Customer Reviews

MEMENTO MORI

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

The first of a series, "Whispering Corridors" is a ghost tale set in a private school, focusing mainly on a former student returning to the school as a teacher and on a pair of friends who are sort of borderline outcasts among the student population. It's a hard movie to give a description on because it's quite cryptic (not a bad thing) with much becoming clear only in the latter portions of the film, but I'll try and give my take on it without delving into much beyond the halfway point. Even in the final shots a lot is still left to the individual's interpretation.

First of all, the school in the movie is Not a nice place, as becomes subtly apparant early on and more overt as the film progresses. It's one of those places that seem to be universal on the planet where too many people with too little character and too much of the idea that they should be able to do whatever they damn well want to whoever they want are running the show, and in this case it seems the student body is falling right in line with their less than admirable teachers, though in a less open, more deceitful way. The conflict of the newly arrived teacher with the established hierachy within this one school is a well-handled, though 'quiet' subplot.

It becomes quite brutal and harrowing in places, not because of the level of violence (it's far below that in many other horror movies) but because of the unnervingly casual nature of the cruelty. And this - in a rather unexpected way - plays into the nature, genesis and motivations of the entity whose activities have recently come into play at the school. A really stunning and dramatic finale leaves, in my estimation, plenty of room for a sequel, although apparantly (I haven't seen them yet) the follow-ups are only loosely related or bound by 'theme'. They sound like they're probably good, and I'll see them, but a more direct sequel to this one would still be welcome. Or then again, depending on your take on what the final moments mean, perhaps that's not all that feasible. My personal interpretation is that there's still lots of uncharted territory in the future of these characters waiting to be explored.

Great acting all around, although admittedly some of the technical aspects could have been better (an uncommon trait for the horror movies I've seen coming from Asia), including some of the effects which, while not ridiculous-looking, could have been handled better in certain scenes. Not a major glitch.

A deep and disquieting movie that calls for more than one viewing; uncomfortable to watch in places but ultimately highly rewarding; thoughtful and scary.

Whispering Corridors is a totally scary, and entertaining horror flick from Korea. It's easy to see why this was the first of an explosion of Asian Horror films like the Ring and the Grudge, because the director, Park Ki-Hyung is definitely well versed in American horror and uses his understanding of the genre to make the movie really appealing to any American horror fan. Whispering Corridors is the first in a trilogy of films. The first death in the movie and all of the rest are really reminiscent of the slashers like Friday the 13th and other late 70's early 80's American horror which are the staples of the genre. If you like horror films and have seen the best ones, you'll immediately see why this one fits right in to that group. What's really cool about it, is that there's no CG (computer generated effects). All of the blood and deaths etc. are all done with real actors, and it's almost more believable than the over-the-top current American horror genre. There's something so tangible about the blood in the film. It's bright red, and creeps the viewer out in a way that CG children running around (like in the Grudge) could never fully achieve.

The whole film takes place around an all girls school-- and with girls in uniforms and mysterious murders, you've got the makings of a great horror narrative. The first 20 minutes really suck you into the story as Ki-Hyung moves the camera much like 70's DePalma or Hitchcock--It's seductive. The school building becomes horrifying in and of itself. The way Ki-Hyung presents the school makes it like an evil edifice similar to the Overlook Hotel in Kubrick's The Shining.

The tone is similar to Rosemary's Baby in that the girls are consistently trying to figure out what the problem is-they want to get to the bottom of it, but the forces out of their control, i.e. the school teachers, get in their way, and they get in trouble. The grainy look of the film and the way the sound design/score are used is totally an homage to the classic horror films of the 70's. In the movie, the Korean school system is depicted as an evil force that represses the girls, abuses them, and ultimately is the motivating force that makes the one girl commit suicide and become the ghost who murders her enemies throughout the film. The performances by the girls are great. And the colors of the film are so dreary, that you can't help but feel like you're there. The end of the movie has a really amazing image of the two main girls alone in the classroom with blood pouring out of the walls and the ceiling. Overall, this film is really entertaining, and psychologically interesting, and will scare the crap out of you. The Tartan DVD release is pretty awesome. It has trailers for a lot of Asia Extreme films, 5.1 surround sound, photos, and English/Spanish subtitles.

I tracked down this film after happening upon the far superior "Memento Mori," and although I didn't enjoy this quite as much as its arbitrary sequel, I would still recommend it. Both films fall into a category that has grown in recent years, with films such as "May," and "Ginger Snaps," which I would call "Female Horror." Traditional horror films often focus on male villians and heroes. Women are secondary, and are often portrayed as helpless victim and non-person. While not exactly feminist film, "Female Horror" is significant because it focuses on women and girls as people, whether they are victim, hero, or assailant.

A former student returns to her alma mater as a teacher. As she is haunted by memories of a childhood friend who committed suicide, the school is plagued by the mysterious deaths of cruel teachers. This aspect of "Whispering Corridors" almost suggests a version of "If..." in a girls' school. I had read about the controversial scenes containing images of teachers brutalizing students, and I assumed the worst. I thought I would see girls in ponytails and school girl uniforms getting spanked in an exploitive manner. But instead, the girls are portrayed as people, and we see how the verbal and physical abuse effects them. One girl has the desire to paint, but is told that her painting is too horrific. She is beaten in front of the class, and her painting destroyed by the teacher.

A particularly nasty male teacher gets a dose of schoolyard justice in one of the most effective scenes in the movie. Here is something you don't see very often in a horror film--an underdeveloped male character gets whacked in a pretty nasty way when he is found in a vulnerable position by a female. If you're watching a horror movie, and you see a woman walking down a dark hallway by herself late at night...it doesn't really matter if you know who she is or not, you can pretty much guess what's going to happen to her. Although we can't see who the assailant is, we can tell it's a girl. Many Dario Argento films feature female killers, but the original assumption is that the killer will be a man. When we learn the killer's true identity, it's a surprise, because we are expected to think a female would not be capable of such a thing. It's interesting and unexpected to see the traditional horror film gender roles reversed.

I would give this film 3 stars instead of 4 because unfortunately, it isn't all that scary, and therefore doesn't function very well as a horror film. However, the character development and original story make it enjoyable. The ending, while not exactly an M. Night Shyamalan-style "shocking twist," is very surprising, and an idea I don't think I've ever seen used anywhere before. If you're interested in Asian Horror, or female-centric horror, I would recommend "Whispering Corridors."

I love the acting in this movie. These girls are top notch holding their roles together, without the make-up and the brand name clothes. Everything just sails naturally.

The setting is a private girl's school, where the girls have their own cliques. One girl who is "psychic" befriends an unpopular girl. They have art in common, and the psychic lass doesn't mind having to tot the dorky girl in school, despite disapproval of the general consensus.

These girls are faced with school angst (you know, in some places in Asia, the teachers can give you a hidin'), a horrible Homeroom perv teacher, a hiding place girls go to after school and rebelliously drag a smoke, etc. But above all, the school has a pretty alumni as a brand new teacher.

Now this Miss Alumni has a bad history in that school. In the past, she also befriended an unpopular girl. Pressured to dump the awkward friendship, the unpopular girl was locked in one of the rooms and burnt to crisp.

Get it now, we see in here a pattern between the past of the Miss alumni, and the psychic girl's pairing with the dork??? That's the base of the story for this movie.

Go with the flow, it makes good sense in the height of the movie. It IS absolutely enjoyable to watch if you are seeking a non-gore film, in a realistic atmosphere, with characters that are down-to-earth, smoothly blended in a story that leaves no cavities in your pondering mind.

Whispering Corridors is the first of three Korean horror films, set in high schools specializing in art, the other two being Memento Mori and Wishing Stairs, that proves that the Koreans deserve a share in the new wave of horror such as Japan's Ringu and Ju-On.

One evening, a tyrannical teacher, Ms. Park, is brutally murdered, her body strung up from a tree. It seems that she discovered something in the yearbooks regarding Jae Jin-Ju, a long-dead student who's still at school, and jotted down some notes in her agenda. Afterwards, the two yearbooks go missing. There's also rumoured to be a ghost in an old art shed that no one goes to because the said student committed suicide there.

The story focuses on pairs of students. The main is the friendship between Lim Ji-Yo and the shy Yoon Jae-Yi, who happen to be the student clerks the day Ji-Yo finds Ms. Park's body. Ji-Yo can call up spirits, though some think she does that to get attention. She has the potential for being a good painter, and is coached as such by Jae-Yi, who quit, but knows technique. She paints a horrific picture of Ms. Park that angers Mr. Oh, Park's successor, who trashes the painting, beats Ji-Yo, and expels her in a mad rage. It's not for nothing he's called Mad Dog Oh, but he also gives unwanted caresses to Park So-Young. Fortunately, there is a cure for mad dogs that gets put to good use.

Oh yes. Park So-Young is a pretty and bright student who has her eyes set on Seoul National University. However, she hates studying and figures it doesn't matter what she goes into, because a diploma from SNU is a gold card to getting a job. In contrast, there's the glum Kim Jung-Sook, who it turns out was close to So-Young, but not so anymore.

Enter Hur Eun-Young, an alumnus who graduated eight years ago and is now a teacher. Yet she says time and again that she still feels like a student. That may be because some painful memories return to haunt her, particularly those of her best friend Jae Jin-Ju, the student who killed herself. In fact, her old desk, where she carved her Jin-Ju's initials, is occupied by Ji-Yo. Indeed, the comparison between Eun-Young and So-Young is apt, as the latter describes the former as the one with beauty as well as brains.

The reoccurrence of the same patterns in school sadly give the message that things never change, especially mental cruelty. Teachers like Ms. Park and Mr. Oh single out certain students as the misfits for ridicule--Jin-Ju and Jung-Sook--and have more promising students--Eun-Young and So-Young--praised while telling them to have the right kind of friends.

And the teachers don't care that much for the students, as a student in the film says, "I only had to keep the classroom full, like these desks. Nothing more. It didn't matter whether I was human or not. I just had to fill the empty seats and be there during headcounts." It's the teachers after all, who make the difference, it's up to them to stop playing political godmakers and treat all students equally, like human beings, not ostracizing any who seem different!!!

The style, particularly the killings, remind me of Dario Argento's Suspiria and Inferno as well as Mario Bava's Twitch of the Death Nerve, and the darkened corridor of the school at night provides scary moments, as well as a scene when all of a sudden, the windows explode inward, nearly showering a teacher with glass shards.

"I just wanted a friend and to leave with good memories," says the ghost near the end of the film. That's something a lot of people probably want. There's a more human element to the high school trilogy that sets them apart from the other horror films I've seen, Japanese included.

"Whispering Corridors" could have become what "Ringu" became for us. Both movies were released the same year but for some reason Japanese picture grew into a cult one while "Corridors" stayed in the shade although they share a lot not only in narration but in style and mood.

After apparent school teacher suicide a Korean boarding school for girls turns into a somewhat strange place. Rumors about this death are being spread among students although teachers do not appreciate them, some say there's an old legend of a ghost that dwells in the school, a young newcomer teacher tries to figure everything out and we observe a developing friendship between two of the girls.

It's not hard to anticipate an unexpected and surprising ending a la many of the ghost films but generally it's not what matters here. "Whispering Corridors" is open to interpretation as most of Asian movies being utterly ambiguous and many-sided. The action takes place in a closed environment of the boarding school with its strict rules and sometimes almost sadistic teachers' attitude towards students, it creates this claustrophobic atmosphere of seclusion and doom. I guess some may even consider it a homage to Dario Argento's "Suspiria". Leastwise I've had this kind of a recollection while watching. Being a social commentary on today's society the film centers mostly on feminine friendship and in Korean usual thoughtful and slow-paced manner lets us discover many things about it we might not know.

"Whispering Corridors" is very complex, maybe difficult for comprehension, it makes you think all the way during the viewing and after. It definately requires the second and possibly multiple viewings to let the pieces of this puzzle fit in your head. The film has many subtexts, it's beautiful as almost all Korean movies are, it's poetic and lingering. Don't expect to find just entertainment here, "Whispering Corridors" are more suitable for a kind of meditative viewing albeit you'll certainly come across some horror elements as well.

The explanation why "Whispering Corridors" didn't make it as successful as mentioned in the beginning Japanese "Ringu" or "Ju-on" is probably not in its content but in its pattern. "Ringu" is much more simple and transparent while "Whispering Corridors" will obviously call for some intellectual strain. But that's a part of its charm and of the most of Korean pictures' charm. And it reminds of some love affair. Once you get into it don't expect it to be a one night stand. You'll have to spend much time together to know each other and to like each other. And you'll hardly ever part. I think I'll be with "Whispering Corridors" for a very long time.

~
(UPDATE: January 17, 2005) -
A rumor spreads throughout an all-girls' high school that the ghost of a former student who had died in one of the classrooms a decade earlier has returned (possibly by taking possession of another girl at the school) and is responsible for the deaths of several abusive members of the faculty.

This DVD review is being written 'pre-release' in hopes of supplying some specific information about some of the important production details which have not yet been supplied with the listing of this item. After doing a bit of digging I was able to fill in some of those gaps which I will present here.

-- This disc will:

(1) Be in Widescreen 1.78:1 'Anamorphic' Video Format (you lucky 'boys without fathers' -- the Thailand edition I had acquired for my personal collection was presented only in 'full screen' format);

(2) Will have both 'Dolby 5.1 Surround' and 'DTS' audio options (again, you lucky 'fatherless offspring');

(3) Have Spanish and English subtitles (I guess that means everybody's still mad at the French?);

(4) Apparently will truly be a 'Region-1' disc, and not a 'regionless' import as I had originally feared.

So you lucky stiffs get to experience this movie with ALL of the advantages I don't get to have with my Thai import -- so youse just better appreciate it, ya hear?

And despite any preconceived notions one may have about this movie because of this DVD's being offered by the ''TLA Entertainment Group,'' rest assured that this is *NOT* a 'homosexual-themed' story! ''YEOGO GOEDAM'' (trans. "All-girls' School Ghost Story" -- aka 'Whispering Corridors') is yet another entry into the popular 'Asian Horror' nabemono pot with lots of those familiar creepy & unsettling elements you've come to love & expect from the genre. (Homosexual themes do not begin to be explored in this setting until the so-called sequel entitled ''MEMENTO MORI'' -- aka 'Whispering Corridors 2.')

An effective ghost story should have an air of mystery to it: why is there a ghost? What purpose does the ghost have in haunting a particular place or person? A modicum of pathos is also important for a truly emotional turn of the screw, as a ghost cannot only be vindictive or vengeful, but must have sadness about it; something that we can empathize with that will make the haunting all the more tragic, as well as spooky. Gore also must be kept to a minimum, as an effective ghost story relies on creating and sustaining a balanced mood of tension. Too much gore and the balance shifts into rapid moments of revulsion and anxiety, whereas a good ghost story relies on impression and subtlety, implying more than is actually shown.

Whispering Corridors is a ghost story that expertly balances social commentary regarding a South Korean girls' school (the why), pathos from the duality of the ghost as it moves between normalcy (daylight) and vengeance spirit (night), and the symbolic use of blood to tell a moving tale of loss, redemption, and continued loss.

It opens with our ghost prowling the girl's school grounds on a dark and stormy night (I know, but it was dark and stormy), ready to exact vengeance on a teacher that mistreated her. The teacher has discovered the ghost's secret, and thus seals her fate. The discovery of the murdered teacher is done with cinematic style; first showing the face of the student as she reacts to seeing Mrs. Parks' hanging body from a walkway, then showing the back of the student as she views the body, with her head blocking our view, and finally, the camera 'steps' to the left of the student, to show the hanging body in the farground, and the back of the student in the foreground, side by side. Other student's reactions are then shown in still shots as they come upon the body. Muted colors throughout the film lend a stark, rather cold aspect to the events that unfold in the girl's school, putting more emphasis on the callous indifference and mistreatment of the students and their emotional needs. The male teachers in the school come off being chauvinistic and condenscending in the all-girl classroom, and become violent toward the students with little provocation.

One teacher in particular, Mr. Oh (Mad Dog, as the students call him), with his stick and sarcastic and unstable temperament, reminded me of a math teacher I suffered through one semester with. He also carried a stick and whacked students at little provocation. Learning by intimidation and threat, whether in a South Korean all-girls school, or a North American all-boys school, is not conducive to a true learning environment. It is in this restrictive, competitive, and uncreative classroom environment that our ghost is born and haunts by day and by night; by day, as one of the students that has attended class for years without any teacher noticing her, and by night, as a vengeance spirit, murdering those teachers that mistreated her and any other girl.

Pathos is brought into the story by the ghost's need to be normal, to relive her classroom life again and again in hopes of getting it right. She does not want to hurt anyone, but those annoyingly vindictive and sadistic teachers keep mistreating the students, and thus bring about the vengeance spirit at night, to exact revenge. While the vengeance ghost appears only three times in the film, each occurrence is filled with supernatural events that build into a violent attack that is bloodily carried out, but not gorily so. Blood is used symbolically here, not for shock value, especially at the end, when the classroom becomes inundated with blood as the ghost finds release and stops her haunting.

I should point out there is a sequelization-antic (aka 'not over yet folks') used at the end of the film, but in this case, it fits perfectly within the logic of the story, and serves to heighten the tragedy that the film's social commentary is focusing on: how the South Korean girls school system is repressive, demoralizing, and, for some, downright fatal. How sad that this commentary can also be said for our own school system.

This movie is more than just a good scare. It puts into perspective the relationship between girls in an all-female environment. It's very competitive, it's very aggressive, but also very sexual. The plot gives an interesting twist to a lesbian relationship that is more than sex. It is more than attraction. It's obsession. It's completeness. The girls are part of each other. The Carrie-like ending is the climax of the jealousy and frustration. It really is quite a stunning movie, and it is beautifully shot (I'm thinking of the introduction scene for example). The diary is also incredibly beautiful. Really, a movie to see.

I went to see this movie in Korea thinking it was nothing, I got dragged there. It is set in a girl's high school, a girl dies and comes back to haunt the place. Really it is a social commentary on the way students, especially girls, are treated by teachers, especially male teachers. It has the added bonus of being a bone chiller, scared (...) me, maybe becuase I wasn't expecting it. Highly recommended on many levels, but be sure it has subtitles if you don't speak Korean.