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Antarctic
Journal |
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Song Kang-Ho and Yoo Ji-Tae wonder what's in the Antarctic
Journal.
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Year: |
2005 |
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Director: |
Im
Pil-Sung |
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Cast: |
Song
Kang-Ho, Yoo Ji-Tae, Kim Kyung-Ik, Choe Deok-Moon, Kang
Jye-Jung |
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The
Skinny: |
A team of explorers encounter various mishaps in the
South Pole. Are their troubles psychological or supernatural?
Sadly, it doesn't matter. Although the filmmakers should
be commended for trying to do something different with
the increasingly formulaic subgenre of "Asian Horror,"
the film itself fails to provide any real scares. |
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Review by
Calvin
McMillin: |
Asian
horror takes a break from haunted houses, possessed
video tapes, and killer cell phones and goes straight
to the South Pole in Antarctic Journal, a disappointing
commercial picture that can't decide whether it wants
to be a psychological thriller or a straightforward
horror movie. The filmmakers try to create a tension
between both explanations, but instead, the end result
comes across as muddled and decidedly tame.
The movie centers on a
six-man expedition team looking to reach Antarctica's
Point of Inaccessibility, a near impossible place to
reach and the plot's de facto MacGuffin. Led by by Choe
Do-Hyung (Song Kang-Ho, from Memories of Murder
and The Foul King), the team is made up of, what
else, a ragtag group of explorers. They include everyman
Min-Jae (Yoo Ji-Tae, from Old Boy), the bespectacled
navigator Young-Min (Park Hee-Soon), Seong-Hoon (Yun
Je-Moon), Geun-Chan (Kim Kyung-Ik), and Jae Kyung (Choe
Seok-Moon). Everything is going fine until the team
stumbles upon a makeshift flag planted in the snow.
Buried beneath that flag, Min-Jae discovers a tattered
journal left by a British expedition team some eighty
years in the past. Only a few pages a readable, but
there are some spooky drawings that not only point to
the fate of the British crew, but eerily parallel the
mishaps affecting the Korean team in the present day.
In fact, the journal might as well be the demonic Book
of the Dead because from that point forward, IT ALL
GOES TO HELL for our hapless heroes.
Thanks to the journal,
all sorts of strange things start happening: ghostly
images appear in videos, the men are plagued with strange
visions and dreams, and one crew member gets sick even
though there are no viruses in the Antarctic. To make
matters worse, while pushing his team to reach their
final destination, the relentless team captain seems
to be haunted by something from his past, something
that just might kill them all. And that's when people
in the crew start disappearing. Clearly, things are
not going to end well for these guys.
Antarctic Journal
marks the feature length directorial debut of Im Pil-Seong,
who in terms of sheer theatrical spectacle makes quite
a splash with this film. The main problem, however,
is that this big-budget production lacks a certain clarity
of vision. There are certain sequences early on that
would lead audiences to believe that Antarctic Journal
will be a Korean update of John Carpenter's The Thing
or, at the very least, an example of Asian horror transplanted
to an exciting new locale. But just as soon as these
ghostly occurrences are established, it seems the filmmakers
want the movie to be a more intimate, character-driven
psychological thriller about how pride, paranoia, and
fear can break out among a "family" under both intense
mental and physical duress. Both the psychological and
more straightforward horror dimensions could have existed
in the film simultaneously in a more compelling way,
if not for a few puzzling narrative choices.
For example, Choe Do-Hyung
is shown to be a man haunted by something in his past,
but whether this haunting is a literal ghost or a psychological
projection of the man's deranged mind is a question
that goes unanswered in the film. Normally, this sort
of ambiguity would be fine, but the problem is that
many times certain supernatural occurrences are shot
not from the subjective viewpoint of a character, but
from a viewpoint that no character could possibly have
(e.g., at one point a ghostly hand appears on a video
recording), thus creating the impression that these
hauntings are not hallucinations. However, even if the
ghost is real, its origin has no connection to Antarctica,
and doesn't explain why the Korean explorers are undergoing
basically the same tragedy that befell the British explorers
back in 1922. Instead of crafting a variation on Stephen
King's The Shining in which ghosts (or memories
and alcoholism, depending on your interpretation) push
a relatively sane man over the edge, director Im Pil-Sung
confuses matters in Antarctic Journal by presenting
an inconsistent point of view.
For some, this kind of
attention to detail may not be necessary; they may find
Antarctic Journal to be a suitably frightening
cinematic experience. Certainly, the filmmakers should
be commended for trying something different with "Asian
Horror," since the film's icy, desolate setting does
create a unique sense of fear and isolation that helps
the overall story. In the end, my feelings about the
film seem to parallel the Korean crew members' thoughts
about the expedition itself: while awe-inspiring and
certainly unique, Antarctic Journal itself amounts
to a monotonous, repetitive, and ultimately futile journey.
(Calvin McMillin, 2005) |
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Alternate
Review |
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Review
by Kozo: |
Im
Pil-Sung's Antarctic Journal looks like it's
headed somewhere. Unfortunately, looks can be deceiving.
The tale of six Korean explorers out to reach the Antarctic's
fabled "Point of Inaccessibility", Antarctic
Journal certainly starts with some promise. Im introduces
the six-man team led by veteran explorer Choe Do-Hyung
(Song Kang-Ho), as they enter what looks to be a fulfilling
trek through the Antarctic snow. But things go bad.
Hints and clues begin dropping in that this is a doomed
journey, the ultimate harbinger being the discovery
of an old journal left by a similar British expedition
decades ago. The journal is left in the care of young
Min-Jae (Yoo Ji-Tae), and it actually contains clues
of a possible bad ending for the previous explorers.
Do people read closely and take heed? Nope. They push
forward, through bad weather and increasingly worse
luck. Something's gotta give, and it does.
Unfortunately, that something
may be audience patience. Antarctic Journal is
well-made and possesses the immersive buildup of a psychological
horror gem. The problem is that it ultimately heads
nowhere. Clues are dropped that there's something alive
and supernatural at work, but nothing is explicitly
revealed. Even worse, a lot goes unexplained. Blood
is spilt as the expedition gets more harrowing - but
the reddest thing about the movie has to be all the
damn herrings. Are there ghosts, past sins, or maybe
even something far worse at play? Maybe,
but the filmmakers seem to think that the ride is ultimately
enough to compensate for whatever questions don't get
answered. There's intriguing and even disturbing human
horror at work, and Song Kang-Ho is very effective as
the increasingly loopy captain. But despite the slow-burn
descent into hellish happenings (things go bad, but
the team HAS to reach the Point of Inaccessibility),
nothing about Antarctic Journal feels necessary.
When the final message is revealed, the likely response
is probably, "Duh!" Such inevitable darkness
should feel as if it could really occur no other way.
Sadly, Antarctic Journal doesn't feel inevitable.
It just feels depressing. (Kozo 2005) |
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Availability: |
DVD (Korea)
Region 3 NTSC
EnterOne DVD
2-Disc Limited Edition
16x9 Anamorphic Widescreen
Korean Language Track
Dolby Digital 5.1 EX
Removable English and Korean Subtitles
Various Extras |
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