Jake (Jason Yee) is a man down on his luck. He’s working as a driver for a gangster’s escort girls, trying to pay off a large gambling debt to the Triads, and becomes friends with one of his charges, the charming and radiant Sandy (Samantha Streets). Upon discovering Sandy’s dead body in his apartment, he swears vengeance on those responsible and will let nothing and no one stand in his way.
Noir films are often seen as somewhat obsolete these days. The hard-boiled private eye mysteries of the 20s and 30s, typified by Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett along with their TV and film adaptations have long been seen as a relic of a bygone age: one where men were tough and grim and women were beautiful and dangerous. Then the dual 2005 releases of Shane Black’s Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and Robert Rodriguez’s Sin City sparked more than a little interest in reviving the genre.
The Girl From the Naked Eye is an interesting instalment in the neo-noir movement. It keeps the idea of seedy tales narrated by whisky-soaked interior monologuers, but also adds in elements of martial arts fight sequences and displays of much more emotion than the genre codifiers would have allowed.
As a protagonist, Jake is an engaging presence. Swiftly established as no stranger to violence, his ceaseless rampage through the sleazy underworld is punctuated by flashbacks detailing the growing intimacy between himself and Sandy. At first he sees her as just another whore, but her refusal to be broken by her hard existence stirs the compassion beneath his granite exterior. It’s in no way a variation on the “hooker with a heart of gold cliché, just two people thrown together and making a connection.
It’s through these flashback scenes that we properly get to know Sandy, painting her as a real person with hopes and dreams as opposed to some idolised paragon of perfection and virtue that noir often portrays women as, so long as they aren’t a middle aged spinster or a double-crossing femme fatale. She’s a long way from innocent, but she still possesses a degree of idealism that can’t be darkened by the awful things she makes herself do just to get by. Such untempered optimism as well as Streets’ cherubic features also convincingly implies the important ambiguity of her age.
Although the film clocks in at well under an hour and a half (including the credits), it still manages to populate itself with a cast of distinctive characters who do well with what little screen time each of them is allocated.
The film’s flaws mainly come from its indistinct tone. The film’s noir ambitions are made clear with the opening and closing shots, which form quite literal bookends; first diving beyond the cover of a pulp magazine and finishing with its final page, implying the film is a visual representation of the tale told within. However, the background music is far too light and occasionally comedic to properly set the desired atmosphere of the story, and the dark underworld it takes place in is practically sterile in cleanliness. A more coherent tone and grittier ambience would have done it wonders.
Overall Verdict: The Girl From the Naked Eye is a curious film. The numerous elements taken from noir, martial arts, mystery, and romance pictures shouldn’t really work when fused together, but somehow manage to, creating a distinct, if flawed, experience.
Special Features:
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Reviewer: Andrew Marshall