Re-cycle (original title: Gwai wik) begins as a horror film, then takes a turn toward fantasy, on a road of morality, which comes to a mysterious conclusion. David Lynch’s midnight movie masterpiece, Eraserhead (1977), and John Carpenter’s imaginative, In the Mouth of Madness (1995), both come to mind when viewing Re-Cycle, an inventive film from the Pang Brothers.
Tsui Ting-Yin (Angelica Lee) is the author of a series of bestselling books, based on her time with her ex, who is recently divorced and has strolled back into town after eight years of absence. Meanwhile, Ting-Yin is working on her next book, Re-cycle, which, we’re told, deals with the supernatural.
After suspicious happenings in her apartment, and an unsettling phone call, Ting-Yin enters an elevator in her apartment building and exits into a fantasy world, which sounds like Eraserhead and looks like Silent Hill (2006). Here, Ting-Yu is joined by a young girl (Yaqi Zeng) who takes her through an Alice in Wonderland nightmare tale that is a home for all things discarded, including Ting-Yin’s discarded writings. What follows is a moral tale about the long-term effects of short-sighted decisions.
What jumps out right away, apart from a few ghouls and zombies, is the production value. The visual effects, for the most part, are in check. Elaborate sets takes us to a mysterious would not unlike the worlds of Terry Gilliam or David Lynch. Despite the Lynchian influence in the score, the Pang Brother’s use of industrial and natural sounds, sprinkled with traditional Asian instrumentation, give the film a sound all its own. The cinematography is solid and mostly dark (think David Fincher’s Se7en (1995) or Fight Club (1999)), with a distinct use of red in some scenes. Along with references to other films, there is a recreation of the bridge scene from Spirited Away (2001), with a Pang Brothers twist.
The cast is small, with Angelica Lee getting most of the screen time to herself, but Yaqi Zeng holds her own alongside Lee, as her guide through this land of zombies, death, and cheap scares (the scares aren’t all cheap, as they often contain genuinely disturbing and imaginative images).
With Re-Cycle, the Pang Brothers use moments and techniques from other films in a new and entertaining way, and they succeed in presenting an enticing and fresh film that aims to do more than entertain.
Director: Oxice Pang Chun, Danny Pang
Writer: Cub Chin, Sam Lung, Oxide Pang Chun, Danny Pang, Thomas Pang
Cast: Angelica Lee, Yaqi Zeng
Runtime: 108 minutes
Country: Thailand, Hong Kong
Film Rating: 
