Ab normal beauty torrent

Pang provides flashbacks to Jiney's not-so-happy childhood, but the real interest occurs with Jiney's day-to-day descent into self-destruction. Not that the actual events and reasons presented are that exciting, but Oxide Pang brings astonishingly sure direction to his morbid tale.

Alternating between unrelenting style highlighted by the trademark Pang Brothers bombastic soundtrack and slow-moving, immersive exposition, Ab-normal Beauty builds upon the storytelling promise Oxide Pang and brother Danny showed in both The Eye and The Eye 2. The film's art direction and cinematography match Pang's clean, almost starkly disturbing world.

Ab-normal Beauty looks and feels like quality cinema, which is usually half the battle for today's artifice-obsessed filmgoers. But then there's the other half of the battle: content. Ab-normal Beauty wins that battle handily for nearly two-thirds of its running time. Again, Jiney's psycho-emotional journey is not that novel, but the film's style and newcomer Race Wong's performance is enough to compensate.

On the other hand, the sisters' more natural look makes them much more suited to a dark, potentially daring film like this one, and Race Wong is remarkably compelling here. She doesn't do much more than display increasingly despondent emotions, but her presence is most definitely felt - especially when compared to sister Rosanne, or Anson Leung, who could win the "Blank Hunk of the Year" award.

It's questionable if her performance is indicative of actual talent Race Wong also appeared in Wong Jing's Love is a a Many Stupid Thing , not that anyone noticed or cared. Ab-normal Beauty is good stuff for two-thirds of its running time, but the final third sinks into a stalker plotline that's more ugly than compelling. Pang ratchets up the tension big time, and it seems to work, but the undercurrent of Ab-normal Beauty is one of almost lurid fetishism.

The main interest in seeing Race and Rosanne Wong get threatened physically and sexually is that it's something you'd never see happen to the Twins - but that's about it. Otherwise, checking out Race Wong tied up in her slip smacks of utter exploitation. This time around though I am going to start with the characters, then a quick recap then my usual crazy thoughts. That should cover things nicely and I feel like people knowing the structure will help with follow-ups, like if one wants to skip spoilers Hahaha , they know which part to read which one not to read!

Things might change later on, for example we will know all the characters by the fourth episode I am sure so that first section will have no useful information. I have already talked about our two main girls, twice now but to go deeper, since we have more information on them, Shinohara Yuri played by Fumika is the one that we meet first and I guess if you want to have the No1 argument, she would be the Lead.

Actually now that I think about it, forget what I said about the Characters segment, because in this first episode alone it is kind of hard to get a complete lock on the personalities of not only our main girls but the other characters we meet. I found myself flipping between views on what I thought their character would be, especially Kairi! She is a hard one to read and in fact it is almost the same for us as it is for the other characters in trying to figure out this mysterious girl that is Kairi.

But what we do know of her in this first episode is that she went to the same Primary Elementary school as Yuri but the two have not seen each other since then. In fact Yuri had completely forgotten about her and it took some time for Kairi to recognise Yuri too Or did it…? We also know that she was an Idol back then and probably left school because of that as Idols usually attend special private school, well, some of them. Currently she is a working woman in Estate and the two meet when Yuri goes looking for a new apartment.

As for Yuri, her past is still a mystery, except for the few juicy real juicy details that we learn about her from Primary school courtesy of Kairi. We know that she was boyish, wearing shorts at that time, and that she was kind, giving her underwear to Kairi who had peed herself in class. Because come down the road when things get moving, and by that I mean when emotions finally need to get acknowledged, this partial personality usually ends up as a fatality.

Thankfully, this is not a serious drama and Yuri is not that much of a simpleton. Back to Kairi, she is really a mysterious one! I could not figure out if she hard gay, highway gay or wannabe gay! Usually I can tell quite right away just from seeing the character in the first episode Evidence is Karolina in Runaways and Hope and Lizzie dynamics in Legacies.

And yet this Kairi is proving to be a challenge! A Lesbian refused a used water bottle from a cute girl?! We are lucky plastic is not on our food chain! She is also not highway gay because I am willing to bet that she is already a Lesbian even before she meets Yuri again. Now, I know she was an Idol and we know how that goes around here, but she is no longer an Idol and the last time she saw Yuri it was in Primary school!!

So who was she banging all this time and who made her come out? Speaking of friends, Yuri has two friends and fellow college mates in Shiho and Tomomi. When you watch the episode, Shiho is the one that wears a mask in the beginning due to a cold , has dyed hair and it is in a high ponytail. Tomomi is the kind of short, dark-haired one with plump lips. Shiho seems like that energetic friend while Tomomi comes off as the cooler, more level-headed friend, sometimes anyway.

She seems to have that bit of simpleton going on as well. She is onto these Manly showrooms, ranked No. He seems like kind of an idiot too but what do you expect, he will probably wise up later on when he finds that his girl has been taken by another girl! We have seen him in the teaser and I guess he will have a major role later on. Who knows, maybe there is a twist and he is in fact related to Kairi.

Then again, she should have mentioned it since she dropped in once in their lecture but she did not mention anything about him so I guess that theory is debunked already! This concludes the character introductions we got in this first episode, well, unless you count a mysterious character whose presence we are made aware of but whom we have not got a chance to see yet. Remember the Stalker I mentioned in the beginning who forced Yuri to move homes, and in effect get our to girls to meet?

Well, it seems like it was just a one off gimmick. Their presence is part of the story it seems and I know most of you after watching this episode will have a few theories about that Stalker but on that note, how about we move on to the recap? The episode jumps into the thick of things with Yuri finding more used tissues We are not going to talk about what those tissues were used for in her locker.

This seems to have been going on for a while now and this time it is the last straw for Yuri. She literally goes straight to the accommodation office to look for a new place and there, the person that she speaks to is none other than Kairi. As for Kairi, that is a hard one but we will take the benefit of the doubt and say that she too did not recognise Yuri at that time. Without wasting anytime they go to check out some apartments and it is during this that recognition hits Kairi.

I am not sure if it is intentional bad acting Japan makes a business out of this or if Kairi was pretending but after some business talk, Kairi switches gears as she call Yuri way to informally for two people who are basically stranger. Yuri then remembers as well that cute girl from her class who was also an Idol but Kairi has a deeper memory of them than that.

We learn that later. For now the two are just happy to reconnect as they hug and laugh and this where the face-planting happens as Kairi admires just how well developed Yuri turned out to be. Yuri likes the place and she soon moves in, with the non-existent help of her friends Shiho and Tomomi. The two just sit there while poor Yuri unloads all her things by herself.

She was almost ready to macho up a fridge almost her height when a helpful hand appeared…it was Kairi of course. With her help the two finish the unloading and afterwards Kairi even helped Yuri put things in place! Hell, they looked like a couple organising their new home or something.

Meanwhile said friends were still not helping, Shiho crying about her cold and Tomomi complaining about being tired. The three decide to be friends with Kairi after she reveals that she has no friends being a loner, when she saw the friendship-ring Yuri was wearing and her friends too.

They exchange numbers not with Yuri though and later on Yuri will be getting Kairi her own friendship-ring the implications of that scene…soon. Yuri is thankful to Kairi and is super impressed with her femininity. Kairi though denies the compliments claiming that she even sucks at cooking but….

Tomomi offers a sweating Kairi some water from her bottle, which Kairi turns down Strangeeeeeeeee. When sh Read all Jiney is a talented student of Arts with a trauma in her childhood and lack of communication with her mother, and excellent photographer that is not satisfied with her awarded works.

When she witnesses a car crash, she is driven by a morbid wish and takes pictures of the dead vic When she witnesses a car crash, she is driven by a morbid wish and takes pictures of the dead victim.

She becomes obsessed with death, and her close friend Jas feels that Jiney needs help Read all. Director Oxide Chun Pang. Oxide Chun Pang Thomas Pang. Top credits Director Oxide Chun Pang. See more at IMDbPro. Photos 5. Top cast Edit.

Race Wong Jiney as Jiney. Rosanne Wong Jas as Jas. Anson Leung Anson as Anson. Oxide Chun Pang.