Double Vision

Police detective Huang Huo-tu, once a whistleblower, relegates himself to a mundane Foreign Affairs Officer role as punishment. His colleagues shun him and his young daughter is traumatized by a hostage incident. His wife Ching-fang files for divorce, leaving Huang teetering on the edge of a nervous breakdown.

A sequence of baffling deaths perplexes local investigators, with scenes that feel almost supernatural. One victim is a foreign Christian preacher found disemboweled, while other cases hint at forces beyond ordinary crime. Public fear grows as more cases surface.

FBI agent Kevin Richter, renowned for serial killer work, is brought in to assist. Huang, who can speak English, becomes his liaison and guide through Taipei. Richter remains skeptical of supernatural explanations, while Huang remains more receptive to them.

The investigators consider a local cult behind the murders and seek scholarly input. A scholar from Academia Sinica helps connect the killings to Taoist ideas about suffering and immortality. The case begins to edge into myth as much as murder.

The scholar explains legends of people with double pupils who can see others' sins and potentially condemn them to hell. Such myths are linked to the pursuit of immortality through drastic acts. The team contemplates whether the killer seeks forbidden longevity through ritualized suffering.

Forensic work reveals a fungus used to induce hallucination, pleasure, and guilt, driving victims to self-destruction. Investigators trace the dissemination technology to two electronics company bosses in Hsinchu Science Park. The case widens from crime to a biotech-conspiracy tied to corporate power.

The two bosses funnel resources to install a Taoist temple inside their company headquarters. Cultists flock to the temple, using the facility as the cult’s base of operations. The temple becomes a hub for spreading both belief and the fungus-based manipulation.

Police enter the temple and a brutal clash erupts between officers and cultists. A massacre ensues, with heavy casualties on both sides and the operation yielding no clear closure. The investigation deepens as more questions surface about the cult's power.

A seemingly innocent girl is found hiding in a chamber at the back of the temple. She is later revealed to be Hsieh Ya-li, the cult leader who bears double pupils. Her presence reframes the case, suggesting a deliberate, personal catalyst behind the killings.

The next day, Kevin Richter is found dead, having pulled out his own tongue as the fifth suffering. Huang learns that both men are infected with the same fungus, linking the investigation to a shared, haunting fate. The death reveals the supernatural thread running through the case.

Huang begins to hallucinate, tormented by guilt over his wife and daughter's suffering. The fungus invasion distorts reality and feeds his spiraling anxiety. He clings to the survivor girl as a possible beacon amid the psychological storm.

Ya-li leads Huang toward a final confrontation with her and the cult. She manipulates him into believing that killing her will fulfill the immortality ritual. The encounter culminates in a hallucinatory and morally perilous showdown within the temple.

In a climactic turn, Huang kills Ya-li, an act driven by accumulated guilt and the lure of immortality. The act is framed as the ritual final suffering required by the legend. The ending leaves the moral ambiguity of immortality unresolved.

The film presents two possible endings. The happier version suggests that love for his family grants immortality and Huang survives. The DVD version presents a bleaker fate, revealing that Huang dies, underscoring the price of crossing into transcendence.