Stranger Eyes Film Review: Thrilling and Clinical

Stranger Eyes is a chilling mystery film about social isolation in the modern day that becomes increasingly unpredictable and enthralling.

This lonely film is likely to alienate some with its considered pacing and late twist, but Yeo’s second feature is an undeniably fascinating, chilling exploration of voyeurism and social isolation in an increasingly technological age.

Stranger Eyes begins with home video footage. Filmed by grandmother Shuping (Vera Chen, Born to Be Human), the video shows young parents Junyang (Wu Chien-ho, A Sun) and Peiying (Anicca Panna) with their baby daughter, Little Bo. The footage plays out, then rewinds in a jilted fashion, transporting us to mere months after this video was shot. Little Bo is missing, taken in the space of a few seconds when Junyang looked away from her as she played in a park playground. Whilst initially playing out like a mystery film about what has happened to Little Bo, Stranger Eyes morphs into something more complex and scintillating. Yeo’s film becomes less about the mystery—Little Bo is found about halfway through the film too—and more about the difficulties of parenthood.

Yeo and DOP Hideho Urata (Plan 75) capture the world with a clinical, sterile eye, enhancing the distance we feel as viewers as well as the detached nature of the interlinked characters to one another. Stranger Eyes might become muddled in its plot in the third act, but it never loses this choking, aching loneliness. At times, Yeo and Urata even manage to find some twisted romance in the modern world, such as in the glaring lights of a supermarket, which should normally feel so ugly. Long zooms, slow pans, all conducted from a distance, are reminiscent of Rear Window (1954) and The Conversation (1974).

After Little Bo goes missing, Junyang and Peiying begin receiving DVDs from an unknown stranger (Yeo can’t resist a sly dig at how physical media is still the best). These discs show the couple in various places—at home, in the supermarket, in the park—and are filmed in clandestine fashion from afar. That stranger is eventually found to be Wu (Lee Kang-sheng, Stray Dogs, Days), who lives in the apartment block opposite the young couple. We begin to see how there were cracks in Junyang and Peiying’s relationship, for example, and how draining they were finding having a baby.

Lee is spectacular, as he always is, as Wu, with his facial expressions that seem so simple but convey so much raw emotion and longing. Wu Chien-ho is also terrific as a young man buckling under the weight of responsibility and making reckless, selfish decisions. Panna excels in her scenes too, but her character is underwritten. In many ways, Stranger Eyes is too focussed on the male characters; it even becomes frustratingly close to becoming a man-does-bad-things-then-is-sad film. But Yeo resists the urge to create any real sympathy for Wu or Junyang, instead simply infusing the film with a depressing air.

Stranger Eyes almost becomes overshadowed by a promising plot that descends dangerously close to confusion, but just about avoids any real failures. There is a late twist in Stranger Eyes that definitely won’t work for some viewers, and initially it feels unnecessary. Sit with it for a couple of minutes though, and it slots into place perfectly. It makes you rethink everything you’ve just watched in the past two hours, and invites you to reflect further on this sad, lonely world you’ve just witnessed.

Stranger Eyes will be screened at the BFI London Film Festival on October 13-14, 2024. Read our list of 30 movies to watch at the 2024 BFI London Film Festival!