Memento Mori (1999)
Director: Kim Tae-Yong, Min Kyu-Dong
Producer: Lee Chun-Yeon
Cast: Lee Young-Jin, Park Yeh-Jin, Kim Min-Sun
Running Time: 97 min.
Plot: A teenage girl finds the diary of schoolmates, leading to the uncovering of a secret relationship and supernatural repercussions. A teenage girl finds the diary of schoolmates, leading to the uncovering of a secret relationship and supernatural repercussions.
The producers of the sharp horror film Whispering Corridors made this nominal sequel with an entirely different group of filmmakers and performers. As usual, this turns out to be the best way to do a sequel, approaching the same concept from a very different angle.
Memento Mori is only nominally scary. It’s really more of a drama, with a great sense of ominous suspense. So not much is out-and-out frightening. But the whole thing is damn beautiful and, for the most part, bloody spectacular.
The film is, in flashback, a love story. Between two teenage girls. At an all-girls school. The girls sustain a lot of flack and ridicule from their peers. When one of them commits suicide, her spirit lingers around the school, causing mass hysteria, blood flowing out of the toilets, etc.
Obviously, the film is headed into relatively unplowed territory. It goes where few have gone before. And it goes there boldly. The girls’ love story is achingly beautiful, and the filmmakers cater their filmmaking style to perfectly capture the hysteria of adolescent life. Apparently, it was all thanks to extensive research, profiling many suicidal teenage lesbian girls in contemporary Korea-whatever the case, this movie does a great job treating a delicate, important subject with sensitivity and with vibrant style to match.
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