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So what then are the chances that it would be in and of the title of not one, but two of the best films released this year?—the Christopher Nolan directed Memento and the Korean ghost story/mystery/lesbian romance Memento Mori, also known as Whispering Corridors 2. (According to IMDb, there is not much, if anything, shared between this and its Whispering predecessor except for the titles.) Schoolgirl Min-ah (Kim Min-sun) stumbles upon a beautifully creative diary abandoned on the campus. Voyeuristically, as she becomes involved in the events transcribed into the book, she also becomes very curious about the couple itself—Shi-eun (Lee Young-jin), a star athlete and her once-secret, but now publicly-know girlfriend Hyo-shin (Park Yeh-jin ), a poetic and pensive beauty. Writers/directors Kim Tae-yong and Min Kyu-dong try to match the elegance and elaboration of the diary in their narrative technique of flashing back to the past to witness segments and events during the couple’s relationship without announcing when it is a flashback and without announcing when it is over. It therefore doubly serves to key-in Min-ah to what happened to them in the past, explaining why they aren’t together any longer, and to build and establish the young lovers and their history for us. Min-ah has her own clique (one of the characters, Ji-won, is skinny and flat-chested, and always seems to be getting chastised about one thing or another humorously), but once Hyo-shin randomly commits suicide by jumping from the roof of the school, Min-ah tries to offer her friendship to the distressed and beleaguered Shi-eun as she copes with the love that didn’t work and with the knowledge that Hyo-shin had also been having an affair with her male counselor. Nothing stays simple in life as a teenager, so add the ghostly menace of Hyo-shin to haunt Min-ah and Shi-eun first, and then the entire school. To some people’s disappointment, Memento Mori is not a heated lesbian romp, though one would certainly find the relationship between the two girls as passionate. The tale is very alluring, extremely mesmerizing; from the first scent, it will completely enrapture and toy with your fear factor. Memento Mori is scary and brilliant in a whole other way than the following film reviewed, Audition, as the levels of fear and horror bifurcate into separate and distinctive genres. Memento Mori is frightening in the way The Others or The Sixth Sense should have been; as the waving tendrils of the plot spin and whirl and flap in unpredictable and asymmetrical patterns, there are any number of subtle scares, shivers, surprises and tingles that quickly arouse goosebumps. The twisting, bending and blending narrative is never confusing or disorderly, but works advantageously to keep the viewers aptly attentive—this strict guideline is easy to abide by especially since what lore it conjures and whips up is so persuasive and absorbing from start to finish. The supernatural and lesbianism certainly make for an interesting and strange combination, but they are two freshly melded ideas that shed the moldiness of when they are separate and nondescript in most cinematic treatments presently. Memento Mori works as soundly as crafted clockwork because all of the inner and outer responsibilities of the film are stabile and callused for maximum potential. Tae-yong and Kyu-dong have achieved an awesome collaboration, working tightly on the story and on their direction. Everything is as clear and precise as it needs to be within the storyline while still allowing it to maintain a fair share of ambiguity and forthcoming benefactions. There is some wonderful camerawork honed—clear, crisp and solicitous dexterity in the matriculation of images—with the exception of some trendy bleached and metallicized hand-held shots, but credit is due to whomever was responsible since IMDb doesn’t have the additional listings and the studio supplied no supplementary information. The film is furthermore made airtight by the stunning debut performances by all three of the main girls. Young-jin, Yeh-jin and Min-sun are all so much more capable and qualified to deliver believable and startling performances than American actresses like Kirsten Dunst, Katie Holmes and Mena Suvari. It helps that these young Korean actresses are unfamiliar to our dishabituated and discriminatory minds, but these girls also have what you call real, unintimdating talent; there are not just mere passages and moments that the young actresses impress and work with a consciouslessness and unaffected persona, but they are the characters. They are faced with a challenge and live up to it. The only challenges that the three aforementioned American actresses regularly face is whether or not to do nudity, and/or how much cleavage and bust will be required for each successive role. However, the film’s best performance comes not from one of the main three girls, but from Paek Chong-hak as Ji-won. Nothing left as deft an impression as my amazing discovery (well, more so Tae-yong and Kyu-dong’s discovery) of Chong-hak, who, while she doesn’t possess any stirring physical prowess of sexiness and attractive looks, her very natural appearance, uninhibited charm and actualization of the character and her flaws and traits makes her role the most meaningful, even if most unintentional. Memento Mori is definitely one of this year’s best released films, and the spell it casts, the haunt it ensures, is not one to quickly be forgotten or dissipated. I hope to see all of those involved in this in something sooner rather than later.

Final Verdict: A.

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link directly to this review at http://www.efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=5537&reviewer=172
originally posted: 09/29/01 01:01:11
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