Sei mong se jun

Films about art and artists are of great interest to me, delvings into the relationship of image and imaginer, into the imagining itself and what change it wreaks on the two parties. Abnormal Beauty is then a film of interest to me and though it has little new or especially intelligent to say, it speaks with elegance and it speaks from the heart. Its central artist is the troubled Jin (Race Wong) who comes across a car crash and feels compelled to photograph it, in doing so reopening cracks of childhood trauma, widening them to deathly obsession, morbid sensuality and danger. Much of the film is dark psychological drama rather than horror, the whole visual scheme mirroring Jin's descent. Shots are still, sparsely composed and sometimes richly tinted, an imagery of bleak yearning, of the cameras power to make beauty from from death, to bring something from nothing and yet in the freezing of image eternally condemn, forever sequester from reality. All this perhaps the highlight of the film, its thoughts internalised speaking with so much more eloquence than the occasional fragments of exposition. Its powerfully acted stuff too, Race Wong subtly moving, quietly pained, she does well in suggesting character shadows. Her real life sister Rosanne plays (in a slightly perverse bit of casting), her girlfriend Jas, though the lesbian currents are pretty restrained. Another fine turn, possessive and emotionally fraught, the extrovert half of the two. Anson Leung is good too as a classmate of Jin innocently drawn to her. All cylinders fire pretty well it must be said, things reaching an emotional climax around two thirds of the way through as Jin heads towards her precipice. Then the film switches gears to head for real horror in its climax, a move that works thematically but not so much dramatically. Quite simply it's a lop sided film, what should be a thought out second half becomes a climax instead and ends up feeling more of an undernourished epilogue than the savage gut punch it aims for. In more general terms the film suffers from being somewhat restrained as well, some will no doubt praise its subtlety but the story is a bit too lurid for restraint to really work. There's too little actual threat, the menace being predictably largely of the mind, and too little pointed exploration, for a film too restrained to go mad it doesn't help itself by being intellectually undercooked. In a film so concerned with dark aesthetics and the break from normality there's comically little treatment of the related moral issues and the general psychological fall out follows standard plotting lines rather than great insight. Still, this is a pretty fine film despite its ills. Its a film to submit to and swim around in, to abandon oneself to the leads and drink in their sights, sorrow to their sorrows. Truth be told it was only after viewing that the films flaws started to fall into place, its such a well oiled beast (and more to the point, looks so goddarned pretty) that I was almost captivated for most of the run time. As such I recommend it if you like your Asian horror slow and artful, some I'm sure may like it more than me. But it certainly isn't the latter day underrated classic some have hailed it as. 7/10

A very weird tale about a lesbian girl, semi-losing her mind from a combination of past events, and her present preferences. She is an artist, with an emphasis on photography. She suddenly starts becoming obsessed with taking pictures of death.

Her friends don't really take that very well. They think it's psycho, and so do other people that you wouldn't really call her "friends"...

All in all a very good movie. If you're into Asian films, especially those with a chilling twist... This ones for you! The director portrayed losing your mind very well in my opinion, which I didn't really expect because the main character was very good looking. Making her lesbian made me think that it was going to try and make her looks sell the picture... I was very wrong. This film was written very well, and the character development was nothing short of amazing.

The Pang Brothers know their stuff when it comes to visual style. This movie is a proof. It's visually flawless. Beautiful photography, nice camera tricks, gorgeous looking leads and eerie atmospheres, but that's as far as it goes. Oh… And the sound is nicely done too. In some ways this film is like The Crow: City of Angels, an absolute feast for the eye, but it delivers no content to back it up. And it gets boring in some parts, since you don't really give too much about the characters. The so-called violent scenes at the end are a letdown –that's if you're looking for something truly disturbing. It's well done, and creepy in some parts. The killer's method was a great idea, with all the cameras and the sound of him approaching. I loved that. But at the end it's like if someone mixed Beverly Hills 90210 with Thesis (the Spanish flick). If that's your cup of tea, then this movie is for you.

Watch it on a nice home system. You will get it's full blow.

Only 2 comments as I'm writing this, and this movie definitely deserves better.

I saw it at a little horror festival in France in January.

This movie is about being lost when you're supposed to become an adult, being lost in the harsh, individualistic world we live in... (that sounds very common, but the movie isn't.) It also takes on voyeurism in a quite original way, even questions photography and "beauty"...

There is a perpetual and nameless menace surrounding the young girl we follow. She feels alone, misunderstood. But she's got strength and will and talent...

Her obsession with death will ultimately be an opportunity for her to face herself, although she really seems to loose it as the story unfolds.

I really find this movie appealing and quite outstanding, and I want to recommend it... ...but there is that finale!!! I can't talk about the ending without destroying what is certainly an intended impression...

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but I feel this movie should warn audiences about its extreme violence.

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That said, there are a lot of reasons to watch this if you have the opportunity.

1st watched 2/16/2008 - 5 out of 10(Dir-Oxide Pang): 1st half excellent, 2nd half confusing. This disparity in the movie makes for a so-so movie when it could have been great. The movie is about a photographer/artist who is not happy with her work even though she's getting awards. On her way out of her house one day, she sees an accident and decides to take photographs of the incident including a death. After this, she becomes fascinated with the subject. partially because of an incident that occurred when she was young where she was molested by her cousins and her mother didn't believe her; since then she deep down didn't feel worthy of anything to the point of attempting suicide. Her girlfriend is at first confused by her obsessions but as they become more and more bizarre she helps her address her demons in her past including talking to her mother again. She appears cured and then starts receiving anonymous pictures and videos of women being tortured by a masked man. The assumption is that the person sending the info wants her to go back to her old ways. This is where the story goes awry, in my opinion. It now becomes more of a cat and mouse horror story then a morally tale, which the first half of the movie was. The couple tries to determine who's sending the pictures, as the girlfriend is pulled into the trap and tortured and killed. When the movie became about the identity of the masked man and less about the original main character in the movie it becomes confused and loses it's spark. Too bad, because the movie started out portraying a subject not shown much in movies(the effects of abuse) and ended as a typical horror/thriller.