MEMENTO MORI
*** out of *****
Reviewed by Finger_Of_DOOM

Genres
Drama
High School
Horror
Romance

1999
Written and directed by
Kim Tae-Yong
Min Kyu-Dong
Cast
Min-sun Kim .... Min-ah
Yeh-jin Park .... Hyo-shin
Young-jin Lee .... Shi-eun
Jong-hak Baek .... Mr. Goh
Min Han
Seung-Yeon Han
Min-hie Kim .... Yeon-an
Hyo-jin Kong .... Ji-won

Over the last few years I've been getting into more and more films from Korea. It seems like the Korean film industry is growing larger every year. With quality product such as Old Boy, Joint Security Area, and Sil Mi Do, among others, it's easy to see why their film industry is doing so well.

Memento Mori was a film released in 1999, it was a film that I'd heard a lot about but never had the opportunity to see, so when given the opportunity to review this new Ultimate Edition I jumped at the chance. Memento Mori tells the story of a young school girl, Min-ah (Min-sun Kim), who inadvertently discovers a diary while getting a drink of water at school. Driven by curiosity, she takes the book and begins to read through the private writings and thoughts of Hyo-shin (Yeh-jin Park) and Shee-eun (Young-jin Lee). The diary has been shared between the two girls and Min-ah discovers that their friendship is much more than just that, there is more going on between these two girls. This suspicion becomes solid when she inadvertently hears the two while in the school's medical room.

Hyo-shin is depressed, and she eventually kills herself by jumping off the roof of the school. Her sudden death causes a series of bizarre occurrences that are directly linked to the diary. Slowly the school's sterile environment becomes a carnival of the grotesque and morbid, Min-ah comes to realise that these events are coming to life from the pages of the diary; "Memento Mori" means "remember the dead".

For the first half of this film I wasn't exactly sure what I was watching, it seemed like some television drama about two young girls in love, one whose depression caused her to commit suicide. But once Hyo-shin kills herself the film takes a more macabre turn. The second half of the film is almost unexpected and certainly feels a little out of place, Initially I thought that this film's hyper-clean look was a let down for a horror that was supposed to evoke fear, but after viewing the film several times it makes sense to give the film a TV drama feel, because once the horror kicks in you don't expect it. The juxtaposition of the school’s strict rules, pristine white hallways, and the film's horror moments work well to shock the audience and make one feel uneasy; the goal of any good horror film. However, I did find that the first half of the film takes a while to set everything up, the film does tend to drag, and once we are into the horror segments they are over quickly, not allowing the audience to adjust to it. Perhaps a creative decision to keep you on the edge at all times.

Upon first viewing I did find myself a little lost with the story, I wasn't exactly sure whether the timeline was fractured in the storytelling; it seemed that Min-ah found the diary after the fact (of Hyo-shin's suicide). However, after my second viewing it was evident that the girls were all at the school at the same time. It may take you a few viewings to get your bearings straight in the first half of the film, something that was a little frustrating.

Although the film is effective in its scare value, I wasn't convinced that the performances were all that great. The casting of the girls was well done, however it felt too much like a television mini-series rather than a serious film, especially in the classroom scenes. It's evident that the directors Kim Tae-Yong and Min Kyu-Dong had a lot on their hands having to deal with an entire cast of teenage girls.

Overall, Memento Mori features some standout moments of shock, but the film’s slow first half pace does hurt it a little as does the choppy acting. These minor gripes aside the film is a rather effective drama/horror.

Finger_Of_DOOM's reviews also appear on DVD Compare, where they include details of the DVD release. For this review click here.

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