Customer Reviews

Ab-Normal Beauty

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Fantastic Cinematography + Great Psychological Concepts + An Unnerving Finale = A Great Film

(Contains Spoilers)

Unfortunately, Abnormal Beauty is one of those films that will annoy a lot of people, because it does not have enough explicit violence to please the gorehounds, yet contains enough to anger everyone else. It seems that almost all of the negative reviews I've seen are either the gorehounds complaining about the first "boring" hour, or the fans of psychological horror complaining about the "gratuitousness" of the last half hour. I think they both miss the point. Just like the critics of Audition.

The violence is not gratuitous here. There is a heaping amount of character development in this film that sets up the finale. This is not empty, sensationalistic tripe that Hollywood loves to release (e.g., Hostel, The Hills Have Eyes, etc.). If someone insists that Abnormal Beauty is gratuitous, then they are effectively saying that explicit violence cannot be used in a film without being so. This is a closed-minded Self-Fulfilling Prophecy of the most blatant type.

The second most complained about feature of this film (following complaints regarding the violence) was the introduction of the killer. Critics claim that he is a Deus ex Machina. The critics are wrong. Abnormal Beauty is not a murder mystery. It's a psychological horror film. The filmmakers are not obligated to present a trail of clues for the viewer to make a probable, educated guess at the identity of the killer. The purpose of presenting the killer is to introduce the perfected state of Jiney's undeveloped psychological affliction in an attempt to cure her of that affliction.

Jiney spends most of the time BEHIND the camera, initiating her mental and sexual fulfillment by viewing the death of living things. At the same time, however, she's becoming more and more detached from reality. This is also manifested by the other subplots, which include her tormenting past and her dysfunctional relationship with her mother - events which she is unable to come to terms with.

Even after her semi-revelation, she is still deeply affected by the pictures that she finds in her locker. She's not fully cured of her affliction yet. Remember, the camera is an important symbol/analogy in this film. Jiney is so helplessly reliant on detachment that she desperately needs the camera to be turned against her. Enter the killer, who places Jiney IN FRONT of the camera, thus forcing her to face reality. This is essential for the filmmakers to culminate the underlying psychological concepts of Abnormal Beauty.

In addition, if I were a sadistic freak working in a library and saw a hot young girl check out a dozen works of literature featuring sadistic pictures, how the hell could I not take notice?

Another complaint of critics is the final scene, which reveals that the lead character killed her cousin. Critics claim that this is an ad hoc, after-the-fact invocation to cheaply explain the movie. The critics are wrong. The traumatic child-hood event at the very end of the film was not the origin of Jiney's psychological condition. That event was already introduced near the beginning of the film: Jiney was sexually abused by her cousin, and her mother didn't believe her. The fact that she pushed her cousin down the stairs is merely a reflection of the negative effects that that initial event had on her. Did you see her face while she was standing at the top of the stairs? It was blank and emotionless - completely detached. The final scene adds emphasis to her psychological breakthrough and reminds us of what she overcame - she is now living again.

And yes, this is much more demanding of the viewer's intelligence than all the carbon-copy garbage coming out of Hollywood nowadays. So this film may not be for the lazy. If you can appreciate smart psychological horror coupled with effective, explicit violence, then you can't go wrong here. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people who can't appreciate one or the other, which explains the negative reaction to this film.

After reading online reviews and discussing this film with others, I am convinced that this is the most underrated, under-appreciated East Asian horror film of the last decade. I've seen 73 East Asian horror films. Abnormal Beauty is better than 70 of them. It comes second only to A Tale of Two Sisters and Kairo.

I enjoyed the EYE and THE EYE 2, so naturally I was drawn to purchase this film. I have to say the Pang Bros. are making some of the cinematic films in the asian horror/ thriller genre. This film was directed by Oxide Pang (The Pang Bros. are identical twins). The Pangs have managed to get great performances from the actors/actresses who hasn't managed acting maturity in their previous movies.
The content of the Pang brothers' films are starting to mature as with potrayal of Karma/reincarnation in the EYE 2. This particular film deals with death and one's fascination and obsession with it. The story deals with 2 school girls(Roseanne and Race Wong, actually sisters in real life who make up the HK pop duo R2) Jiney and her hinted lover Jas. I know it is wierd and tiltilating.
Anyway, Jiney likes photography and gets obsessed with taking photos of death scenes. She got exhilarated and excited when she witnessed a car crash. Jiney develops a twisted hobby and as usual,(taking photos of dead fish, cats etc.) she attracts another in with this hobby, this "another" starts to toy with her. I won't give away the twists and turns but the person who toys with her is disappointing in a way.

However, the film itself has an eerie cinematic feel. The camera work is quite good and fresh, as with most of the Pangs' films. Basically, the "artful death photos" can be both a dark and creepy eye candy for the film. It has mild gore but not extreme.

As with the Pangs' other films, they develop great beginnings and they have a masterful way of putting characters in crisis. Their execution is truly fresh and the atmosphere emulates creepiness. It is the anticlimactic revelation of the villain that doesn't seem to fit but then sometimes, you say: "Why Not?" The torture climax seems like it didn't fit and was just added on to make the twist more shocking. In art, you have to know when to stop painting or else it all falls apart.
Overall, it is worth a look. If you are an ASIAN HORROR FAN, it may be worth the money. [3.5 stars]

After taking a picture of a traffic accident, a young, beautiful art school student Jiney (Race Wong) finds herself fascinated by photographed deaths. While Jiney finds inspiration for her works in her shooting deaths (including those of beheaded roosters), her behaviors lead her and her best friend Jas (Rosanne Wong) to unexpected consequences, mostly not very comfortable ones.

Hong-Kong film "Ab-normal Beauty" starts with an intriguing setting about a woman with traumatic past, and Oxide Pang tells her story with his stylish cinematography, one of the well-known trademarks of the Pang Brothers. However, the film's carefully prepared settings are replaced by something else in the second half, where you will see a familiar theme (which I'd rather not discuss here). All I can say is the film might have been better had it explored more the slightly lesbian-like Jiney-Jas relations (especially when they got surprisingly good acing from Race Wong and Rosanne Wong, real-life sisters)..

A few words about the background history of the film. After jointly making terrific "The Eye" and its so-so sequel, the Pang Brothers made an interesting move. That is, the brothers decided to make two movies, one by Oxide Pang and the other by Danny Pang, both of which are loosely connected to each other by one episode about a traffic accident. Oxide Pang made "Sei mong se jun" ("Ab-normal Beauty") while Danny made more light-weight and less successful "Ah ma yau nan" ("Leave Me Alone") starring Ekin Cheng and Charlene Choi. Both can be enjoyed as stand-alone film.

"Ab-normal Beauty" is worth a look for its visual techniques and fine acting. But all in all the film is one of the average Asian horrors which could have been improved with a better script or final chapter.

Ab-Normal Beauty is another offering by Asian movie makers Oxide and Danny Pang. (Bangkok Dangerous, The Eye, The Eye 2). It is disturbing in it's preoccupation with death. From the beginning to the end, this movie is permeated with it. The film builds slowly and in the last 45 minutes you get slapped in the face with a shocking twist.

You've read the other reviews. Girl photographer, Jin, (who is very beautiful and sexy) witnesses a car accident, becomes obsessed with death's abnormal beauty and the capturing of death on film. Then death begins to stalk her. Her lesbian love interest, Jas, is equally hot on the butch front but that part of the story is not explored in a sexual way. The story behind the story is that Jin was molested by a cousin when she was a child and that memory and her mother's staunch disbelief of her story at the time, haunts her, driving her further and further into the darkness.

When darkness comes calling in the form of a video tape that is dropped at Jin's door step one day, she is not prepared for what she will see on the tape -- and I sure as hell wasn't!!!! The video is a snuff film (sans sex). After that, the movie takes some brutal twists and turns and winds down to a "where the hell did that come from?" ending. The only thing I didn't like about the movie was the brutality toward women -- a theme also resident in Bangkok Dangerous.

If I were to classify this movie into a genre it would be a mystery drama. I want to warn the prospective viewer again, there is some graphic violence toward women in this film.

If you are a Pang Bros. film buff, go ahead and add this to your collection. If you are not familiar with their work, I would recommend The Eye movies over this one, but this one is very good as well and I'm not sorry I purchased it.

A girl and her girlfriend are great photographers. One of the girls witnesses a death and takes a picture of it. She gets infatuated with pictures of death and explores the phenomenon on her own. Unfortunately this leads into trouble for her and her friends when she starts getting packages of people being videotaped and getting beaten to death. The beatings are very scary and realistic. The girls are in real life actually sister pop singers.

Coming into the holiday season on a fixed SSI budget, i couldn't spend much for presents outside of my own immediate family... looking up Tartan Asian Extreme re-released region 1 DVDs, i found two in my own personal collection for less than $3.00 liquidated (assumed overstocked). They were both above average and extremely good "The Maid" (more simple style high art quality cinematography) and "Silk" (conceptual Sci Fi, many friends saw it On Demand and enjoyed it as well)...

Both were sold directly from amazon.com and were eligable for super saving shipping for over $25... So I bought 6 copies of each, 12 all together, to give out as Xmas presents... Very good for me! sorry... i think it was me who drove up the price to about $5 or $6 each, forcing you to pay more...

Recently, I found a film I -haven't- seen in the same situation, Ab-Normal Beauty and bought two copies, one for me and one to give my brother a few different movies for Xmas. He is another fan of Tartan Asian Extreme films... Haven't recieved this one as of now, but owning many DVDs they released under Tartan, i know it's quality from Asia, i know its up to their hollywood style standards of extreme cinema!

Tartan is a European Hollywood style company, and they release the Best Asian Hollywood style films under the label... 'Extreme Horror', both straight forward gore and conceptual films, most often ghost stories, and 'Extreme Drama' like director Park Chan Wook's unconnected Revenge Trilogy about seeking revenge against kidnappers. These DVDs each had a huge price drop recently as well.

... Seemed like the only trilogy i've seen where getting better means getting way 'worse.'

This is more of a promotion for fans of foriegn films... and of the Tartan Asian Extreme Label...

This is the first review on Amazon i ever wrote as well!

Tartan Asian Extreme films at less than $3 at Super Savers over $25! if you have a cart that qualifies around $20-$22... surprise yourself with something cheap under this label, odds are if you like hollywood quality and listening to asian languages, from many different countries, so if you speak one, or dig one culture/dialect over the rest by acquantences, maybe search a bit more for Japan or Hong Kong Cantanese, Thailand, Korea, Philipeans...

the right price to level 22.?? or 23.?? to 25.??... with the chance of spiking a new interest future purchases...

Not Dubbed in English so B. Cool like School, and learn to read/pay attention to a movie at the same time!

The Maid
Silk
Ab-Normal Beauty

I'd write three reviews, but my ass is lazy...

Oxide Pang, one-half of the famous Pang Brothers, delivers this shockingly beautiful psychological thriller out of Hong Kong. Jiney is a young art student who becomes obsessed with death after capturing a fatal car accident on film. Her subject matter continues to grow increasingly morbid, but she is not the only one harboring dark fantasies and desires. AB-NORMAL BEAUTY is filled with extraordinary colors and artful framing, as Pang adapts the photographic medium into his shooting style through a number of stunning compositions. Race Wong is simply intoxicating as Jiney, drawing the audience into her deepening psychosis with a staggering performance and seductive charm. After a brilliant build-up, the film takes an unexpected turn when it places Jiney in front of the camera as she is attacked by a sadistic killer. While this drastic change in tone plays into the overall theme, it derails much of the suspense and anticipation developed early on. Pang also uses an obnoxious musical score where much more subtle cues would have proven much more effective. AB-NORMAL BEAUTY proves to be a fitting title for this gorgeous and unsettling thriller.

-Carl Manes
I Like Horror Movies

I'm a huge fan of Asian cinema, especially horror. When this film came in the mail the other week, I put it off until tonight, I got it for 5 dollars and I didn't expect much considering most films try to emulate what has already been done so many times before. This film however is extremely fresh and well worth watching. It kind of reminded me of an Argento film, back when Dario was making good films, only with Asians instead of Italians. I realize that isn't the best comparison but the cinematography (watching this in a bluray player upscaled to 1080p is phenomenal) was outstanding and the twist at the end was nicely done and both reminded me of Argento films.

Overall, definitely check this film out if you enjoy Asian cinema and good thrillers.

Ab-normal Beauty (Oxide Pang, 2004)

The first half of Ab-Normal Beauty is a fantastic movie. It involves Jiney (Race Wong), an art student who becomes fascinated with death. As her obsession grows, she starts becoming unhinged, much to the consternation of her two best friends, Jasmine (played by Race's sister, Roseanne Wong) and Anson (Anson Leung). There's also a great love-triangle subplot sublimated in there, but it plays second fiddle to the character study of Jiney, which is fabulous, utterly believable and brilliantly shot; I got vertigo from one scene while watching it on a twenty-six-inch television. In standard definition. That doesn't happen.

Unfortunately, the normally brilliant Pang Brothers seem to have run out of material at the halfway point, and the movie devolves quite rapidly into a standard whodunit. And while I rush to add that it's the "whodunit" part that's standard, and not the execution of that part-- if you give the Pang Brothers a mystery, they're going to work it well-- it seems as if this were originally two scripts that got jammed into one movie. It suffers for that, all the more so because, on their own, there would have been two excellent movies here. One, however, would have been much better than the other, in the grand scheme of things. ***

Bearing witness to death can create so many variations of intoxication, and moreso if one is visually inclined and talented on top of that. Enter Jiney, the main ingredient in our storyline, and a car accident she passes one day that finds her gradually becoming isolated as the days begin to pass, intrigued by the things she saw and took photographs of in that heap of lifelessness, constantly wanting more and more from the demise she had witnessed. And the means she finds to accomplish this growing addiction and what it begins to build - that is the Ab-Normal type of Beauty that seen in the house that the Pang brothers have construed.

The Pang brothers do amazing things on a visceral level with this movie, taking the main character and translating her talents into imagery that captures her emotions. That means some rather odd moments and some rather disturbing images but it also means that these same images find something beautiful sitting in the arms of stillness. The direction of this movie has even been termed as being "something like David Lynch," and that does capture a piece of the work. It limits it as well, because the shortcomings of Lynch are where the Pang brothers actually succeed. The plot pieces, the unfolding dynamic of the story; everything here fits together in a beautifully tangent portrait.

If you've seen their work before, you can imagine what the story entails. Its a deceptive type of work, however, and one that is sometimes labeled as horror and is sometimes labeled as drama but happens to be a hybridized variation of both. It has gore but isn't overwhelming, has plots that build but are not too slow, and is a piece of visual art that takes time to digest and makes the mind feel satisfied after-the-fact.
If you have no expectations going in, not expecting murder and not expecting sequels, then you'll certainly be pleased.