The house invasion sub-genre has been around long before it become one of the standard tropes in modern horror cinema. It's usually a good way to build suspense by keeping the action confined to a restricted setting. The Audrey Hepburn vehicle “Wait until Dark” upped the ante with this by making the heroine blind which only further added to the tension by increasing the vulnerability of the lead. In turn it became much more cathartic when they would finally get the upper hand. “Three Days of a Blind Girl” is of a similar vein as it seeks to be a rollercoaster ride of suspense for its audience.
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Jack Ng (Anthony Chan) is with his wife (Veronica Yip) as she leaves a consultation with her doctor (Alfred Cheung). Due to a complication following an eye operation in the states, she will be temporarily blind for three days. Jack has to go away for a conference, leaving his wife alone with the housekeeper May for company. Whilst May is out getting medication for her asthma, Sam (Anthony Wong) visits. Initially benign, he wants to see Jack; however, events turn more sinister as he takes Mrs Ng prisoner for reasons that will only later be revealed. Psychotically torturing his captive, her only hope is for her sight to return before her life is taken.
Today Anthony Wong is one of most respected character actors in the industry with a string of awards and outstanding performances to his credit. Yet in the mid 1990's he and his contemporary Simon Yam built their reputations on a series of Category III features that required them to portray the most depraved monsters possible. In retrospect, Anthony Wong is the only actor I know that could outNicolasCage. I don't know how good it would be should ever they be cast together, but it certainly wouldn't be dull! In fairness, this is not a full-on monster he is portraying here. There is a motivation to his actions however unhinged they may appear. You do have to question whether his was a happy marriage prior, but that might be reading too much into the subtext.
Veronica Yip as the heroine is really good. Her character has an arc that develops and finds strength to survive her ordeal and to break free of her own imprisonment. This is one of the cleverer parts of the script in that there are moments where it appears she is confined before even the visual impairment that temporarily afflicts her. She is introduced straight after this condition is revealed so we never get an insight of the reality before. The surface appears to be happy, but there is a sense of isolation before Sam arrives. Is it a gilded cage? One line of dialogue at the end also serves to question the state of the marriage. Book ending the film is the appearance of Anthony Chan. Normally the hen pecked, sexually frustrated husband of many a comedy, it is a more unusual sight (no pun intended) to see him here. We're not given much to work with in his character and what we see is not what reality may be.
The narrative at times is a bit contrived. People turn up at convenient moments and Fruit Chan's burglar in particular is a contrivance too far. Essentially, for the most part it remains a two hander with Veronica Yip and Anthony Wong carrying the weight of the plot. The one really exploitation scene with the shower sequence turns out to have one particularly well executed jump moment that adds to the character development and overall the tension does ratchet up towards the conclusion, with Sam being unaware of his potential victim's sight returning. I particularly liked how the opening minutes lure you in with the pastel coloured home that could be from any situation comedy and the appearance of Alfred Cheung as the doctor in the very first scene. Even Sam's initial appearance is benign, although it's Anthony Wong so warning signs should already be there. It proceeds to capture the isolation well, the loneliness of the setting and size of the property, adding to the vulnerability of the heroine. The direction is serviceable; it is a bit flat of times but there are a couple of nice visual jump moments amidst the blandness which probably work equally due to that fact!
Whether it is intentional or not, there is an underlying theme running though this feature in that what is seen on the surface is not how it appears to be. Jack is the respectable doctor with the beautiful wife. Yet it is later revealed that this may not be entirely accurate. His wife may not be as happy as she appears in her life and Sam was unable to see his own life falling apart until it was too late. It takes Mrs Ng losing her vision for the events to unfold in the way they do and for the truth to emerge and for her to evolve. On every search of the credits online, she is simply referred to as Mrs Ng, she doesn't even get a name. Reliant on the housemaid and with seemingly little life outside her husband, she has almost no voice. By the coda, they will have regained an identity if not a name. Whilst this is a strictly by the numbers thriller, it is interesting to observe the potential subtext.
As thrillers go, this is a perfectly enjoyable one. Script and direction are very much by the numbers and there are some contrivances that stretch credibility to breaking point as it follows the genre's playbook step by step. Where it gains points, however, is in giving Veronica Yip a bit more to do than the “in peril” stereotype and of course a suitably sinister performance by Anthony Wong. Within a category that can easily switch to the sleazier side of exploitation, “Three Days of a Blind Girl”, avoids it or the most part, and even uses it to good effect. Not a classic, but certainly not a disappointment either.
