Review of Ab-normal Beauty

I watched AB-NORMAL BEAUTY (2004, original title Sei mong se jun) as a big fan of the Pang Brothers on the back of their masterful THE EYE, but sadly this is a very different beast of a film and one that ends up being a waste of time for the most part. Race Wong stars as Jiney, a photographer and art student who becomes obsessed with capturing images of death on camera, but her new-found passion soon leads her to some very dark places and she ends up being menaced by a mysterious figure. This Thai-Hong Kong co-production is very much a film of two halves. The first half is a pure psychological thriller, looking at abnormal psychology and exploring how childhood abuse can affect an adult's mental state. The second half descends into 'torture porn' style tedium, with chained girls menaced by a masked maniac, and feels like a totally different movie. A pity as if the second half had been more like the first then this could have been interesting.