Memento Mori - Gedenke des Todes

In a Korean high-school, the teenagers Hyo-Shin Min (Yeh-jin Park) and Shi-Eun Yoo (Young-jin Lee) are lesbian lovers that decide to write a diary together and expose their love to their schoolmates. When Hyo-Shin has one night stand and gets pregnant of a depressed teacher, the love of Shi-Eun dies and she breaks up with Hyo-Shin leading her to commit suicide. Shi-Eun's classmate Min-Ah So (Min-sun Kim) finds and reads their diary, disclosing the innermost secrets of the two lovers, and becomes obsessed for Shi-Eun. When a close friend advises that Min-Ah would die because she was reading the diary of a dead girl, she wants to return the diary to Hyo-Shin.

"Memento Mori" is an intriguing, tragic and eerie love story, with a confused screenplay. The plot is built like pieces of a puzzle, but without chronological sequence, and in the end there are many parts without explanation that I have really not understood. I saw in IMDb that there is an 186 minutes running time director's cut version where probably I would find the resolution of my questions, but unfortunately I have just found the imported DVD with 97 minutes. In the end, this film is a good supernatural romance but not recommended for fans of the traditional horror genre. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): Not Available

I saw this movie after having seen the first and third installments (except for a common setting at an all-girl Korean school, the three have no plot connections). While I found the first film uninspiring and the third yet more uninspiring, this one was actually pretty engaging.

As other reviews have noted, there is not much here in the way of horror or scares. There are some horror elements, but the film is more successful when it focuses instead on character development and on unfurling its back story (largely through flashbacks, which can sometimes confuse the narrative a bit). The acting is good as a whole, and most of the minor characters seem fully-realized, resulting in a film that has a rich setting behind it.

There are some bad sides to Memento Mori. As mentioned, if you come in expecting a Ju-On-ish scare-fest you will be disappointed. Some of the scenes towards the end (in particular, one involving mayhem and panic at the school) dragged on a little long, and began to nag at my suspension of disbelief. I didn't find the ending to be terribly satisfying, either--it wasn't terrible, but I wanted a little bit more.

Overall, though, this is an enjoyable film, one that inhabits its small world completely and doesn't try to be more than what it is.

Fans of the original "Whispering Corridors" will be disappointed to learn that this is a sequel in name only; it shares absolutely no connection with the original movie apart from its title. The story tells of a girl, Min-ah, who finds a diary kept by two lesbian lover classmates at her boarding school - and soon begins suffering from strange hallucinations whenever she reads from it. Shortly after, one of the lovers is found dead and it's up to Min-ah to discover whether she killed herself or whether someone murdered her; before her spirit returns to the school for revenge.

"Memento Mori" is a wonderful movie, but it isn't an out-and-out horror flick as some have suggested. It's actually a cross between "The Virgin Suicides" and the original "Whispering Corridors", ie. a school ghost story ridden with teen love and infatuation, and the result is a beautifully crafted dreamlike feature which is a true delight to watch.

Acting is phenomenal from all concerned, with the actress playing Min-ah using a wide range of skills to play the different states her character finds herself in to perfection. The directors do a commendable job, too, even if their choice of camera angles is sometimes confusing - and the storyline occassionally lacks a clear narrative - I haven't enjoyed a Korean movie as much as this for quite some time.

Basically, "Memento Mori" is excellent from start to finish and seamlessly blends horror, suspense and romance to create a truly unforgettable feature. You'll need to think about some plotpoints carefully in order to fully understand what's happening - but it's totally worth the extra effort. Highly recommended. ****.5 / *****

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.

Although the Korean name for Memento Mori would lead you to believe it is a sequel to Whispering Corridors, other than the setting, the two films have very little in common. Having seen the first film is not a requirement to see and enjoy this film. The story in Memento Mori involves a love affair between two students at an all-girl's school. One of the girl's, for various reasons, can't take it when the other girl "outs" their relationship and decides to break things off with tragic consequences. A third girl finds the diary the two girls wrote together and, through its pages, begins a horrifying journey to understand what happened to her classmates and how one of them could end up dead.

Regardless of how Memento Mori has been marketed to American audiences, it's not a horror movie. Instead, it's a poignant look at young love and the consequences taken to the extreme of a relationship that doesn't work out. Sure, there are moments of terror to be found in the movie, but even in what should be the final chilling moments of the movie, the horror is never as front and center as the drama. It's not a movie for those who demand a new adrenaline rush every five minutes. Memento Mori moves slow and allows you to get to know the characters, their fears, their problems, and to really develop a sense of caring for them.

I haven't rated the movie any higher because this type of film and this subject matter don't appeal to me on an entertainment level regardless of how well made the film is. As with the majority of the other Asian films I've seen recently, Memento Mori is technically very sound. The direction and cinematography are solid. The movie presents numerous uniquely filmed scenes that really standout. Although the special effects are used sparingly, they are very realistic when employed. The music is fitting for a movie like this. And the acting is rock solid.

One question that has bothered me after having recently watched both Whispering Corridors and Memento Mori is: Do teachers in Korea really treat their students in the manner presented here, with physical and emotional abuse? I'm not saying it's right or wrong, it's just now what I'm accustomed to seeing in teacher/student relationships.