eyed David Morse who is in his debut Asian Film, plays a FBI agent who is sympathetic as well as a lovable character. As for the supporting cast, each and everyone is also a heavyweight in the Taiwanese film industry like Rene Liu, Lung Sihung, Leon Dai Li Ren and Yang Kuei Mei. Therefore it is a perfect cast in an almost perfect movie.

Working with Oscar-winning production and costume designer Tim Yip of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon fame and Arthur Wong, one of Hong Kong's great cinematographers, director Chen Kuo-fu takes danger and suspense to a new level of dimension. In fact, just making the film is a venture into a new territory. Double Vision is a very brave effort indeed for a Asian production. It would also open a few eyes of the Hollywood producers on Chen's credibility as well as catapult him to the ranks in the likes of Ang Lee or John Woo.

Good Mystery, Bad Third Act

[NIXFLIX-DOT-COM · 6/10 · 27 August 2003]

DOUBLE VISION is quite a good movie for its first 2 acts, but all of that goes out the window when a brutal massacre scene pops up to signal a shift to a bloody third act. The movie works as a psychological thriller, a film about cops chasing a killer who may or may not be supernatural, but it falls flat when the answer is given, and the answer proves to be wholly silly.

David Morse gives a good performance as an American FBI agent befuddled by the political climate of a Taiwanese police force that asked for his help. Tony Leung is outstanding as a cop whose family has left him. The two men work well together.

Of note is the film's delving into Taoism, which really takes up a lot of the movie's time, but seems to have little reason to do so. Nothing the character learns actually affects how the case is eventually solved, so the endless talks about Toaism seems like an advertising for Taoism, but nothing more.

6 out of 10

(go to www.nixflix.com for a more detailed review of this movie or full-length reviews of other foreign films)

Slick serial killer horror

[jhs39 · 5/10 · 2 July 2003]

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.

One of 2002's most overlooked films, that delivers, deserves strict vision

[videorama-759-859391 · 8/10 · 17 August 2013]

Here's one of these films that must of gone unnoticed in it's two week running. This would have to be one of the most overlooked films of 2002. We have two great male leads for starters who play good off each other. Taiwanese cop, Leung (always impressive) becomes obsessed with this case involving bizarre instances and deaths, if stylish, some in graphic detail that all lead to some fungus which has made it's way into the brain of the victims. Morse, strong here again in these roles, plays a FBI serial killer profiler, who teams up with Leung where he almost becomes more concerned with the destruction of Leung's family, than this mind wracking case. It involved a standoff that went horribly wrong, involving a family member, from which Leung's little daughter has gone mute. It's good too that we have the family angle, and more lighter, happier moments with Leung's family and Morse, who puts him in place, regarding his lovely wife, child. This film will cause you to use your noggen, even more so towards it's bleak end. Double Vision has some very violent scenes, I warn you, one involving a priest being disemboweled, as a few quite graphic be headings in a temple. This violence quite caught me by surprise. This is a supernatural violent, and imaginative thriller of a higher order, and damn well engrossing. If you're a supernatural horror freak or not, as not ever hearing of this one, hunt it down. I'm sure you'll be pleasantly surprised.

An unwitting milestone of Lovecraftian Horror, too!

[pietroschek · 7/10 · 5 June 2017]

Agreeing with many of the positive reviews, and hence not reciting their context here, on this Taiwanese work or co-production I still want to add that it does not only tell the tale of a mentally troubled police investigator on his next job, but manages to combine story-depth with atmosphere in a way which has been lost to 'Hollywood'due the low budget bombardment we all could witness since Blair Witch Project & Paranormal were mis-considered great works.

For those who know the Call of Cthulhu or Trail of Cthulhu role-playing game this movie is just one more tip of an iceberg, when it comes to the story potential.

The actors kept any narcissism on a proverbial leash, clearly fulfilling their roles in the unfolding plot. Splendidly done so. The cult surprise-attacking the police right during the cops own advance combined shock-effect and action in a way I found thrilling indeed, as it means a skilled combination of two genres.

I am surprised that it did not inspire to follow in its steps.

A Confused Film

[Kashmirgrey · 5/10 · 21 March 2007]

This film had an engaging premise. A murderer is shooting pellets laced with a mite-bearing, extremely hallucinogenic mold into air conditioners of intended victims. The victims then destroy themselves in a manner orchestrated by their killer.

Now here is the disappointing part... The film could not decided if it was going to remain a mystery or a supernatural thriller. Unfortunately, by the time the credits rolled, I really didn't care.

There are several different sub-plots traveling straight together in the first half of the film. Tony Leung Ka Fai plays a cop failing to cope with the attempted murder of his daughter and the suicide of a corrupt fellow officer he helped bring to justice. His daughter won't speak and his neglected wife is seeking a divorce. Amid the murders, Leung Ka Fai learns that a FBI agent specializing in behavioral science and assigned to work with him, has been summoned by his superiors for show. One of his fellow detectives alludes to this and that the government might have a malevolent purpose behind this. The investigation points towards supernatural forces, and we are led into a temple where we witness a murder take place in the midst of what appears to be a Taiwanese Satanic ceremony.

All this flies straight together, but then each veers off in a separate direction, and in order to make sense and keep up with the story line, the viewer needs "double vision."

True Sage used for un-sage doings

[killercharm · 6/10 · 14 June 2022]

A string of serial murders look to be Taoist in nature. It's an interesting take on the paranormal. In this flick the ancient Taoist temple that is transported to Taiwan, complete with its gods, has a route to immortality that goes through four different hells. Then the last hell is the pathway to immortality. It's all very intriguing and creepy. The murders involve a fungus that is made and used as a weapon. In order to solve the crimes the powers that be have invited an FBI special agent to come over from the States to help the locals. Why? Because the USA is the world leader in serial killers.

hybrid perspective

[whatdoes1know · 10/10 · 16 June 2003]

When Edgar Allan Poe wrote Rue Morgue and other Dupin stories, he is said to have created two branches of the detective-novel: the sensational and the deductive. Trying to reconcile elements of the detective with the supernatural the way traditional Taiwan has married Westernization, DOUBLE VISION--quite the adequate title--is a hybrid worth watching for its bastardy. The detective part suffers when the movie ventures into the supernatural, and the former has holes of its own without the latter. However, once you've taken the Red Pill and bought the protagonist's story about his daughter, these holes in logic somewhat become intrinsic to elements of the supernatural, and the unexplained becomes the unexplainable that is plainly accepted. This fallacy grows on the film like the hallucinatory mold the plot revolves around, and DOUBLE VISION gains dreamy and poetic dimensions. Undoubtedly, this is not the deductive type of mystery--the cancer of sensationalism is as terminal as a brain tumor better left not operated: it is the entire charm of the movie.

Enjoyable *Vague Spoilers*

[trixtium · 8/10 · 22 September 2003]

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.

Could have been so much more...

[alexliu_1999 · 1/10 · 19 November 2002]

The reason I went to see the movie was because simply: I liked the concept. The nine gates of hell has always held my interest and few films have taken advantage of the possibilities that celluloid offers.

Needless to say, I saw this with very high hopes, and thus my opinion may seem somewhat opinionated.

Let me just say that the movie is not scary... leave the concluding scenes (which didn't make much sense anyway). No jump in your seat thrills, no creepy buildup, and hardly any characters that were actually scary. But this is not necessarily bad for some movies (let me emphasize 'SOME MOVIES') as it can help segue the genre into a totally different and unexpected one. This script tries to do that, but fails miserably. What we have here is a hybrid of a detective and horror story, or maybe the worse parts of both.

Characters are one dimensional, most characters are expendable and hardly matter, and try however hard I wanted, but I could not feel sympathy for any characters. And amazingly enough, the main character who spoke very little English, and when he did it sounded very heavily accented, but apparently, he must have been fluent in English... after all, he spews big words in lines which left the actor seeming confused.

Most of the scenes were utterly miserable and unnecessary, and after the movie, I wondered if the screenplay was made by an amature screenwriter.

Take my advice: Do yourself a favor and skip this one.

a worthwhile Asian supernatural horror film

[ibrahimunderwood · 9/10 · 23 November 2005]

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.

'Art'-movie with exploitation premise...

[Libretio · 3/10 · 27 January 2005]

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)

Creepy, atmospheric, spellbinding and original.

[trancejeremy · 10/10 · 9 March 2006]

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? No Vision at All!

[Rindiana · 2/10 · 28 June 2009]

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

Total suspense

[jesscat88 · 8/10 · 25 July 2006]

This is an amazing film. *minor spoilers*

Gory, depressing and goddamn confusing at times, but it had the power of keeping me balanced on the edge of my seat for about seventy per cent of it.

Seriously creepy stuff.

As a warning though, there is nothing uplifting, hopeful, happy or optimistic in this film, so NOT something to watch if you like happy, resolved endings or need an emotional boost. It's more something to watch when you want your brains racked.

Oh yes, it's an 18 due to a highly graphic fight between police and a cult. Numerous limbs and heads go flying. You have been warned.

***** for suspense *** for comprehensibility and * for optimism

I don't know what I just saw

[sc8031 · 4/10 · 23 May 2008]

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.

The plot explained

[jessewantsmore · 10/10 · 27 July 2019]

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).

But there was no coherent sense to the storyline...

[paul_haakonsen · 3/10 · 7 March 2021]

This is the second time I sit down to watch the 2002 movie "Double Vision" (aka "Shuang tong"). I watched it for the first time back in around 2005 or so, but honestly have zero recollection of the movie whatsoever. So as I had the chance to revisit the movie again in 2021, I sat down to watch it.

Yeah, let me just be the first to say that this movie was confusing and I honestly have no clue what it was about or what was really going on. To me, this movie was a massive swing and a miss. So it seems that I haven't really been missing out on a great cinematic masterpiece here by not remembering this 2002 movie.

I literally have no idea or clue as to what writers Chao-Bin Su and Kuo-Fu Chen were trying to accomplish with the storyline they concocted for "Double Vision".

As I sat down again in 2021 to watch it, I must admit that seeing that the movie had Tony Ka Fai Leung on the cast list was somewhat of a bonus. But as it turned out then even he could not manage to do much for this train wreck of a movie.

Aside from Tony Ka Fai Leung, then the movie also have the likes of David Morse and Rene Liu on the cast list, so it wasn't because the movie was inadequately cast, not at all.

This movie was just simply one that went over my head, and I must admit that it offered not a whole lot of enjoyment or entertainment value actually. As the movie ended, I just sat there with no answers to the questions as to what was really going on. So it was a waste of time really.

My rating of "Double Vision" lands on a mere three out of ten stars, based mostly on the fact that the movie's storyline was just rubbish. The acting in the movie was good, and the production level of the movie was good. But the abysmal storyline just dragged everything down.