Memento Mori (1999)

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

MEMENTO MORI is a South Korean ghost story and follow-up to the similar WHISPERING CORRIDORS, although the two films are unconnected in terms of plot. They're both set in girls' boarding schools and involve similar situations with female bonding and sadistic teachers, but there the similarities end. While watching MEMENTO MORI, it soon becomes apparent that this is an extremely atypical horror film: it's more of a touching, tragic love story between two lesbian school friends rather than anything else. It turns out that the director had no desire to make a ghost story featuring any of the traditional ghostly stuff from Asia, but the producers forced him to add some ethereal menace to appeal to the ready fan base.I found the film to be one of two halves. The first forty-five minutes is stodgy, dull and slow: it's a depiction of school life full of interchangeable characters and unappealing sequences. I found little to keep me watching, but persevered nonetheless and was rewarded by an improved second half, which actually features intriguing plotting and some intelligent, well-filmed moments. The ghostly stuff is kept to a minimum other than in a few situations, and it works better that way. It's not a film which I can actively describe because doing so will spoil it; but if you're looking for an unusual take on a usually familiar genre then this might be up your street.

In the 1990s, a strain of cinema came out internationally that played fast and loose with structure and time. Most of the names connected with that movement, Tarantino and Nolan among them, are American, but it could also be seen in the international realm, as indicated by this South Korean film. Memento Mori is actually a pretty basic ghost story built on guilt and grief, but transcends the genre through digital video techniques and a lot of creepy ambiance.It's set in a girls school where hormones run rampant and can barely be contained within the walls. Two girls, Hyo-shin and Shi-eun, spark a friendship and then a relationship, writing it all down in a shared diary that is later found by Min-ah. After Hyo-shin kills herself, though, things go quickly awry, and figuring out what is going on is put secondary to the emotional trials the girls have to go through, both individually and as a school.Now not everything in this movie works, but the whole is definitely better than the sum of its separate parts. The watery imagery of the beginning sets a tone but doesn't actually come to mean anything to what happens later in the movie. The two girls, apparently, have ESP, but it's not really indicated for what purpose other than that it helps them communicate without others listening. There's this strange shot of the dead girl staring from the roof down on the panicking school that's not nearly as effective as the flash of judgment in her eyes right as her body is found outside. Some moments are legitimately creepy beyond typical horror tropes, such as the hands going over Min-ah's body, whereas others are clichéd flashCUT! shocks that have less resonance than the cut piano wire. In terms of building suspense, this movie is all over the place, and yet overall it is a chilly and atmospheric shocker that will more than keep your attention.Fans of the Tartan Asian Extreme label will definitely enjoy it, fans of Korean cinema should definitely check it out, but I'm not too sure everybody would like this one. I wish more focus was put on the internal world of Shi-eun, who is losing her hearing and feels the most alienated from the day-to-day life of the school. Her story was a lot more interesting than Min-ah's, and her guilt much more emotionally compelling than the thrill-ride it causes.--PolarisDiB

I have to admit that this one got past me almost completely. I had genuine trouble following it. It takes place in a Korean girl's boarding school. One of the students finds the diary of a dead girl. (That diary is great, a creative collage full of hidden pills, mirrors, strange powders, odd sayings, including the eponymous Latin expression.) Another girl jumps to her death for reasons we don't know. The girl who finds the hidden diary swallows a pill from it, follows clues, discovers a veritable treasure trove of similar goods secreted in the bottom of an upright piano by the dead student. Among these items is another pill -- "This is the antidote. Take it if you trust me." She takes it, feels unwell, flops on a couch, the camera bores into her pupil, weird events take place for the next half hour, the camera removes itself from her aqueous humor, the weird events continue anyway, it rains a lot, students run around in an overhead shot looking like streams of ants, the face of the suicidal girl appears gigantically above the skylight in the gym like Woody Allen's mother in "New York Stories." I got the girls mixed up and had a difficult time telling them apart, especially when they are shot from a distance or upside down, as happens from time to time. It's almost the case that they all look alike. They're all kind of pretty. They dress the same. They all have lank long black hair. Their voices sound identical. They're built alike -- gangling, narrow-shouldered, small-bosomed, slim-hipped -- their slender legs ending in clumsy black boots. And although they are in their mid-teens, they have the restless magic energy of children. They run around, shrieking and playing grab ass everywhere they go.When the movie was over I felt as if I'd just stepped off a souped-up merry-go-round, exhausted and a little dizzy.All that confusion aside, which may reflect lacunae in my interpretive apparatus, the story plays true. With a couple of exceptions -- profanity and pregnancy -- I could believe this is how girls might act in a place as alien to my sensibilities and experience as a Korean girls' boarding school.The intentionality behind the film is a very feminine one. Whoever was involved in putting it together understood girls. It's loaded with intrigues, jealousy, the uncovering of secrets, and worries about physical appearance. Teenaged boys have the same concerns of course, but probably not to the same extent. If this were a story about boys there would be more open arguments and fist fights.There's a homosexual element too. It isn't just friendship. One of the girls is clearly in love with another and there are hints of other affairs. But I'd hesitate to call it lesbianism. It's situational homosexuality, the kind you find in prisons. The girls have lost none of their femininity and one or more of them appears to have had an affair with the teacher -- handsome, young, very fortunate Mr. Goh.What "horror" there is, is slapdash and confusing. It would probably have been a better story of the horror had been either hinted at or eliminated entirely, and the narrative hung entirely on a few well-differentiated students.I gather that others have found this really entertaining, so I wouldn't discourage anyone from seeing it. It's not my bowl of bul-kogi but it might be yours.

The best high school movie I've ever seen. This is so superb. The acting of Lee-young Jin is very superb and brilliant, also Kim min sun and Park Yeh Jin. The camera work is very stylish and authentic. The ghost scenes are well shot. The school scenes are brilliant. The atmosphere is just pretty awesome. I first watch this film at cinema, but it seems like no Philippine release...This is the first Korean movie I've seen. And after I saw it, I start to like Korean films. This film is really excellent.I recommend this film to anyone who loves Asian films.10/10