Ab-Normal Beauty

After an art student named Jiney (Race Wong) stumbles onto the scene of a car accident and photographs the grisly aftermath, she becomes obsessed with taking pictures of death, eventually attracting another person with a similar preoccupation—a masked killer who videotapes his victims as they die—in this Hong Kong--made shudder show clearly influenced by such English-language films as Se7en, 8MM, Saw, and even Michael Powell's groundbreaking 1960 thriller Peeping Tom. Directed in a low-key fashion by Oxide Pang—dispassionately parading its disturbing tableaus while subtly depicting the emotional and spiritual degeneration of a protagonist who gradually finds herself becoming aroused by the sight of death—the film pays off in the third act when the captured Jiney appears to encourage her masked tormentor to brutalize her (a genuinely shocking moment that crystallizes everything that has gone before). Wong rates kudos for her understated performance, which complements Ab-Normal Beauty's rather subdued visual style (that relies on muted colors and diffused lighting to foster a vaguely dreamlike appearance). Recommended. [Note: DVD extras include an 11-minute “making-of” featurette, seven deleted scenes (8 min.), a photo gallery, and trailers. Bottom line: a decent extras package for a solid thriller.] (E. Hulse)