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 e-Cycle"
is the latest effort from
Hong Kong
's dynamic directing duo Danny and Oxide Pang. The
film screened at the 2006 Cannes International
Film Festival, closing the "Un Certain
Regard", marking the growing international
recognition of the talented twins. Although
"Re-Cycle" sees them sticking with the
supernatural, the film is quite difficult to
categorise, being less actual horror, and more
dark, hallucinogenic karmic fantasy. In this way,
it certainly comes as a breath of fresh air in a
genre still sadly overcrowded by the increasingly
tired looking long haired female ghost.
The film follows Ting-yin
(actress Angelica Lee, who previously worked with
the Pangs on their classic horror "The
Eye"), a popular novelist who decides
that her latest book will be a supernatural work.
Unfortunately, she finds herself unable to focus,
and keeps discarding ideas, crumpling up pages of
writing and throwing them in the bin. At the same
time, her life is thrown into turmoil both by the
reappearance of an old boyfriend and by the fact
that she starts to suspect that her apartment is
haunted. Bizarrely, when she leaves her building
one day she steps out not onto the streets she
knows, but into a strange, decaying world
populated by threatening ghostly figures. Aided by
an old man and a young girl, Ting-yin desperately
tries to find 'The Transit', which is apparently
her only way out of the surreal nightmare.
"Re-Cycle" is very
obviously a Pang brothers' film, shot through with
their strong visual style, though thankfully here
they have toned down the fast editing and dizzying
camera work for which they have become known.
Indeed, the first third of the film, which is set
mainly in Ting-yin's apartment and featuring the
usual half seen ghosts and rampant long black hair
appearing in sinks could have been lifted straight
from "The Eye" or either of its sequels.
Although these early scenes are reasonably
suspenseful, mostly due to the use of sudden
blasts of electronic music, they are depressingly
familiar, and it is fair to say that the film gets
off to a less than promising start.
Thankfully, as soon as
Ting-yin is sucked into the other world, things
improve immeasurably, and "Re-Cycle"
emerges as the most startlingly creative genre
film to have come from
Hong Kong
in some time. The visuals are absolutely gorgeous,
with the Pangs letting their imaginations run wild
and displaying a wonderful eye for detail. The
film features countless stunning images, including
forests of corpses and rusting fairgrounds, all of
which are brought to life by excellent CGI work,
and the film is one of the few which actually
makes good use of the technology. The visuals are
not merely decorative, but are used for a number
of thrilling set pieces as well as for their
thematic value, with most of them being overtly
symbolic.
Aside from a few effective
jolts, there is not too much in the way of actual
horror, and as such the film works more as a
journey into the unknown, as like the protagonist
the viewer is immediately immersed and
disorientated by the ever-shifting world, with
little clue as to what will happen next. Despite
this, the Pangs do hold true to their basic
central premise and never wander off into
self-indulgence, although the film is clearly
driven by themes rather than narrative logic, and
they are clearly not too concerned with the whys
or wherefores of the situation. The film sticks to
their usual concerns of karma and reincarnation,
but this time focuses on abandonment and
loneliness, although this only becomes clear
towards the latter stages of the protagonist's
travels.
Inevitably,
"Re-Cycle" walks a fine line between
style and substance, and it essentially functions
as an elaborate ghost train fairground ride.
Ting-yin, who is the only real character as such,
is rather thinly drawn, and although she is the
viewer's eyes and ears in the strange fantasy
world, she is never fleshed out beyond a few basic
attempts at generating sympathy in the film's
early stages. This does mean that the ending lacks
the kind of emotional impact for which the Pangs
are obviously aiming, and that the film as a whole
is rather distant aside from a vague feeling of
sadness.
However, this criticism is
easily forgiven in the face of the tedium which
has come to categorise
Hong Kong
horror in recent years, and "Re-Cycle"
stands as one of the genre's best, indeed from any
Asian country for some time. Artistically stunning
and showing an amazing ingenuity, it confirms the
Pangs as amongst the most interesting directors
working in cinema today.
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