COMING SOON TO THEATERS! From Angel Studios, Andrew Hyatt’s biopic, Sight, is the true story of the tumultuous yet inspirational life of renowned eye surgeon Ming Wang and his decades-long struggle to reconcile his past. Sight intertwines Ming Wang’s past and present to tell this inspiring tale. In the present, Ming (Terry Chen) and his team are on the cusp of finding the cure for a common form of blindness. Still in the research phase, Ming is presented with an orphaned Indian girl, Kajal (Mia Swaminathan), whose mother burned her eyes with acid to turn her into a beggar.
In the 1970s, Ming (Ben Wang) is a young teenager living in communist China. The Cultural Revolution is at its height, and Maoist protesters are persecuting scholars and traditionalists in hopes of making radical changes in education and other areas in China. When the protesters overrun Ming’s school, they attempt to recruit him to the cause. His resistance, along with his friend, Anle (Danni Wang), is met with a beating and the abduction of Anle.
As much as the film is about how Ming survived the revolution and found himself miraculously studying medicine at MIT, Sight is the story of a man who is haunted by his past and how running from our past can keep us from reaching our full potential in the present.
Producing a biopic…let alone a faith-based biopic, is a monumental task, as the long catalog of films like Sight has left much to be desired. Director Andrew Hyatt has made it a career of bringing a cinematic quality to his stories of faith and with Sight, showing he can still elevate the genre with intelligent storytelling.
“…how running from our past can keep us from reaching our full potential in the present.”
Coming off his success telling the story of Duck Dynasty‘s Phil Robertson in The Blind, Hyatt takes on the story of a person I had never heard of in Ming Wang. Sight is a faith-based film that sneaks up on you at the end, as much like true faith, God has a way of planting seeds in our lives, laying dormant until the right time.
As a film, cinematic is the phrase of the day. It looks like a much bigger production than it really is. In the present, we have our typical modern medical lab, which is not hard to pull off. Now add an outstanding supporting performance by Greg Kinnear as Wang’s boss, Misha Bartnovsky, to merely elevate everyone’s performances with his presence and experience.
Moving into the past, Hyatt then recreates Wang’s world in communist China during the Cultural Revolution. Here, the stakes are raised even higher due to all the roadblocks, obstacles, and beatings that Ming faced. It soon becomes a genuine partnership of science and faith.
In storytelling, director Hyatt and co-writers John Duigan and Buzz McLaughlin structure the tale brilliantly. Let’s face it. Dr. Ming Wang is a brilliant scientist who revolutionized the world with his sight-giving surgeries. Yet, in the wrong hands, Wang’s story could have made him “just this guy, you know…” Instead, telling parallel stories of the most horrific moments of his life with the most triumphant moments makes Sight a genuinely inspirational story of what God can do with ordinary people.
Ultimately, Sight brings audiences a good, wholesome tale of someone who wouldn’t let his past keep him from doing good in the world. As a faith film, I much prefer to be inspired than preached at. Grab the whole family (mainly the older children) and check out Sight.
"…becomes a genuine partnership of science and faith."
