Watched March 29, 2009
SYNOPSIS
A young author finds herself in a world where everything that has been abandoned lives.
SHORT REVIEW
"Re-Cycle" has dazzling visuals and an interesting plot, but I only thought it was alright.
REVIEW
The Pang Brothers really should just stay in Hong Kong. I really liked "The Eye", and "Re-Cycle" is pretty good, too. But when they come over to America, they make these awful movies like "Bangkok Dangerous" and "The Messengers". What is it about the U.S. that spawns these awful movies from otherwise pretty talented filmmakers? It's quite strange.
I wouldn't say "Re-Cycle" is on par with "The Eye", and it's really only horror for less than half of the movie, but I have to say that it is a pretty good fantasy movie. The first part of the movie deals with the main protagonist in her apartment writing her new novel. But, it appears like the supernatural forces from the story she's writing are loose and in her apartment, and she's having some pretty creepy encounters. This part of the film is pretty damn good, is very suspenseful and has some genuine scares.
But then, suddenly the film switches gears. It was weird that the tone switched so quickly, because I was expecting a horror film all the way through, but for the most part, "Re-Cycle" is a fantasy, almost a fairy tale for adults, like "Pan's Labyrinth". The author is transported to some other world, which is soon revealed to be the place that everything that has been abandoned goes. Interesting premise, and it's pretty well executed, because of its great and memorable visuals. Among them is a cave of aborted babies, which is pretty creepy.
Speaking of caves of aborted babies, the film has a very prominent anti-abortion message.
SPOILER WARNING
SPOILER WARNING
SPOILER WARNING
The main character has a little girl helping her through the entire movie, and at the end, it's revealed that the little girl is actually her baby she aborted eight years ago. The protagonist begs and begs for the little girl to come with her back to Earth, to which the girl responds "you had your chance to live with me." Boom. Schooled.
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I'm definitely not one of those crazy "Choose life or I'll kill you" people, but the movie actually did make an alright anti-abortion case that makes you think about your stand on abortion. And even if you are pro-choice all the way, it doesn't make the cave of aborted babies any less awesome.
Well. I'm done. I have nothing else to say. The visuals are cool, but really, I can't say I loved the movie. You haven't seen anything else like it, but I wouldn't put "Re-Cycle" on the top of your "Must See" list or anything. I give "Re-Cycle":
3 out of 5 chainsaws (IT'S ALRIGHT)
2 comments:
I really got a kick out of this one, I see it as a dark reflection of movies like CORALINE.
I wonder if this would be called horror, or fantasy or dark fantasy.
I liked this for a number of reasons but it was still kind of "eh" to me, but I am a fan of the idea of the story. All the things left unfinished or unused continuing to live in an alternate world.
As a writer it's definitely an interesting thing to think about. The fetus cave freaked me out though, I didn't really like that and it took me a minute to make the connection between the little girl and it. I kinda fell asleep towards the end and had to re-watch it a few times to even understand what was happening, and I still don't really know what happened. But I think I would watch it again, but I wouldn't seek it out actively.
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