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Chan
Wing Chiu's 3 Days Of A Blind Girl (a.k.a. Retribution
Sight Unseen) has markings of a Category III thriller;
a plot that's open to all kinds of nasty torture and the stars
Veronica Yip & Anthony Wong. It comes as a surprise then
that this "only" got a II when released in Hong
Kong and years afterwards, a fair amount of acclaim. This
was reportedly Chan Wing Chiu's second and last film as a
director (the prior actually being a Cat III rated effort
called Emotional Girl - Doubt Of Distress) and his
biggest claim to fame outside of 3 Days Of A Blind Girl
would have to be an assistant directing gig on Alfred Cheung's
Paper Marriage. Seeing as Alfred himself acted in My
Americanize Wife, another movie Chan assisted in the directing
of, he probably felt comfortable enough to support Chan by
producing 3 Days Of A Blind Girl.
After
an eye operation, Miss Ng (Veronica Yip) will undergo temporarily
blindness for 3 days. Her husband Jack (Anthony Chan), a heart
specialist, has to go out of town for this period of time
and while the maid is also away, Sam (Anthony Wong) will enter
Miss Ng's life. His first visit begins friendly enough and
he leaves shortly after. His second reveals something odd
and perhaps sinister. His third begins 72 hours of terror...
I almost see 3 Days Of A Blind Girl as a movie absolutely
using its Cat II rating to the extreme. There's multiple scenes
with content suitable for and that has been seen in Cat III
Hong Kong cinema but the strength of our director lies in
him conveying the absolute horror of it all without resorting
to heavy graphic imagery. There's little bloodshed for the
most part, only brief nudity for the male fans but combine
Chan Wing Chiu's a sure hand direction, good use of sparse
locations, camerawork to bring out that tension and you have
a surprise hit from a director that quickly left the scene.
I'm surprised that the movie wasn't at least CatIIb because
Chan Wing Chiu delivers some pretty horrific scenes and gritty
violence. While clearly shot on a lower budget and not being
the best Hong Kong movie out there technically, our director
overcomes that hindrance and delivers good suspense. It's
a short film so leading up to our first encounter between
Miss Ng and Sam doesn't take long and by dropping in hints
of his psycho behaviour, Chan doesn't get us on the edge of
our seat actually. He instead does that with probably the
most frightening scene in the film taking place in a shower
where the vulnerability of Miss Ng is at its highest. It all
goes to hell from this point but not in a bad way for the
film.
The script by So Man Sing doesn't surprise too many times
but manages to be not as predictable as you would think. He
writes an arc for Miss Ng that is far from what you would
call a scream queen. She's actually so vulnerable that she
acts rather frozen in fear but can still think clearly. There's
one scene that is also Veronica Yip's finest where she finally
has her breakdown but has to pick herself up again using her
mother's advice given to her at some point in her life previously.
This also takes place in one shot which is always admirable.
The script does feature some bad guy movie clichés towards
the end and the final scene is a terrible tag on, an afterthought
that should've been cut from the film. It ends not on a light
note but one that just overemphasizes the character-journey
in my view. So Man Sing takes Miss Ng through hell and it's
inevitable that some sort of monster will awake in her even
in the midst of all this. Not necessarily through the terror
inflicted on her but rather the truths revealed along the
way. The script certainly doesn't make Sam sympathetic however.
He's a pure sadist but does have reasons for what he's doing.
The manner in which he takes out his anger, frustration and
revenge obviously isn't valid though.
While the Category III genre has been purposely exploitative,
that trait has been there for story purposes to a degree.
However, mainly in the first half of 3 Days Of A Blind
Girl, it feels like director Chan Wing Chiu is at certain
moment shooting angles of Veronica Yip just so the male audiences
can turn on the drool. There's nothing wrong with showcasing
Yip as she is a very beautiful woman but the director is very
much giving away a hidden agenda here. Some events that occur
seems to play fast and loose with time also. In particular
how quickly Sam has prepared the special dinner for Miss Ng,
also one of the most horrible scenes in the film.
Director of photography Tam Chi Wai (C'est La Vie, Mon
Cheri) uses a very natural palette and even creates some
of the darker moments in pure daylight while also doing good
work for the night scenes. All without resorting to the all
the common overuse of colour choices such as blue or green.
The strength that 3 Days Of A Blind Girl in the end
generates comes not only from the crew's work but certainly
from the main cast as well. Veronica Yip, later to turn in
a good performance in another almost Cat III like flick called
Scarred Memory, is quite believable in her role. As
mentioned, she's not the classic scream queen at all and manages
to inject power into her character even if she's left helpless
for most of the time. Anthony Wong have created a few distinct
psycho characters on screen and this ranks as probably the
most memorable alongside his nasty, dirty turn in Ebola
Syndrome. Sam is first a bit of a buffoon but soon switches
into the methodic, sadist character that he's become after
harm was done to him. On the other hand, I feel those sides
to him probably were there before, they were just triggered
by key events that you'll come to know about during the course
of the film.
Chan Wing Chiu has basically done a Cat III film but within
the Cat II range, which is a brave and challenging choice.
His simple tale has not the greatest depth but surprises at
times on a script level while the leads puts in strong performances.
It is true that the Cat II stamp can mean disturbing viewing
and 3 Days Of A Blind Girl has at heart a very grim
tone. Those looking for these efforts in Hong Kong cinema
may find a new, small favourite with this film.
The DVD:
Deltamac presents the film in its original 1.85.1 aspect
ratio. Print damage is light and colours are unexpectedly
good. Day scenes are a bit too bright and black levels could've
been better though. A few shots look grainy but I do believe
that is due to slow motion being created in post-production
on shots taken at 24 frames per second. You see that a lot
in Hong Kong movies.
The Cantonese 2.0 Dolby Digital track does the job and sounds
adequate for a film from 1993. A Mandarin 2.0 track is also
included.
The English subtitles comes with a few errors and strangely
structured sentences. That's a minor complaint and most of
the time they remain error free. Traditional and simplified
Chinese subtitles are also included. Only extra is the trailer
for the feature at hand.
reviewed by Kenneth
Brorsson
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