‘Stranger Eyes’ Review: Yeo Siew Hua Rivets with Voyeuristic Missing Child Drama | Venice

Singapore is among the most densely populated cities in the world with almost every street under surveillance by CCTV cameras. This is the setting for Singaporean director Yeo Siew Hua’s latest, which chronicles a fascinating missing persons case that has something to say about parenting and technology in modern society. It also critiques Hollywood thrillers that have little patience with how brazenly throw their characters into dire situations, a far cry from reality, according to the lead detective in Stranger Eyes.

The Venice in-competition title opens with camcorder footage of Junyang (Wu Chien-Ho) and Peiying (Anicca Panna) playing in the park with their daughter Bo. It’s interrupted by the young couple who talk over the footage that they obsessively rewind, it’s a creative opening that instantly makes the viewer empathise with their heart-wrenching situation. Their baby daughter is missing, which sends them down a dark path as they struggle to grapple with reality. This isn’t helped by the DVDs that keep appearing at their doorstep, which feature videos of them with their daughter, a promiscuous encounter and intimate moments from afar. It turns out the videos were recorded by Wu (Lee Kan-Sheng), their neighbour from across the street, who has become obsessed with their lives.

The police come up with little in the months following Bo’s disappearance, although their investigation is still ongoing. The calm and collected Officer Zheng (Pete Teo) leads the case but gets more involved after finding out about the DVDs. He wires up many CCTV cameras outside the couple’s apartment, where they discover Wu has been following them. This sends the couple down a path that threatens to destroy them and their lives, as they make brash decisions after their secrets are exposed.

Yeo Siew Hua’s follow-up to A Land Imagined is a detective thriller that cares little about thrills, despite using the genre to grab the audience’s attention, as it gracefully explores the slow, emotionally draining effects of a dire situation. There are countless voyeuristic shots in Hua’s Rear Window-style film of people spectating other’s lives from afar. It’s intrusive, yet insightful to understand how the parents were before the tragedy. It builds a clearer picture of their lives and personalities away from each other, and they are richer characters for it. Peiying is a lonely mother who is ignored by her partner, who livestreams in her free time while Junyang works a boring job that leads him to commit adultery. The footage of Junyang is especially disturbing, as he often zones out and pays little attention to his daughter, even leaving her alone in a shopping cart at one point. Peiying brings up how she wanted an abortion, as she retrospectively questioned if their daughter would’ve been better off not existing in the first place. This is tough to hear but even harder for her to admit, as she doubts her decisions after her daughter’s disappearance. 

By showcasing the fractured lives of the two, it comes across as a slight critique of parents who are not ready for the responsibility of bringing up children in a dangerous, modern world. This is flipped around by the end of the film as it closes on a beautifully tender note, as it takes a surprising turn by shifting perspectives again. It’s a meditative ending that sees the father reflecting on his mistakes, airing his insecurities for the first time as he lovingly watches his daughter grow up. He certainly grows as a human from the indifferent and distant father that he was, whereas there is less character growth with Peiying who is forgotten in the final act, but through Wu’s voyeurism we see her habits, pleasures and life away from just being a mother earlier on in the film.

There is something so naturalistic in the way that Hua scripts the film, highlighting the authentic experience of Asians and Singaporeans, throwaway lines like calling elderly strangers “Auntie” or “Uncle” are the perfect example. The cast is made up of Taiwanese, Singaporean and Malaysian actors, who represent Singapore’s diverse population well, and all excel in their roles. Lee gives a quiet, yet startling performance as Wu whose curious gaze and cheeky smiles during flashbacks of him following little Bo are equally intriguing and unnerving. He is without a doubt the standout as the second act kicks into gear and shifts focus to his perspective. From then on, the film gets truly engaging as it feels like he’s looking out for the couple’s daughter after witnessing some terrible actions from her young parents, but he is still creepy and untrustworthy.

The filmmaking aids the story’s tragedy well, capturing the painful silences and helplessness in a bleak way. Most of Hideho Urata’s cinematography is observational, shooting with a lingering camera from varying positions to emulate the perspective of certain characters. The colours are muted with a bluish hue in the present, whereas the past is slightly more colourful and has some life to it. It’s paired with police surveillance, CCTV and old-fashioned camcorder footage to showcase how we’re always watched. The main police officer has a great remark where he explains how patience is vital to such investigations, as perpetrators will slip up somewhere, especially in a bustling, yet small place like Singapore that is covered in CCTV.

Stranger Eyes is a step up for Yeo Siew Hua, who has made a brilliant missing person drama that takes its time to get to the point. While some people might grow tired of the slow pacing, ambiguity and lack of commitment to genre conventions, if the viewer is patient and attentively watches, it’s easy to get swept up by the meditative story that reflects on major concerns in modern society. The spectator is left to their own devices to decide what to take from the film with its somewhat morbid, but honest depiction of parenting. It’s an engrossing watch that becomes more intriguing as the story unfolds, unveiling hidden facets of the central characters that add great depth to Hua’s film.

Grade: A

This review is from the 2024 Venice Film Festival where Stranger Eyes had its world premiere in competition. There is no U.S. distribution at this time.