MEMENTO MORI DVD REVIEW

Todd asked me to review a film that many consider a classic of pan-Asian horror, the South Korean Memento Mori. Set in an all girls high school this latest release from Tartan's Asia Extreme label explores ideas of acceptance and human community set agianst a backdrop of gossip, suicide and ghostly visitation.

MEMENTO MORI
Tartan Asia Extreme

The title of this South Korean film translates “Remember the dead.” Since Tartan has seen fit to remember Memento Mori it’s worth noting that many people consider this film a classic of pan-Asian Horror. I reserve my judgment about that but I am glad to have seen this highly unusual strangely compelling if flawed film that tells the story of a doomed love affair between two teenage boarding school students and the ghostly tragedy that follows the discovery of their illicit relationship.

Love and hauntings go hand in hand. Whether in cinema or some other story form it’s difficult to imagine one without the other. Love must have the power to haunt to provide emotional resonance. This is precisely why, in Church circles, you’ll here people describe their pre-Christian days as being Christ haunted. They had a sense of a power strong beyond death reaching out to them. Conversely, hauntings are, more often than not, based on the tension of betrayal. A promise has not been kept, something true and noble and sacred has been violated, spoiled; madness and death result.

Before launching into a full-scale review of the film it’s worth noting this about South Korean cinema. I’m no expert but have encountered enough Korean melodrama to offer the opinion that it’s lost on me. Oddly I feel like it has less to do with my Western cultural roots and more to do with my age. Memento Mori is clearly aimed at a youth audience and features an almost entirely female cast. In short, the film takes place in an emotional atmosphere that’s more akin to Soap Opera’s or the WB than this 39 year-old white western male resonates with. Melodrama has bad connotations precisely because it is larger than the real life it imitates. But what saves Memento Mori from it’s own touchy feely sensuality is the way it’s larger than life moments provide a metaphor for teenage emotional life. Didn’t high school stink? I wouldn’t go back if you paid me and Memento Mori offers a compelling look at why.

A student named Min-Ah discovers a diary kept by two of her friends and while reading it realizes that the pair are involved in an illicit romance. Her interest turns to obsession after one of the pair commits suicide - or does she? As the investigation gains momentum Min-Ah begins to experience strange phenomena around the school and layer after layer of faculty and students secrets are exposed.

Ostensibly Memento Mori is a ghost story, which would seem like an automatic qualification for the horror genre but while I would call this a horror film it is far more nuanced than those who want big scares and gore will want. Instead the more mundane but no less powerful horrors of everyday gossip, judgment and alienation gradually take over the lives of everyone in the school. In the end the film emerges as more of a visual meditation than a coherent narrative. Memento Mori is nightmarish leaving a sense of innocence that’s been lost but withholds the ultimate sort of judgement that often accompanies the genre.

The recent announcement of a six disc set of this film being made available in Region 3 format gives this reviewer serious pause especially in light of where this review is published. As Memento Mori stands the viewer is given more than enough to understand and empathize with it’s characters. Rumors that the new much, much longer cut includes a number of sexually explicit scenes may excite fanboys but undercut the real reasons to see this film. The boom of Pan Asian horror has been the result of horror fans around the world encountering intelligence, sensitivity and craft in the work. And whatever the appeal of the Japanese School Girl Uniform Memento Mori transcends it solidly.

The extras on the disc include some behind the scenes footage, a music video and a photo gallery. I confess I'm starting to grow weary of the lack of audio commentary's offered from Tartan. This is stuff that should be contextualized for it's audience by scholars fans etc.

Dave Canfield