Ab-Normal Beauty

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A Moment of Death, 2008-09-12
3.5 stars br / br /Lesbian art student, Jiney, becomes morbidly obsessed with photographing pictures of death due to unresolved issues of childhood abuse. While dealing with her own personal demons, she encounters someone who is just as obsessed, if not more, with photographing death-Jiney's death. br / br /The movie is essentially good, however it could use a remake with a little tweaking. It is slower-paced. This is surprising because it could have started with the accident, Jiney being fascinated to the point that she can't help but take pictures of the accident and the fact that she is being stalked all in the first 10 minutes-without missing a beat. The movie doesn't seem to really "take-off" until about 30-45 mins after it starts and way after the accident takes place. The lesbian relationship fails to convince. Jiney and her alleged girlfriend, Jasmine, never kiss, hold hands or even have one shred of sensuality between them. Their "affections" are more BFF at the most. Basically the lesbian "act" should have been changed to reflect a sister, sister relationship, which should not have been difficult as they are sisters in real life. The fact that Jiney does not have a boyfriend, and continually shuns Anston's affections (a fellow male art student and admirer), for no apparent reason would have been sufficient as far as her sexual preference is concerned. The movie should have also toyed a little more with the audience. Especially with elements about the main character, Jiney, which were revealed too soon. The fact that she was sexually abused would have been more appropriately revealed at the end where she was faced with a sinister stalker and ultimately her own personal fascination with death for one final time. All-in-all don't think you are "Ab-normal" if you feel mixed feelings about this movie after you watch it.

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strange..., 2008-04-04
I really enjoyed this film, although I'm not sure I can really say why. It's definitely beautiful and artistic, as well as morbid. If you like Japanese movies, it's a good buy, but it's not for everyone.

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One brilliant movie and one mediocre movie smashed together., 2008-03-10
Ab-normal Beauty (Oxide Pang, 2004) br / br /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. br / br /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. ***

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The Beatiful in the Broken , 2007-10-15
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. br / br /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. br / br /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. br /If you have no expectations going in, not expecting murder and not expecting sequels, then you'll certainly be pleased. br /

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

CLEVER BUT NOT CLEVER ENOUGH, 2007-10-03
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. br / br /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. br / br /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. br / br /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. br / br /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.