Yeogo goedam II

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.

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

Rating: 6 of 10 stars Genre: Horror, Drama. Scare Factor: 3 of 10 Acting: 5 of 10 Story: 5 of 10 Nation of origin: South Korea Viewed on: Tartan Asian Extreme DVD Video Format: Widescreen Audio Format: 5.1 DTS

"Memento Mori" is the second of movie in the "Whispering Corridors" trilogy. I wasn't all that crazy about "Whispering Corridors" but I thought I would give this a shot (as I'm sure I will give the third in the series (named "Whishing Stairs") a try once I can get a hold of it. "Memento Mori" really had little if anything to do with "Whispering Corridors" and could be watched by itself. "Memento Mori" like many Asian movies time warps back and forth throughout the course of the movie making it, like most Asian movies, more confusing than need be. It however doesn't spin and twist so much you can't follow it.

If you simply accept the fact that "Memento Mori" isn't a movie with any horror value I think you will find it somewhat enjoyable. Despite some extremely slow spots I never really felt unattached to what was happening which is a positive change from "Whispering Corridors". The story itself was nothing special however and wasn't one that I was really curious about what was going to happen next.

This film was quite disappointing really. Not much happens in it, and it certainly wasn't very scary at all. The freakiest thing in the film will be the fact that the diary was very densely written in, and it reflects a very obsessive personality of the writer. At the beginning, the intrigue of the diary barely keeps you on your toes, and as the film dragged on, you just start losing any other interest in it.

Acting was pretty OK, but by no means amazing. I guess the film does reflect on the compulsiveness of the characters within it - this is the only interesting bit I think.

If you wanted to see a film scarier than this, and leave you with something to think about, I suggest 'A tale of two sisters' instead.