cover


Rating:

7


AKA: Abnormal Beauty

Year of release: 2004

Genre: suspense/horror

Director: Oxide Pang

Writers: Oxide Pang, Pang Pak Sing

Producers: Oxide Pang, Danny Pang

Stars: Race Wong, Rosanne Wong, Anson Leung, Michelle Mei, Wong Yuen Ling

Rated III for violence, disturbing imagery, brief nudity and sexual content


VCD Information

Company: Universe

Format: widescreen

Languages: Cantonese, Mandarin

Subtitles: Chinese/English electronically printed on lower part of picture

Extras: trailers

Notes: Not much to complain about here -- a very nice VCD.


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Ab-Normal Beauty

Ab-Normal Beauty

Though they are best known for the projects they co-directed such as The Eye, in 2004 Oxide and Danny Pang decided to make seperate films which deal with how a car accident alters people's lives. Danny's take, an action/comedy starring Ekin Cheng and Charlene Choi called Leave Me Alone, was pretty far removed from the Pang's usual ghostly fare. Oxide's entry is closer in tone to the suspense the brothers usually put out, but it does take a darker tone than the normal "I see dead people" stuff most people expect from Hong Kong horror movies.

Ab-Normal Beauty

The movie stars Race Wong (one half of the popular bubblegum pop duo 2R) as an art student who is bored with her life until she sees a car accident (apparently, it's the same one featured in Leave Me Alone, since we see Ekin Cheng for a few seconds) and decides to take a picture of the accident's fatality. She becomes obessesed with death, which begins to worry her best friend/girlfriend, who is played by the other half of 2R, Race's sister, Rosanne Wong (there was a good bit of controversy before the movie came out that Pang was going to be having sisters playing lesbian lovers, but their relationship is very tame; they don't even do as much as holding hands, much less make out in the movie). After hitting rock-bottom during a tumultuous weekend where she ends up torturing one of her friends, Race seems to have recovered. Soon after though, she begins receiving disturbing photos and videotapes that indicate a dangerous stalker wants to suck her into his own twisted world of death.

Ab-Normal Beauty

Like the Pang brothers' other work, Ab-Normal Beauty is a very solid movie. Even though it is slow-paced for the most part, the inventive cinematography and solid performances (especially from Race Wong, who earned a Hong Kong Film Award nomination for her work) help to keep the viewer's interest. However, the third act does considerably ramp up the sex and violence quotient (let's just say the film fully earns its' Category III rating in the space of about five minutes) and that might leave some viewers feeling uncomfortable, as it tends to feel a bit cheap and tacked-on. Also, the explanation of who the stalker is comes off as simply ridiculous, like something from a CBS movie of the week, rather than an entry from one of Hong Kong's most promising young film-makers. Still, these are fairly minor quibbles. Once again, the Pang brothers have come through with a picture that's not quite like anything you've seen before, yet still accessible enough that it should entertain most any fan of scary movies.

Ab-Normal Beauty