What do you get if you take a mixing bowl and toss in The Cell, The Grudge, some Stephen King, Alice In Wonderland, The Lovely Bones and a not-too-subtle anti abortion message? You get ReCycle, a visually unbelievable, absolutely terrifying, boundlessly imaginative Chinese horror fantasy that no one saw, got overlooked to the max, and occupies an eternal spot in my DVD collection. Novelist Tsui (The Eye's Anjelica Lee) is suffering from writer's block following two bestsellers, expected by her publisher to churn out another one posthaste. Plagued at first by paranormal visions in her apartment, she's suddenly thrown headlong into the otherworldly dimension of ReCycle, a place that can turn from beautiful to hellish and back again within minutes. Picture a surreal, abstract realm where everything that's ever lost, forgotten or abandoned ends up, thrown together in a gorgeous but threatening dream world with various levels, planes and passages, seemingly endless and never predictable. The dead also reside here, as she soon learns, some of which don't take kindly to intruders and can be pretty volatile. Forced to flee from one area of the realm to others and beyond, she's joined by the spirit of a lost little girl, and put through one hell of time trying to find her way out. Included are dilapidated, haunted amusement parks, fields and mountains that extend for millions of miles, eerie forests where the ghosts of hanged prisoners leer out at them, vast crumbling cities, acres of forgotten children's toys and in the film's most wtf sequence, a giant gooey room filled with aborted fetuses that spring to life and slime anyone within reach. That's right, the filmmakers aren't really subtle with their pro-life sentiment, especially near the end, but as long as you can get past that, the rest is all incredible. The sheer scope of the film commands attention though, and anyone who daydreams or lets their imagination run wild will get an absolute kick out of it. It's kind of like the world's weirdest video game in cinematic form, structured like a play-through but given all the disorienting unease of your worst nightmare.

Gwai wik starts out like most standard Asian horror films, particularly with the expectation that we're about to see yet another long haired female ghost. However, the film soon takes a dramatic turn towards the surreal. What starts out as typical soon twists into anything but, creating something of a love child between Pan's Labyrinth and Ringu. Gwai wik is hauntingly beautiful in its twisted landscapes and strange zombie-like creatures, pulling the viewer into a surreal dream-like and sometimes nightmarish world. The film covers territory regarding things we throw away, delving quite a bit into social commentary. This isn't meant to preach but rather shows the internal struggle a person feels when trying to do what they believe is right...and may not end up being so years later. It's a beautiful tale of love, loss, redemption and inner struggle. The biggest flaw is its hokey 'twist' ending that tries too hard to bring the film back around on itself. Nevertheless, it's an experience and a film I am happy to have seen.

RE-CYCLE is a visually stunning and also a thought provoking film, it certainly makes you wonder about the things you discarded, as it is set in a world created by things and ideas that people abandoned over the years, the story begins when a novelist decides to write a horror novel and unknowingly opens the door to an alternate dimension that is home to all the things people have rejected in life.The film gets you thinking in an odd way about as I said before about things people discard, directed by the Pang brothers who also did the better version of THE EYE, it is a very well made film, it may start off as a scary horror film but as soon as the main character enters this other world, the film strays from its horror elements and becomes more of an ALICE IN WONDERLAND story only its not for kids, you can also tell that one of the films influences is SILENT HILL, as you might notice a few nods towards a few similar ideas.The storyline is of course very original and extremely intelligent, I recommend this film to any horror or film fan in general, you will certainly be treated to a visually gripping film

One of the reasons the Pang Brothers' films are so engaging is they have an excellent grasp of sound design and good taste in music. Both this film and Diary (an Oxide solo effort) reached operatic proportions at times. They are not content to hire up a few jingles and play them over and over throughout the film in some sort of branding effort. Each scene has its own soundtrack. Often times the soundtrack seems to lead the scene. I hesitate to call it music video-like because that smacks of demotion, but it is like a music video in the sense that the music is as important as the video.Re-cycle reminded me of Terry Gilliam's work, but not as desolate or oppressive. It's a beautiful film made edgy by the Pang Brothers tendency to genre hop, mixing in horror as well as melodrama. I think most would agree the Pangs are quite skilled and creative in the visual department but seem to lack a command of the story telling part. I say, "so what". I'm happy to be fully engaged while the film is playing and my only after thoughts be fond memories. I don't always need to have a deep philosophical discussion of what a film was trying to say.There may be better ruminations on the basic idea of this film, and it's a good one--exploring a place where all that's forgotten or abandoned congregates--(Spider Forest comes to mind), but few will be as engaging as this multimedia masterpiece. I had no idea this film was going to take off into fantasy land. And stay there for the duration of the film. It came as quite the surprise, and kept surprising me.I really liked Angelica Lee's man-shoes, and ... is there anything more adorable on this planet than an eight year old Chinese girl? Big round of applause for Yaqi Zeng!