AB-NORMAL BEAUTY (2004), dir. Oxide Pang

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A little too over the top to be genuinely scary, “Ab-normal Beauty” is nevertheless an effective thriller about obsession and the dark paths it can lead down. Some will consider it unfortunate the chosen path has already been explored in films like “The Cell” and “Hostel,” but in my opinion, that’s where the movie actually gets interesting. Overall, this is a solid effort from half the internationally-famous Pang Brothers filmmaking team.

“Ab-normal Beauty” centers on Jiney (Race Wong), a Hong Kong art student who seemingly has it all: good looks, a comfortable lifestyle, and a talented eye when it comes to art and photography. But despite being the best in her class, she’s morose and withdrawn, only awakening a little around her gal-pal Jas (Rosanne Wong) or when training her camera on something. Her nature changes, however, after witnessing a bloody car accident outside her home, at which point Jiney becomes fixated with capturing images of guts and viscera. That, in turn, leads to an escalating amount of personal risk-taking and taboo-transgression for the sake of art.

“When I press the button on my shutter, everything stops. It’s the same way with death,” Jiney says at one point. The screenplay, by director Oxide Pang and Pak Sing Pang, provides some back-story as to why the big sleep could be such a big turn on, connecting it to an unresolved childhood trauma which seems wholly unnecessary (wouldn’t the alienating and de-sensitizing nature of modern urban life have been enough explanation?) until it gets harkened back to by the final, haunting frame.

Like just about anything by the Pang Brothers, “Ab-normal Beauty” features vibrant colors, music video-style editing, and a throbbing techno score. But to the credit of Oxide Pang, who flies solo this time, the bells and whistles occasionally add up to more than just a superficial attempt to be “cool”; some of the best sequences bring the viewer into Jiney’s mind, allowing us to experience it getting re-wired for blood. For example, there is a scene in which Jiney becomes obsessed with photographing chickens being slaughtered at market, so she pays a butcher to kill bird after bird while she snaps pictures and gives directions. What results is a brisk montage inter-cutting chickens pulled from their cages, their necks sliced, and their bodies tossed in an ever-growing pile, and the rush of all this activity, we assume, is exactly the kind of exhilaration that the protagonist herself is feeling.

There’s also one crazy sequence where Jiney, whose darkroom is normally illuminated by red light, is unable to tell the regular lights have been switched on – a terrific way to depict how blood-lusty she has become. For her, the world still looks crimson-hued, and all the photographs hanging on clotheslines start appearing to bleed. Creepily-effective stuff, and a shame it wasn’t arranged closer to the end of the film when her condition has gotten much worse, because it proves tough to top.

Now to close with a word about the last third: “Ab-normal Beauty” ends up in the kind of sick-green-hued dungeon managed by a twisted-looking soul one expects to find in the “Saw” movies. This is where the plot is at its most conventional, but it’s also a reason why I liked this movie; I can’t help thinking the filmmakers included it as a kind of commentary about society’s viewing habits, that when you have an audience obsessed with seeing images of death and suffering, gradually-escalating reactions (culminating in underground snuff films, which become an integral plot point) are bound to result. Pang might have been thinking about the spate of splatter movies popping up in Asia, but that doesn’t mean “Ab-normal Beauty” lacks universality. Indeed, viewed in context with the current trend of masochistic torture porn flicks that are so popular here in the U.S., “Ab-normal Beauty” gives us additional reasons to look at, and worry about ourselves.

Overall rating: *** (out of ****)