At the place where I stood at the curb, I could see something rolling from one of the overturned cars. It stopped at the curb where I stood. It was the head of a little girl. I bent down to touch the face, to speak to it -- but before I could touch it someone carried me away.Similarly, in Ab-normal Beauty it is a car accident that unleashes the appetite for death photos of talented Hong Kong art student Jiney Tsui (Race Wong). Death is the last taboo and Jiney's macabre photos of corpses of humans and beasts shy away her friends - lesbian lover Jasmine (Rosanne Wong, in real life her sister) and would-be boyfriend Anson (Anson Leung). They just can't understand why taking pictures of decapitated chickens and sliced open fish - , let alone victims of traffic accidents, - gives Jiney orgasmic thrills. In painting class Jiney draws a red line from the model's forehead to her toes, as if blood is dripping down. Necrophilia rides high.
Jiney flirts with death herself when she threatens to jump from the 10th floor of Jasmine's apartment. The next day, she spots a real jumper somewhere in town and frantically takes photos of the death curve and poodle of blood in the street. She also covers her boyfriend in red paint and - while threatening him with a knife - takes pictures of him as if a victim of some terrible act.
Jiney gradually descends into self-destruction, a sado-nightmare she can't get out of. Her hallucinatory deterioration makes her view a cosmetic facial mask she puts on as a death mask. She also develops the urge to kill, as in the cruel scene with Anson. Luckily, Jasmine is there to help her through, but... next a sicko stalker sends her a snuff film in which a girl is killed, her head busted with a metal pipe.
When necrophilia is joined by snuff, in the last one-third of the film, the pace accelerates. The next snuff film which is sent her, features her lover Jasmine... and finally she finds herself in the torture room. Or aren't things what they seem, including Jiney? Who is really hidden under the mask?
The colors in which this film is shot are just as lurid as the fetishism. It is Pangish eye candy from start to finish. Although pop singer Race Wong is not the greatest actress, the stylish shooting of Oxide Pang more than makes up for it.
Ab-normal, yes, but also beautiful.
