Assombração

The Pang Brothers book marked a creatively grim, if disconnected little supernatural horror film balancing that of a novelist (a perfectly pitched performance by Angelica Lee) trying to write a horror novel, but finding out what she writes is personally happening to her. Being haunted by her work with the growing expectations, or a former if complicated love coming back on the scene. She enters a dream reality (where the title comes in to play), mixing the stark horror and fleeting happiness in what is a journey of discovery… up until its undermining ending. I was actually liking the (traditional, but stimulating) build-up (consisting of eerie sounds, lurking figures and a sense of danger) until she enters this fantasy world (like a nightmarish spin of 'Alice's in Wonderland'), where the story felt more like clips (well that's how memories kept hidden, waiting to be remembered simply come and then go) and being cluttered with crazy CGI… which wasn't badly projected, as some sequences were amazing, but eventually I grew tired of the routine. The Pang Brothers' surefooted handling is slick, letting the flowing cinematography craft out haunting frames and wonderfully strange imagery. Inspired, but emotionally starved and the story really loses momentum.

I saw this one on Fantasporto 2007, in Porto, Portugal.

I went to watch this one without expecting anything in particular from it. I like to go into films like this, quits the preconceptions brought by the excess of knowledge about the people involved. Apparently, i know it now, the directors are part of a new generation in the Hong Kong cinema, and they've produced some hits on that basis. To me they were unknown.

The film is complex, but not always for good reasons. It starts with a very smooth environment, borrowed (i guess, but not necessarily) from the psychological "apartment" thrillers by Polansky. This beginning was thrilling and promising, very good moments. The main character played a writer, i was guessing some kind of game with this characteristic (contemporary good cinema loves to explore these things). But no, what we watch are successive radical cuts between sceneries, story, etc. It moves on to present some fantastic scenery, having something to do with Japanese animé, a kind of Miyazaki filmed with live sets instead of animated ones.

But it fails deeply in trying to produce intense drama environment, in order to pass the environmental global message; instead we get a non pretended comedic portion of film (at a certain time laughs were the most heard sounds in the room).

The thing is, to my view, it gathers too many ways of doing it, to many cinematic theories, in a trick of associating the proliferation of materials and waste with the proliferation of cinematic "moods" and so cause the breathless sensation in the line of the intended message. I guess some contention and simplicity would apply perfectly in this case.

Story is completely irrelevant (not necessarily bad), but it is tiring and without motivation trying to follow it or understand it. Nevertheless this is a film with good production values, not always completely believable, but overall solid.

Some imagery is impressive, and well worked out in the relation with the soundtrack (also not bad), but i don't consider it enough to justify the time it lasts. Unless you ave a very special interest for this kind of movie, i don't recommend it.

My evaluation: 2/5

Up front let's save a lot of people some time: this is NOT A HORROR MOVIE. So if you're looking for a flick that'll make you spill your popcorn and dig your nails into the flesh of the unlucky person sitting next to you (hopefully not a total stranger), you might want to look elsewhere.

"Re-Cycle" is the quintessential "morality tale". A morality tale is typically a fantasy that makes heavy use of symbolism and allegory, often personifying human traits into characters (like the 7 deadly sins). The protagonist undergoes a surreal journey with episodic events that relate to some moral message. "Dante's Inferno", the 14th century epic poem (not to be confused with "Dante's Peak" the 1997 flick about a guy chasing a volcano), is a great example of a morality tale. And now a few centuries later we have "Re-cycle" (original Cantonese title "Gwai wik" or "Ghost Land").

The story is about a romance author Ting-Yin (Angelica Lee) who decides to write her first horror story. She is told in the beginning that writing horror stories brings out ghosts. And so the stage is set. But like I said, this is not a horror story but instead it's a dark (often scary) fantasy about Ting-Yin's descent into a bizarre, disturbing world of ghosts and creepers and AWESOME imagery.

Enough about the plot; it's the imagery I want to focus on because the plot is best left for you to experience. Initially shot in very cold, claustrophobic scenes, the film comes alive once Ting-Yin enters the new realm. From there we see grand, majestic and terrible landscapes which I can only compare to the imaginative visuals of Tarsem ("The Cell", "The Fall"), Jean-Pierre Jeunet ("City of Lost Children") and Terry Gilliam ("Brazil"). A lot was done with digital effects, but a lot was also constructed with life-size props such as the stunning abandoned amusement park with its towering, rusted ferris wheel. Side note: that scene was a recreation of a real amusement park that was demolished years ago, and like a lot of sets, it has special significance to people familiar with the original Chinese locations they depict. Me, I've never been to China, but I watched the "Making Of" featurette where they explain a lot of this stuff.

The movie carries a tense vibe, augmented with some very creepy moments which may actually make you spill your popcorn come to think of it. Then there are some absolutely poetic moments. If I had to fault this film for anything, it would be that I wanted more of the poetic moments, like the "orchard of abandoned love" deleted scene... why?? Well, I know why. Probably because they needed to keep things tense and scary for mass appeal. That comes with the business, I guess.

The message of the movie is a great one, and it applies to each and every person out there. And no, it's not just about recycling your plastic haha. Watch it and you'll find out. If the film succeeds with you as it did with me, it may make you appreciate the little things in life a little bit more. For some odd reason I feel the uncontrollable urge to go rescue a dog from an animal shelter. That's not in the movie, but at the end maybe you'll understand my point.

Re-Cycle is something completely different than you would expect if you are familiar with the Pang brothers. It starts off as a horror movie, but than continues as a fantastic and inspired fantasy film. The movie has a deep and disturbing message, which really took me by surprise. The music and sound effects are amazing and pull you even further in the story. The story has a less is more approach which really suits the message. The computer animated pieces aren't always as stunning as you would hope, but they do the trick. This movie is really worth it to be seen. With this movie the Pang brothers have proved to be not only masters of horror, but also masters of fantasy.

What's the worst in Re-Cycle is an absence of story. Purposeless journey, groundless twists, meaningless dialogs, loose ends all way round. To avoid misunderstanding, the script isn't simple or stupid, it nearly doesn't exist.

The only thing, which shines are creative, scary, stylish, surprising visuals/sets. Those sets with recycled books, rotten town, waiting deads almost took my breath away from either visual or creative points of view. Worth mentioning, last time it happened to me with Silent Hill. Extra marks.

Special effects and scares are not novel for those, who have seen previous Pang brothers features, but they are mixed in quite a fresh way. Across the movie one may also experience feelings resembling The Cell, Silent Hill, and even Matrix.

Avoid if looking for traditional horror movie, but watch rather to widen your imagination and to have several strong scares. Provision yourself with patience to neglect the absence of the story.