MEMENTO MORI

Directed and Written by Tae Yong-Kim & Kyu Dong-Min
Produced by Lee Choon-Yun
Cinematography by Kim Yoon-Soo
Music by Cho Sung-Woo
Cast: Kim Min-Sun, Park Ye-Jin, Lee Young-Jin, Hyo-Jin Gong, Paik Jong-Hak & Kim Min-Hee

1999/98 mins/Color/DTS
1.78:1 anamorphic/Korean/South Korea/NTSC Region 1

Review from Tartan US DVD

So Min-ah (Kim Min-Sun) discovers a shared diary of two her fellow schoolmates, Hyo-shin and Shi-eun. She is soon fascinated and intrigued by this rather unique and strange love story that she discover while reading the diary. As you can expect, such a relationship is forbidden. One day, one of the writer of the diary is found dead after what looks like a suicide. But what did really happen? Soon enough young So Min-ah start to feel an unpleasant presence around her.

Much like its prequel in name only, WHISPERING CORRIDORS (known as YEOGO GOEDAM in Korea), MEMENTO MORI takes place in a South Korean girls school. And unfortunately much like its prequel this movie is a huge letdown. Love, passion, lesbianism, condemnation, suicide and murder are all explored in this movie but in the end this movie was too teen girl oriented for me. Now, i've never been to South Korea but heard about how their school system is much different and strict then the ones here in North America. Maybe that didn't helped and that might be why I didn't get into the film at all. It sure looks like a radical commentary on South Korea's notoriously dysfunctional school system. Yet unlike WHISPERING CORRIDORS, this "sequel" looks pretty neat and features nice Argento-esque cinematography but in the end nothing really happens and you'll find yourself looking for the fast foward button.

Tartan Video US have released MEMENTO MORI in a nice DVD edition. The film is presented in its original 1.78:1 aspect ratio and it is anamorphic. The image looks terrific with rich saturated colors, deep blacks, blues and reds. There is no compression, artifacts or any default with the image. We get two audio tracks, one in DTS and another on 5.1 Dolby Digital. They sound pretty good, crisp and clear. We get optional easy to read English and Spanish subtitles. In the extra deparment we get an interesting 20 minutes "Making-Of" featurette which features lots of behind-the-scenes footage, clips from the movie and interview with the directors and cast. There's the usual "Photo Gallery" with stills from the movie, promo images and sketches. Also we get a music video that features scenes from the film. And finally trailers for other Tartan Asia Extreme release for WHISPERING CORRIDORS, PHONE, KOMA, A TALE OF TWO SISTERS, HEROIC DUO, MEMENTO MORI and OLD BOY. The movie is separated in 16 chapters, comes in a keep case which itself comes in a paperboard package. The disc features animated menus with music and four pages booklet.

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Review by Kim Dubuisson. All Right Reserved. 2005. ©

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