Oxide and Danny Pang, collectively known as The Pang Brothers, made quite a splash a few years ago with their interesting ghost story, The Eye, which starred lovely Angelica Lee. Their latest effort, Re-Cycle, seems to be a follow up film of sorts to that movie as it not only finds the Pangs working with Lee in the lead again but it also puts them back into ghost story territory. Rest assured, however, that this is not just another 'long black haired ghost' movie from the East. While the film definitely has some similarities to what's come before it the Pang Brothers have crafted a very original and quite memorable film here that, despite some flaws, will stick with you for some time to come.

Ting Yin (Angelica Lee) is the best selling author of a trilogy of romance books who is enjoying all the success that comes with selling millions of copies of your book. At her latest press conference she announces that her next novel will focus on the supernatural and no sooner has she made that announcement then strange things start happening to her. The more she writes and the more she thinks on the world of ghosts, the more aggressive these manifestations get until finally she's starting to see something that looks like one of the characters from her work in progress. Seeing as much of what Ting Yin writes is at least partially autobiographical in nature, it would seem that what's happening in her book is now happening to her in real life.

After a dramatic reunion with her ex-boyfriend things start to get even stranger for her. She starts trying to figure out what it is that's causing these visions or manifestations and her investigation takes her to an old apartment building where, after a strange incident in an elevator, she finds herself in an alternate universe. This isn't a happy place - corpses rain down from the sky, the bodies of those who have died by hanging linger in the forests, and the dead rise and walk around tortured and moaning. Here Ting Yin meets an old man (the English subs call him 'Granny') and an eight year old girl who was never given a name. These two are the only help she has in this strange world and thankfully they're willing to try and help her get back to where she originally came from but before that can happen Ting Yin must learn who these two friends are, where they came from, and how she ties into all of this.

At two hours in length Re-Cycle could have been trimmed down a little bit and been a more intense film for it. Likewise, the story is fairly predictable and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out one of the key connections between characters in the film. A little more mystery and some tighter editing would have made Re-Cycle a pretty damn near perfect film but even with those flaws it's still a really interesting horror movie for a few different reasons.

First and foremost is the visuals. The Pang Brothers are known for their cinematic flair and are sometimes criticized for being guilty of the whole 'style over substance' thing - to an extent, that's true. Here, however, by placing the majority of their movie in an alternate universe they can really let loose with the cinematography and the effects work and the set design and the end result is a very, very, very impressive looking effort. Those put off by CGI may have a hard time with things though as it was with Silent Hill even if it's used constantly at least it's used well. There are set pieces in here that are quite haunting from the scene where our heroine finds herself wandering through a decayed and dead looking carnival to the forest where the dead hang from the trees to the sack where aborted fetus' go to grow once they've been eliminated. Ting Yin's entire journey through the underworld is never less than fantastic looking.

The film also works in some interesting Buddhist traditions and philosophies into it's plot structure that, will possibly odd to Westerners unfamiliar with them, make good sense in the context of the story. The offering of paper money to the dead not only provides a convenient ways of escape but also makes for a fitting tribute to those no longer wandering the Earth as physical beings and it works well here just as it does in The Maid. The very title of the film seems to be a reference to the Buddhist teachings of rebirth wherein past experiences shape the path one will take in the next life.

So while it takes a while to really get moving and the one big connection is easy to spot, Re-Cycle never the less makes for really interesting viewing. It's a very creative film with plenty of style and some serious substance to go along with it even if the actual plot itself is quite simple. Angelica Lee is great in the lead, she's pretty, smart and very good as Ying Tin playing sympathetic moments just as well as the more horrifying ones. It's not a perfect film, but it's definitely a very good one and one that is well worth seeking out.

Video:

The 2.35.1 anamorphic widescreen transfer is all over the place for this release -in fact, it looks like a direct port of the Region 3 release that came out a couple of years ago. The biggest problem is that the image has not been correctly flagged for progressive scan playback which results in some motion blurring and saw-tooth artifacts whenever there's fast motion on the screen. Adding to the harm this causes is the fact that the black levels range from rich and deep to murky and grey and whenever things get dark, compression artifacts are only too easy to spot, particularly in the scenes with a lot of CGI. The good news is that the image has only mild grain to complain about in terms of noticeable print damage and that there aren't any edge enhancement problems here. Unfortunately the movie is really dark to begin with and the poor black levels and loss of detail don't help matters at all.