Jiney is a beautiful young photography student who isn’t satisfied with the work she’s creating. One day there’s a car accident near her home and Jiney feels an urge to photograph the aftermath and especially the dead body lying across the road. This obsession grows further by wanting to see more deaths and even asking a man in an open-air market to kill some chickens in order for her to photograph them. But after shooting a suicide she realises that what she’s doing is wrong and with the aid of her close friend (and lover?) she tries to get over this obsession. But there’s somebody else out there who knows of Jiney’s fascination in death. Events take a turn for the macabre when a snuff videotape arrives on her doorstep with a woman chained to a chair being brutally beaten to death by a masked freak and when her friend is also kidnapped and subjected to the same treatment, Jiney must face her demons head on.
I enjoyed this Hong Kong movie. It was different from other Asian horrors as it’s quite unsettling and morbid. An intriguing look about a young woman’s unhealthy interest in death. I liked the way they took us on Jiney’s route to madness which had not been helped by the abuse she suffered as a child and a mother that thought she made the stories up. The two sisters (Race and Rosanne Wong of HK singing duo 2R’s) are great in their roles and I’ve always liked the work of the Pang Brothers. If you want to see an Asian horror with a difference then Ab-Normal Beauty is well worth having a look.
Sadako’s Rating: 4 out of 5
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