Customer Reviews

Memento Mori

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Memento Mori is an inventive horror story with a delicate touch as it deals with Min-Ah who finds a somewhat disturbing diary in her school for girls. The diary is written by two students in the school, Hyo-Shin and Shi-Eun, who both are seniors. On the very same day that Min-Ah comes across the diary Hyo-Shin commits suicide for some unknown reason. The death of Hyo-Shin leads to multiple rumors among the girls in the school, which induces mass hysteria and depression among the school girls. However, Min-Ah discovers something much more mysterious as she continues to read the diary that seems to enchant her. Passionately Min-Ah begins seeking the truth behind Hyo-Shin's demise, and the road to the truth seems to be a very dangerous path. Memento Mori is a film that displays the joy of film making as it tells a complex coming of age story, which offers a truly great cinematic experience.

This is a quirky little story about a group of girls in an all girl's school. The movie contains elements of horror that appear in the last act but they fail to frighten and really are more of the ghostly bump in the night variety. Less horror than supernatural goings-on that could just as easily have been left out of the story.

I went into this movie expecting horror and got a story about close friends and sometime lovers at an all girl's school and what happens both after and before a young girl commits suicide. The story is fairly involving and I had no problem sticking around to the end but I can't recommend it as strongly as the other reviewers. It was okay. Frankly the story could have been told without the strangeness and it would have been more effective. The horror elements were pretty limp and were not central to the story.

Memento Mori, aka Yeogo Goedam II, is an in-name-only sequel to a film by the English title, Whispering Corridors. Although this film bears no real connection to the first, they share a common theme of supernatural happenings in a girls' school. Additionally, both are horror films with strong character exploration. In my opinion, Memento Mori far exceeds the enjoyable Whispering Corridors.

A high school girl named Min-ah finds a very elaborate and colorful diary belonging to two of her classmates. She is fascinated by the contents, and the way it is put together. This is no ordinary diary. It doesn't just open one way and read left to right. There are nooks and crannies everywhere, and words going in every direction. At first, Min-ah is interested, faking sick so that she can learn more about the special bond these two girls share. Until the diary takes over her mind and seems to inspire hallucinations.

This movie is excellent all around, but my personal preferences dictate that the best thing about it is the fact that it portrays a part of school life that I will henceforth refer to as "that day." I'm not talking about anything so obvious as that day your lesbian lover "outed" you to your classmates by bringing you milk (that's so GAY!) and then kissing you on the mouth in the middle of school (not THAT gay--we've all done that). Nor am I talking about that day your roommate inexplicably committed suicide (and you learned that, sadly, that automatic 4.0 thing is just an urban myth) and started possessing everybody at school. I'm not talking about either of THOSE coming of age milestones, because, although they are also portrayed in Memento Mori, they are such obviously universal themes that they have been ingrained into collective consciousness in films too numerous to list. "That day," which is only portrayed, thus far, in Memento Mori, is much more obtuse than that.

"That day" is the day of school where they take all the girls into one room and make them stand around in their underwear. (This is an all girls' school, but if you went to a co-ed school, which I did, they separate the boys from the girls. You just know that the boys are somewhere doing some wild partying while you're standing in your underwear, suffering.) They check your hearing, eyesight, check for scoliosis, check your height and weight, and yell it out in front of everyone, so the whole class knows how how short, fat, and hunchbacked you are. Of course, I was, like, the coolest kid in school, so I never had that problem. (Although, in Memento Mori, when one girl identifies another as "the class nerd," her friend replies, "Really? I heard it was you! Real nerds never know they are." This movie really opened my eyes. Is it possible that all those years, I was not as popular as I thought I was?!?) And I know boys never went through this, because when I try to describe this scene to them, they never know what I am talking about. Somebody should make a movie about what the boys were doing while all of this was going on...

I was pretty impressed by all of this, because I have never seen a film portraying "that day" in any genre before. So the coolest thing about this horror movie is not that it is particularly scary, but for portraying "that day" of pointless humiliation...did you ever stop to wonder why the school even needed this information? Isn't it common sense that students would be getting taller and heavier with each passing year? Why check for scoliosis, and not TMJ? Isn't it a doctor's job to do physical exams? Does the school just like the fact that they don't have to adhere to those annoying "medical privacy" rules? Hmm...upon further reflection...I guess this movie is a lot scarier than I thought it was.

Something else very significant occurs on "that day" as well. (Something much more significant than having your height and weight broadcast to the student body, but in my opinion, something much less scary.) One of the students who kept the elaborate diary is found dead, apparently from suicide. Rumors begin to fly about what happened, why, and even if there is a reason why she chose "that day" to take her own life. One girl speculated that the girl was afraid people would find out she was pregnant, and so she killed herself before being examined. (Do you need further proof? "That day" should be abolished!)

Min-ah continues to read from the shared journal, and her visions become more intense. She witnesses scenes from the past, and seems to be visited by the dead girl, who wants her diary back. Now that's the part that gets me, though. If she really didn't want people reading her diary, why would she make it so colorful and elaborate and tempting? If you don't want someone looking into your private stuff, write your diary in a plain brown notebook with a no. 2 pencil. It's very easy to see why Min-ah would take the diary in the first place, and why she would continue reading even after her visions began.

The horror doesn't really get started until the second half, but the buildup is very effective. The relationship between the two girls, as well as the way the class sees them, is very well realized, and interesting to watch, even when it isn't scary. The biggest complaint about horror is that it's all shock and quick jumps, and not enough plot and character development. This one has so much character buildup, that it may seem like two completely different movies stuck together. But the two styles flow well into each other. And if more horror movies used character like this, Memento Mori wouldn't feel so unfamiliar.

Whispering corridors was credited with being the beginning of the Asian ghost story boom, it was an extremely successful movie in it's native Korea, so like any American horror movie a sequel was guaranteed. Unlike most American horror movies(except maybe Halloween 3, but who pretends that turd exists anyway?) it really has barely anything to do with the original- enter Memento Mori(remember the dead). This is part of a trilogy ending with The Wishing Stairs that only have in common the fact that they all involve ghosts and all take place at all girls schools. Other than that, they have different casts,plots,directors, best boys, whatever. The setting makes for intriguing insights and if Wishing Stairs continues in this vein(I haven't seen it yet) Im excited to see what new angles to humanity at large it has to discuss. Whispering corridors toyed with the notions of friendship and authority, Memento Mori goes further by exploring sexual confusion and love. Presenting an unorthodox relationship in an extremly orthodox place. As a drama, it exceeds Corridors, as horror it mostly falls flat.

The story focuses first on Min-ah, a young, popular school girl who follows the status quo of doing what would be considered cool until she stumbles upon the diary of two of her fellow students(the boyish Yoo Shi-eun and the sultry Min yo-shin) and upon reading, discovers the two are secret lovers. The story of how the girls became lovers is told in flashback and thats how the audience gets to know the characters mostly. Min yo-shin has a secret that nearly destroys her relationship with Yoo shi-eun, but the real nail in the coffin of their young love is pounded in when the girls mutually decide to "come out" so to speak, but Yoo shi-eun doesnt have the courage and turns her back on Min yo-shin, leading to a series of events that fall somewhere in the realm of whispering corridors and Carrie.

The film itself frustrated me greatly in that I think it would have served itself better as a drama. Most of the Ghost action takes place an hour into the film and only a few of the scares once all hell breaks lose register. What made this movie for me was the way the girls relationship is portrayed. It has a delicacy and a sympathy with the main characters that doesnt cheapen or betray the love story as alot of gay -themed movies tend to do. The fact that these girls are lesbians only really gets mentioned once, in all other references, it's an afterthought. Their relationship is shown as pure and innocent. They are simply two people in love and these scenes show a depth and an understanding of trying to keep a relationship together under difficult circumstances. The film goes above and beyond Whispering corridors as far as honestly portraying characters with depth and the conflicts young people face with a welcomed lack of preachiness and the performances hold the film together showing noone as two dimensional. If it would have stuck to that, it would have been perfect, but this being an entry into the school girl asian horror trilogy, the story turns into the classic ghost revenge story towards the end and that's where it lost me a little. Dont get me wrong, the first few scare moments really do work and any revenge tale is fun to watch, but as the film rose to a huge climax, it lost some of the emotional intensity that it had been building. Min-ah's role in all of this was tantalizing though as you begin to wonder (along with her) if she's falling in love with Yoo shi-eun. No questions are answered easily and that's fine, but as the movie climaxes, the chill factor steadily diminishes and this segment is the only point at which whispering corridors is the better movie. Its climax kept the creepy vibe going and also held onto the emotional sensitivity it had established where Mori loses its grip a little in trying to have its cake and eat it too.

Bottom line, this film is a beautiful look at love, relationships and rejection in a society that considers it all taboo, but slips a bit when it turns to full fledged ghost story. Its still recommendable though just for the sake of seeing a young couple rendered with such respect and sensitivity.

Memento Mori (Remember the Death) is a great horror flick. I would love to go to school for all girls in SK. Anyway, I just wanted to say that this movie is a must see! Buy it!

This is one of my FAVORITE Whispering Corridors stories because it takes things and plays with them, leading you to wonder what exactly has happened. Sure, it looks like one thing happened but, really, has it?

The story focuses on a book that is found, a diary, that records a love affair between two females. The two that are involved are an odd match but the book they make - it is amazing. I cannot pu this too lightly because this prop is one of the things that makes the story work - if they had one I would by it simply because it grasps at you and holds you tightly.
The problem here is that something happens and, out of that something, a suicide comes. The problem is that the death seems a little off and, frankly, nobody knows exactly what has happened. Was it love that drove this? Was it hate that drove something else? Or did it not have a driver and walk an even more crooked path?

I really like the stories that take place at the girl's school and i liked this because it had so much to give. The relationship seems so realistic to me and, for a while, I wanted to grasp the two character's hands and say "thinks are fine, you know?" That's the mark of good acting and good storytelling - i felt for these people and I wanted them to beat the odds. Everything hinged on this one book i mentioned, too, one with secrets layered uon secrets. It made everything seem beasutiful and it made you feel for the people playing here.
I want success and the death - it hurt in some ways because it was suppose to.

As far as a horror movie, you are looking at something more ghostly than ghastly and that is how the stories here exist. Is that bad - not at all. what it is actually sits upon an axis of interest, turning and making me really feel when something comes down. Then the plot twists, the world turns, and you wonder what is what.

If you want to check out the Whispering Corridors stories, they work differently and do not have to be in orde.r You have a reference or two in one movie but, other than that, it isn't something you need to carry a compendium just to recall all the ups and downs. I loved this one out of all the others - i know i said that - but it was because this was a horror that had something else in it. The love in it was not twisted or ugly; it was beautiful and taboo perhaps, butit felt real enough.
Watch it - you'll enjoy the showing.

Memento Mori (Tae-Yong Kim and Kyu-Dong Min, 1999)

There's a shot about halfway through Memento Mori that should tell you that this is not your average horror film. It's a chase scene, albeit a fumbling, amateur (from the POV of the characters, not the directorial intent) one; Min-ah (Min-sun Kim) is pursuing Shi-eun (Young-jin Lee). We're not entirely sure why-- to confess that Min-ah has Shi-eun's diary? To express her sympathy for Shi-eun's loss? To confront her for some other reason? We don't know. What we do know is that the camerawork makes this as earnest and thrilling a chase scene as one finds in any Dirty Harry or Steve McQueen movie. As with those sorts of chase scenes, Min-ah gets to the point where the two corridors the girls have been travelling meet, and of course Shi-eun had vanished. But what really caps the idea that this is not your average horror movie is a shot that comes later, where Min-ah, now fleeing, takes exactly the same route backwards. We don't see the whole thing again (whether for the sake of artistry or because the editors were a little cut-happy), but we see enough of it, with the same basic camerawork, to be assured that there was more than a little thought that went into putting these two scenes together. That, of course, is synecdochic of the care that went into the entire film; even in the generally high-quality Asian horror market of the past twenty years, that sort of eye towards shot composition is rare.

The second film in the loosely-aligned Ghost School trilogy, and the most earnest of them, Memento Mori, when it comes right down to it, is a horror flick in name only, and is the kind of thing that America's really kind of forgotten how to do in the aftermath of the slasher-mania of the eighties: it's a "horror" movie about the psychological aspects of being a social outcast. Imagine if Boys Don't Cry had been a horror movie (in the conventional sense), and you've got the idea. According to the trivia section on IMDB, "The directors wanted to make a supernatural tale without ghosts or scary scenes. But the producer refused the idea and they had to add some ghost scenes."

...In other words, it really could have been Boys Don't Cry.

Hyo-shin (Yeh-jin Park) and Shi-eun are classmates at an exclusive girls' school. Their friendship develops into something more, a situation unspeakable in the confines of the school's culture. Annoyed by the rumors, the two decide to make their relationship public. Shi-eun, unable to take the pressure, breaks off the relationship; Hyo-shin commits suicide in response. Or does she? Rumor has it someone else was on the roof with her. Soon after, Min-ah finds the diary that Hyo-shin and Shi-eun wrote together at school, and quickly becomes obsessed with it; is Hyo-shin's ghost planning to use Min-ah as a convenient tool to get back at her killer, or is a more earthy nemesis trying to drive Min-ah crazy?

A lot of stuff happening here, and as a great deal of it is told in flashback (the movie begins with Min-ah finding the diary), it can get quite confusing at times. Once enough of the plot is revealed to give you a more complete picture, however, you can start seeing that there's a really, really good meditation on love and loss sitting under the hood here, even if it is masked by producerial interference that resulted in some seriously cheesy special effects. The best of the Ghost School movies. ****

I'm pretty sure there are very few korean films with a focus on a lesbian couple... Considering that, the movie is enjoyable with good acting and a sweet little hidden relationship that turns dark. For me, most asian movies tend to have their moments but never really tie it together in the end... In this case it feels like there could have been more, something more full circle. ***THE KICKER is that some scenes were cut out of the movie, including a bathtub scene, But there is a (Korean ver. only) 6-disc special edition of this movie available for about $49-60 online with many extras and special packaging which I DO give five stars.

As others have mentioned in their reviews, "Memento Mori," is the second of a three part Korean trilogy: which are in no way related to each other. The first being "Whispering Corridors," and concluding with "Wishing Stairs." I agree with the viewer below [EVAN HARRIS] that this film would have been better served had it remained a drama. However, the film was not; and thus lost what I believe would have been a better film. Nonetheless, some viewers may like this film. The film is more-or-less a drama with horror thrown into the film. Not heavy horror however.

The film centers on a student named Min-ah (Min-sun Kim) who happens to find a diary in her girls school. When Min-ah reads the diary she discovers that there is a love relationship between two of the schools' students: Hyo-shin (Yeh-jin Park) and Shi-eun (Young-jin Park). Also, one of these young women will commit suicide on the day Min-ah discovers this diary. Learning much about the relationship between these two students, Min-ah is pulled into her own little nightmare. The diary has some of sort of a hold on Min-ah; and the films narrative is told in flashbacks as she reads this very colorful diary.

Moreover, the films story relates the relationship and love affair between Hyo-shin and Shi-eun; and Min-ah discovers what exactly drove Hyo-shin to commit suicide. We see the love these two students have, and what they share with each other. Personally, I really did not think this was a great film as many have. It was an average film, definitely not horror, however, it may appeal to some viewers. I really believe this film would have been better served as a drama had it not included the horror element that the director and screenwriters decided to go with. I recommend the film with caution. Rent it first. It's not bad, but it's not very good either.

Memento Mori, as a sequel to Whispering Corridors, ditches the grainy, atmospheric feel of a gloomy autumn for a slick-looking summery feel. It may be incongruous with the nature of the film, but if it were to be shot exactly the same as Whispering Corridors then I would moan.

A lonely student at an all-girl Korean school finds a diary out in the schoolyard and is sucked into the world of the soon-to-be dead who has left behind. The film jumps around in time as the girl reads stories from the diary. A think a lot more could have been done with this concept since it has so much potential. But the film seems to take place all in a couple of days. Which doesn't give it enough of a change to develop. However, the version I saw was the 99-minute version of the film and since there is a 186-minute cut out there it may well contain a helluva lot more interesting story.

I didn't have a lot of trouble keeping-up with the characters this time though, but the story still seemed kinda incomprehensible. The flashbacks to the past could have been made a little bit more obvious.

Aside from this, it's an enjoyable time-waster.

The DVD is in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen with Dolby/DTS 5.1 sound.