Directed by Oxide Pang Chun. Starring: Race Wong, Rosanne Wong, Anson Leung, Michelle Mee. Foreign language film with English subtitles. Synopsis: Psycho thriller/suspense about a young girl, interested in photography and art, who becomes obsessed with pictures of death. Her new passion for taking photos of dead and dying animals and humans leads her into the hands of a real life snuff film.
I really have no idea why I picked up this film, I'm not normally a big foreign language film guy, I think you lose something with the subtitles (Passion of the Christ excepted) , but I am glad I got this one. Set in
Jin has a girlfriend, yes that kind of girlfriend, named Jas (played, somewhat surprisingly, by Race Wong's real life sister, Rosanne Wong) who may be just a little bit stifling of Jin, although she obviously cares deeply for her. The only other person seemingly close to Jin is a pursuing suitor named Anson (Anson Leung) who has taken a shine to Jin, much to the displeasure of Jas.
The big moment of the film comes early on when Jin sees a corpse laying on the street right after a automobile accident. Shocked at the sight, she is nevertheless compelled to photograph it, and, soon she is obsessively photographing other accidents, dead/dying animals, and drawing a blood stained figure in her art class when diepicting the bloodless live nude girl who is the subject.
Jin progressively slips further into this obsession with death, becoming reckless with her own mortality (there is a neat scene where she is swinging carefree from the front side of the bannister on a porch on top of a high rise building to the dismay of Jas), and going to the point of splashing Anson with red paint on their date in order to simulate a bloody corpse. Where does it all lead? Well, lets just say that Jin is not the only one who shares a fascination with death and she finds herself in a real life snuff film setting.
This movie is beautifully filmed and nice to watch. Its clear that the pace and visuals of this foreign film are very different in style from an American film. I didn't say better or worse, just different. But, visually interesting and easy to follow. You feel that Jin is attracted to death, blood, and gore not only because she has issues, but because she sees it as beautiful and artistic. The relationship between Jin and Jas is played in such a way as that you can feel their love and attraction (especially from Jas), but there are exactly zero titillating scenes or implications of physical intimacy. Whether this is a stylistic choice, or due to the actresses being sisters in real life, it works because you believe the relationship, which is important for the story.
The themes involved: murder, torture, homosexuality, killing for sexual gratification, etc., are about as intense as you get, but there is nothing tasteless in the film, or played just for cheap thrills or gore.
Without question, something is lost in the fact that you cannot understand what the actors are saying, and subtitles cannot portray everything in translation fit nicely on your screen. But, its good enough where you soon do not even realize you are essentially reading a movie.
The conclusion of the film leaves a lot to interpretation and probably could have been handled better, but, again, that may be unfair coming from an Americanized movie fan who is used to things being wrapped up, one way or another, in almost every film. This is something to make you think and, if you don't mind pushing the envelope a little (o.k., a lot) in your entertainment, you just might like this film quite a bit.
Leave a comment