Whispering Corridors 2: Memento Mori (1999)

It wasn't scary and hella confusing

The movie is about lesbianism being a big deal causing shame and criticisms. The problem is I'm not really sure what kind of message this movie wants to tell.

I watched the first Whispering Corridors and everything was really confusing but the ending clarifies everything and the message was clearly conveyed. For the first 20mins, I actually thought it was better than the first one because the flow of events is logical and I was getting into it. The casts also started having more depth but suddenly it became blur because of the hallucinations and the timeline suddenly goes back and forth without specific reason. I was hoping that everything will be clarified in the end but I ended up more confused. I know that the Whispering Corridors series is not really a continuous story and it only continues with the same settings of all girls school and tackles a specific problem in the society but this one wasn't able to make enough impact to give it's message.

I commend the casts though, it was better than the previous. I was also shocked to see young Gong HyoJin and Park YeJin in this movie and they really grew up as a fine and great actresses of today.

For this movie, I don't really recommend it however my preference might be different from others. This is based on my personal preference and opinion only.

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It was refreshing to see the faces of well known actresses in their youth. In my opinion, younger actors/actresses seem to portray emotions a lot better than adults.

It is like reliving your own high-school experiences. Whether or not a person was the bully or the person that was being bullied, it is something each person can relate to. It is hard to juggle so many feelings at once when you are still in the coming-of-age part of your life.

So the question becomes, which path should you take? Do you follow what your heart wants or do what other people believe you should. As simple of a question that it is, it is a very difficult choice a person has to make. Especially when you are a teen.

The movie is not fitting of the horror genre even if there are very few elements to it. Romance, drama, mystery, tragedy. It is a sad love story. It flips between past and present.

There are some things which could have been left out but overall, the movie was pretty good. As a horror movie, definitely not. You can feel it is not one early in the movie. If horror is what you are aiming for, skip this movie.

I would have rated the cast higher but there is one character that just got on my nerves. Their actions never made sense. More so, they were always overreacting.

It is probably one of those types of series' I would put on back-to-back. I am a sucker for watching them all in one go. It does have an open-ending (don't consider that a spoiler) but there is enough information given throughout to know how it ends.

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WOULD BE BETTER, IF IT IS A SHORT FILM.

Usually, I write a Review only if my rating is 8 or above (rarely for a 6 or 7), describing how good the drama is n what I like about it but for the first time, wrote one for a 5.5.
I wanted to share what I don't like about this n for what I struggled to watch in this, haha

****
A Story of an Obsessive n Aggressive Teen Lover!
Plot is Good
But everything else is not interesting!

It's not the Usual Horror, it's more like a psychological horror, meaning Human thoughts (individual's or of the society affecting an individual) are the Ghosts here!

To be honest, the FIRST ONE HOUR of the movie is a complete waste of time, it didn't add much to the story (except few necessary scenes), most of it are just unnecessary content fillers.

Also, The NONLINEAR NARRATION added MORE CONFUSION to it and made me think what is happening n what the hell did the director actually want to tell.
(Non chronological narration works when there is no much unnecessary content filler , it doesn't work always)

The LAST 40 mins is the ACTUAL STORY and makes everything clear of what the director wanted to convey, haha
(God! Since I started watching, couldn't drop it :/
It would be much appreciated, if this could have been made into a short film)

It's about coming-of-age, teen taboo relationship in an all girls high school, unacceptable by the society (classmates n teachers) n the teen couple's struggles.

One is an obsessive lover n aggressive in nature. The other is not ready to open up bcz of her own fears.

(I didn't expect a love story of this genre, for movies in 1990s, really a bold step by the director n actresses )

How one of them suffered, bullied by her classmates about her sxl orientation, the other scared to open up in public and finally the first one, feeling rejected or misunderstood the other one's fear as rejection, took her life and took revenge on the society (school), which didn't accept their relationship, by creating a lot of Chaos.

This chaos in the climax, is where the horror element is shown.
Here it's just a chaos, sort of attention seeking from the ghost n so there are no murders by the vengeful ghost, like the usual Ghost stories.

****
What I didn't understand clearly is the necessity of male teacher - student (one of the FL) relationship track.
That didn't add any love triangle or that didn't create any disturbance between the teen couple or that rumour about that teacher n the gal didn't lead to her "ending".
But the actual disturbance between the teen couple is created by the societal alienation, their fears to face that pressure, avoiding each other and so the misunderstandings.
So whether that male teacher n FL track is included or no in the plot, her "ending" is inevitable bcz of that "misunderstood APATHY" from her girlfriend.
And so that "ending" for that teacher is also not necessary .

Anyways, sad love stories of the gals n the male teacher.

Even the gal's character, who is reading the teen couple's diary, maybe the director wanted to show that there is One person, One classmate supporting them - Good
But her DEEP INTEREST in the teen couple's relationship is unclear n UNNECESSARY - Why is she suffering, almost like the alive FL, when she is not even their close friend.
Sympathy n worrying for losing a classmate at an unexpected moment, that shock is reasonable but her horror experiences, those physical sufferings
really necessary!?
Anyways, maybe highlighted her character to add some Horror Activity (which is almost NIL in the movie, haha) n also to show that whoever reads their secret diary, has to suffer!

That teacher's track is more interesting than this diary reading gal, haha 😂
Maybe for more HORROR, they should have elaborated that teacher's track for a love triangle trope or to show some horror activity.

****
My Rating is only 5.5 / 10 .
Low rating exclusively only bcz of the unnecessary one hour in the beginning of the movie.
(Would be 5 / 10 but for the sad love stories, added 0.5, haha)

The story has a good potential even for a horror genre but wasted .

(I watched this just to finish this Horror Franchise, else would have skipped)

****
Check out my Reviews for other movies in this Franchise :)

Till now, in this franchise, Liked movies in the order:
1 > 2

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Sadly, this type of plot does not work well with a horror format. At least in the way it was presented.

Ignoring the unnecessary supernatural aspect of the movie, it's quite an interesting portray of the struggles and hardships of gay people in Korea in 1990', especially among teens.

The way the story is presented is simply confusing, though not impossible to follow. The timeline keeps changing, the flashbacks and current events are, at times, hard to distinguish from each other. Min Ah's deep involvement with the couple is also quite weakly explained.

The worst part of the movie is the last act. That's when the heavy supernatural elements are introduced and take over the story. And it makes the story feel so cheap. This movie would have worked so much better as a teen melodrama or coming of age.

I liked the acting in Whispering Corridors 2 way more than the first movie. It's more modern in style, and because of that, feels more natural.

Overall, I did enjoy it more than the first movie, simply because the topics discussed in here were more serious. I wouldn't call it an amazing movie, but I don't regret picking it up.

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