Stranger Eyes (2025)

Direction: Yeo Siew Hua
Country: Singapore / Taiwan / other

Stranger Eyes is a patiently constructed voyeuristic thriller that simmers with tension but never quite reaches a boil. Though the film is steeped in themes of surveillance and the unease of a mysterious vanishing, it leans too heavily on familiar tropes to become something truly distinctive. Still, Yeo Siew Hua’s taut direction gives it a notable edge.

A middle-aged man (Lee Kang-sheng), living with his blind mother, obsessively observes and records the lives of a young couple (Anicca Panna and Wu Chien-ho). The only crucial moment he fails to capture is the sudden disappearance of their young daughter while she plays at a public park. 

There are distinctive elements that set the film slightly apart—an atmosphere of creeping ambiguity and paranoia—but the wonderfully eerie mood that initially takes hold eventually plateaus, leaving the impression that much more lies beneath. The emotional undercurrents are complex, yet not every element touches a nerve. While my interest never wavered, something essential seems absent from the overall mix. 

Stranger Eyes leans heavily on its strong performances, and fortunately, the cast delivers even when the film itself doesn’t fully follow through.

Ilo Ilo (2013)

Ilo Ilo (2013) - Movie Review
Directed by: Anthony Chen
Country: Singapore

Movie Review: Anthony Chen’s fictional film debut, “Ilo Ilo” is a tremendous drama, set up in Singapore in times of economical crisis and uncertainty about the future, about the relationship between a dysfunctional family and their newly arrived Filipino maid, Teresa, who left her own 12-month baby behind to search for a better life. Realizing how turbulent the lives of these people were, she will have an important role in appeasing the problems of the young Jianle, a troublesome kid who does everything to put her in a bad position. After a hard time of adaptation, Teresa will conquer the heart of the boy with her comprehension and good attitude, fact that will trigger the admiration of his parents but also some jealousy from the mother. Jianle found the attentive mother he was looking for, while Teresa found the son she missed so much. Everyone has to deal with their own problems, in a film where there are no heroes or villains, just life as it is and its complicated processes of learning, sharing, and understanding. Promising helmer/writer Anthony Chen assures great personality in the direction, while the cinematography by Benoit Soler is memorable with its predominant whites and occasionally unfocused images. The plot was magnificently constructed, making us indignant in diverse occasions, but also making us believers of the goodness present in human nature. “Ilo Ilo” collected important prizes at the festivals it competed, including Cannes, Dubai, Golden Horse, Molodist, and Tokyo, among others, and is one of the most compelling dramas to arrive this year.