H K the forbidden super-hero

Title - H K the forbidden super-hero
Language - Japaneses
Genre - Super-Hero, comedy 

















 The H K stands for Hentei Kamen meaing Pervert Mask.  

Hentai means pervert and used to describe pornographic animation and comics in the west.

Kamen means mask and is associated with Japanese superheroes such as Kamen (masked) rider and the power rangers.   

Kyosuke Shikijo’s father was a good police man and his mother was a dominatrix.  His father died threes after meeting his mother and Kyosuke spends a lot of his time alone.  when he does see his mother she is normally on at him for not having a girl friend.  when a cute new girl, Aiko starts in his class and becomes the manager of the schools martial arts club Kyosuke becomes besotted with her but he doesn't know how to ask her out.  Whilst he is walking home he passes a bank that is being robbed and notices that Aiko is one of the hostages.  Deciding he has to do something to help Kyosuke breaks into the bank to try to help Aiko.  He defeats one of the robbers and decided to disguise himself as the robber so he can get close enough to help Aiko.  Distracted by this thoughts of Aiko he picks up a pair of women’s pants instead of a mask and doesn’t notice until he has them on his head.  He’s about to take them off when he realises how well they fit and how much he likes it.  Disgusted by this he feels guilty and this triggers the perverted dna he inherited from his  mother and this causes him to transform in the Hentai Kamen.  Kyosuke stops the bank robbers but Aiko is torn she likes Hentai Kamen but she also sees him as a pervert.  This upsets Kyosuke as Aiko is still not interested in him.

As Hentei Kamen, Kyosuke starts to clean up the streets but a new menace enters, Tamao the leader of the local Karate team is intent on taking over the school because he believes that there is treasure buried somewhere under it.  Foiled by Hentei Kamen, Tamao hires a number of assassins but they all fail, until a fake Hentai Kamen appears and takes Aiko.,

H K The forbidden Hero is a parody of modern superhero movies it opens with pages of a manga flickering just like the Marvel comic movies.  The character of Kyosuke is similar to that of Peter Parker (Spider-man) in his everyday life or Dave Lizewski (Kick-Ass) in the way he wants to help and protect people.  Like both characters Kyosuke is a bit of a loser, he can’t get the girl and he’s not strong  enough to help when he sees people in trouble.  The parallels with other superheros is quite apparent especially with  spider-man there is even a scene where Hentai Kamen is swinging around the town like spider-man, the only difference is that he uses bondage ropes instead of webbing.

Part way through the film Kyosuke has a crisis of faith about his alter ego, this is a theme that is popular in other modern superhero stories, both spider-man and kick ass think about giving up.  Only in Hentai Kamen’s case it’s because he’s worried he is becoming a pervert.  This brings up a point, Kyosuke is concerned that he’s becoming a pervert, Aiko is torn because she is falling for Hentai Kamen but she is disturbed by his behavior and the fake Hentai Kamen revels in the guilt he feels.  Kyosuke has to decide whether there is anything wrong with what he is doing.  Is there really anything wrong with being a pervert.

You can not take Hentai Kamen seriously, which is a good thing.  The acting is over the top (especially Kyosuke’s mother), the action good and the costumes are great.  I have to admit i laughed a lot but i think you do need a certain sense of humor.

Ghost School / Whispering Corridor's overview

I have recently watched and review the 5 films that make up the Whispering Corridors/ghost School series of films  and thought that i might also look at the series as a whole.

The series consists of 5 films (at the time or writing), these are:

1 Whispering Corridors

2 memento Mori

3 Wishing Stairs

4 Voice

5 A Blood Pledge

The 5 films come from Korea are separate stories with different characters and can be watched in any order but, they are connected by certain themes and plots;

All the films are are set in an all girls school, it is never said whether it is meant to be the same school but it does look like the same buildings are used in some of the films.  The girls in Whispering Corridors walk past the steps that are used in Wishing Stairs.

There is always at least one ghost but the reason for the hauntings and how the ghost appears differs.

The main protagonist are a group of two or three girls normally with one other who wants to join the group or be friends with one of the other girls.

The narrative of the films focus more on the relationships of the living girls than the ghost.  Even ‘Voice’ which starts by having one of the main characters killed off and trying to work with her friend to find out what happened ends up focusing on the living lead and a new friend.  As part of the focus on the character's relationships  we see that there is always two of the girls who have a close relationship some of whom can been seen to lovers.  These relationships often play a  big part in the focus of the narrative and, even though i can’t think of a part in any of the films where it is shown/stated that any of girls are lovers there are often rumours going around the classes and it is often these rumours that act as a catalyst in the films.  Most of the time the effects of the rumours are bad, they either drive a wedge between the girls or lead to one of them being ostracised from the class or group.  In ‘A Blood Pact’ the rumour is spread about one of the girls being pregnant and even though the rumour turns out not to be true (or at least about the wrong girl) it is still shown to cause grief and problems for the girl.

One thing that stood out to me about the handling of the relationships is that they were done well.  Some of the girls have very close relationships and it would have been very easy to show this with some kind of physical device like kissing or even sex.  Unlike some movie's I don’t think the inclusion of a sex scene would have done these films any damage but the fact that the relationships are shown to be so strong with one is a good thing and even when a relationship does get physical it is always as part of the story and, again nothing is ever shown and only referenced when needed.

The films don’t shy away from things like bullying and abuse and the different films it can take and the feel of these seems to change as the films go one.  In the first two films there are abusive male teachers one of whom has a relationship with one of the girls but the later films have less of this.  I’m not sure if this was something that used to happen and has been phased out as attitudes changed in the real world but it does seem to be something that may have influenced the earlier films.   The abuse of the girls is not solely down to the male teachers.  In ‘A Blood Pledge’ we have one of the girls beaten by her dad because he thinks she is worthless. In ‘Wishing stairs’ one of the things shown is a mother pushing her daughter into something she doesn’t want to do (Ballet) because she never had the chance to do it when she was younger and in ‘Memento Mori’ a friendship is broken up by a teacher because one girl could do better but is being held back because her friend is different.

The films also show bullying, normally caused by the main characters classmates when they see that one of the main cast is different.  normally because of how close two of the girls are but also if one of the girls is seen to be different like in Memento Mori.  In ‘A Blood Pledge’ we also see one girl picking on the others in the group because she is weaker and how the whole pledge is set up just to get rid of one rival.

The ghosts are more than just a your normal horror villains.  They are rounded characters who, in some cases were members of the main group when they were alive.  They differ from ghosts in other movies because they are not just revenge driven.  It’s true that some of them are out for revenge but there are other motivations as well.  The films do not necessarily go for the big scares although the ghosts can be scarey.  The films play on some of the tropes for instance there is a scene in ‘Wishing Stair’ where one of the girls climbs through a window, she is on all fours with her hair over her face, the scene is reminiscent of Sadako coming through the T.V. in ‘The Ring’.  The ghosts intentions are not always evil but their presents causes problems and their methods are not always the normal way.  Some of the behavior of ghosts is explained in ‘Voice’.

The interesting thing about the ghost, especially in the first 3 films is that they are not always necessary as a lot of the ghosts  action  is phycological.  I did read (but not verified) that the ghost in ‘Memento Mori) was never meant to be seen and was only put in because it was felt that people would not like a ghost film with no ghost in it.

The Ghost School films are good but I did have a problem with them and that is that they are not linea.  This is especially true of Memento Mori and Voice.  Memento mori is told via a lot of flashbacks but i found that it was hard to tell when the flashbacks were happening.  The voice is split into 4 days but the days are not shown in order and are also separated by the credits running.

The Whispering Corridor / Ghost school films are a good set of films that tell emotional tales and also feature ghosts.  The stories are well thought out even if a couple of them seem to come across a bit jumbled due to their non linear nature.  The are not played just for scares but, in the context of the film it’s not necessary.  The films don’t go over the top on the gore but again this is not necessary, if there is a need for blood than there is blood.  For the most part the ghost are not monsters they are like a lot of J & K-horror ghost that people (in the west) will have seen, that is pale people with black eyes  like Sadako.

If you are looking for gory, slasher films then the whispering corridor / Ghost school films probably aren't for you although it may be worth giving ‘A Blood Pledge’ a watch. If you are looking for something different with a good story then give them a watch.

A Blood Pledge

Title - A Blood Pledge (whispering Corridor 5, Ghost school 5)
Language - Korean 
Genre - Horror, Ghost
















 A Blood Pledge is the 5th film in the Whispering corridor’s / Ghost school series.

This time the film is set in a catholic girls school and follows 4 main protagonists:

Eun-Young

Soy

Unjoo

Lee - Eugene

and a fifth character, Jung-Un who is Unjoo’s sister.  These are the names of the characters as they appeared on the subtitles on the version i was watching but when i have looked on IMDB and Wikipedia some of the names are different, in fact the names are different on Wikki to IMDB so I’ll keep using the names from the DVD.

The film starts with Eun-Young, Soy & Eugene making a suicide blood pact saying they will all kill themselves and, if one doesn’t go through with it then they will be cursed with death.  The ceremony is interrupted by a knock on the door and we later find out this is Unjoo who joins the pact.  Unjoo is the only one of the girls who goes through with the suicide.  Unjoo’s sister is waiting for her and is the only witness to  Unjoo’s death.

Rumours start going around the school about Unjoo jumping because she was pregnant (which it turns out she wasn’t) and the other girls were present when she jumped.  Eugene, who is the leader of the girls first denies any of their presents but eventually tells people that Soy was there.  People start to believe that soy had more to do with the suicide, a point which seem to made more true by Eun-Young’s increasingly strange behaviour.

As the film progresses we learn that Soy & Unjoo used to be inseparable friends but Unjoo became friends with Eugene and was accepted into her friendship group.  Eugene only let Unjoo join them because she was trying to get her away from Eun-Young because soy was now dating Ki-Ho who was Eugene’s ex.  To make matters worst Soy was the one who was pregnant with Ki-Ho’s baby.  as the film continues Unjoo’s ghost stalks the corridors making the blood pact come true.

Out of the 5 films I found that ‘A Blood Pact’ was one of the easiest to watch.  The story was told in a mostly linear fashion with any flashbacks made more obvious.  I think that the setting of a Catholic school also helped as some of the symbolism and references are present in western culture.

A Blood Pact has some of the themes that run through all of the Ghost school films but, instead of focusing on the relationship between to of the pupils it took a small group and looked at how one incident (Soy’s relationship with Ki-Ho) could change the dynamics of it.  The group is also used to power, Eugene tries to use the suicide pact to get revenge on Soy, planning with Eun-Young that they don’t jump.  Even when the plan goes wrong and Unjoo dies Eugene tries to take control of the situation by firstly letting the class know that Soy was on the roof with Unjoo and then later by trying to fake Soy’s suicide.

A Blood Pledge is more like a modern ghost story than the other films, it still has the same feel as the other films but the ghost effects are are more gory but, like the others it does not go for the horror as much as the story

A Blood Pledge is a strong film with good characters and a strong story and well worth a watch.  

Voice

Title - the Voice (Ghost School 4, the whispering corridor 4)
Language - Korean
Genre - Horror, Ghost

The voice is number four in the Ghost school/Whispering Corridors film series and this time around we follow students in a music class and school radio.  As with the previous films we primarily follow two friends This time they do appear to be just friends and not lovers.  The two primary characters are:

Sun-Min who is the lead anchor for the school radio station

Young-Eon - the top singer at the school

there are also three other secondary characters of the music teacher, Hyo-Jung and Cho-Ah

The Voice is split over four days and a few flashbacks but is shot in a nonlinear fashion in a similar vein as the second film Memento Mori although I did find that it is easier to follow.

The film starts with Young-Eon singing and Sun-Min recording her.  The pair are supposed to be going out with some friends but Young-Eon stays behind to practice some more.  After Sun-Min leaves someone else enters the music room, Young- Eon can not see her but she is chased out of the room towards the elevator.  She turns to try to see who her attacker is but is hit in the throat by a page of sheet music.  Young-Eon then wakes up in the music room.  Thinking it was all a dream Young-Eon heads through the school but she soon realizes that no one seems to see her.  She finally realizes what has happened when she stands under a leak in the roof, the dips just pass through her.  Young-Eon tries to go for help but finds that she can not leave the school, whenever she attempts to go through the exit she is turned around and finds herself back in the lobby

Whilst this is going on the school day has started, Sun-Min is annoyed that young-eon has not replied to any of her calls but she becomes concerned that Young-Eon has not turned up for any of her classes.  Sum-Min goes to the reception to see if Young-Eon has contacted them about not being in and she is told that it is the anniversary of Young-Eon’s mothers death.  The faculty have assumed that Young-Eon is paying her respects.

Whilst trying to find out what is happening Young-Eon is approached by another ghost, Hyo-Jung who starts telling her that it was Young-Eon who pushed her mother off the hospital roof and that she had also killed the previous music teacher.  Young-Eon doesn't believe this and runs of.  She finds Sun-Min and discovers that she can hear her, Young-Min manages to convince Sun-Min that she is real and asks for her help.

Sun-Min meets another student, Cho-Ah who can hear not just Young-Eon but other ghosts that are in the school but, instead of helping helping Sum-Min she advises her to not to pay attention to Young-Eon.  At first  Sun-Min ignores this advice and tries to help Young-Eon to find out who Hyo-Jung was and why she is tormenting Young-Eon.  Things start to get strange and Sun-Min goes back to Cho-Ah for help.

One of the main themes of the Voice is coping with the death of a friend and letting of of them.  Cho-Ah tells Sun-Min that she is the one holding Young-Eon back and stopping her from going to the afterlife.  She also tells her that a ghost will be able to communicate with someone they has a strong bond with in life but, if that person stops listening to them then they will lose this link.  as the film progresses Sun-Min goes from the comfort that Young-Eon’s ghost givers her to realizing that she is better off without her.

A second theme seems to be individualism or personality.  We have Sun-Min not only growing as she copes with the loss of Young-Eon but making new friends.  We also have  Young-Eon’s struggle as she tries to discover the truth in what Hyo-Jung tells her.  we are told that a ghost only remembers what it wants even if it’s not true so we are never sure if Young-Eon did kill the people we're told she did. The distress that the wrong memories cause, in the living and the ghost’s is shown by Young-Eon talking about the times when Sun-Min went to her house, this never happened and it does make Sun-Min doubt if the ghost is Young-Eon

The voice is different than the previous 3 films in that we know who the (main) with in ths in the first 10 minutes if the film but as the film goes on the ghost gets less and less of a problem.  the other 3 films do not introduce the ghost to us properly until the second half of the film with their threat growing until the point where it needs to be stopped.

As i said earlier The Voice is not linear which can make it sometimes hard to follow.  Although it did seem to flow easier than Memento Mori the story was broken up by the credits which started to roll on a couple of occasions. I think this was meant to help separate out the days but it did lead to some confusion.  

There seemed to be a few unanswered plot points in the film and for the most i think it was done deliberately as they really didn't matter to Sun-Min in the end.  The topic of the voice seemed unresolved.  Sun-Min discovered that Young-Eon & Hyo-Jung both had the same singing voice, it was even mentioned that Young-Eon sounded differently when she sang before she was killed, at the end of the film we see Young-Eon pleading with Sun-Min to help her find out what it means but by this point Sun-Min had already started to ignore her and left her in the corridor leaving a plot point that was referred to quit a bit just left open.  This does push home how much Sun-Min has change and how the problems of the ghost have nothing to do with her.

We also can’t really know who killed the music teacher or Young-Eons mother.  Even at the end when we see Young-Eon and Sun-Min discover the teacher we have already been told that it it a case of the time of Wolves and dogs, in this context meaning that you still can’t tell the truth from the lies (of fake memories). The only things that seem certain is that Hyo-Jung was jealous of Young-Eon’s relationship with the music teacher and there is no evidence that Young-Eon was any way in love with her.  All these false memories and lie’s  may just be a way to get Sun-min to keep talking to Young-Eon.  In the beginning Sun-Min is talking to Young-Eon to help get over her disappearance, at one point she even says that she doesn't believe that Young-eon is dead because there is no body but, as time goes on and especially after the body is found Sun-Min starts to go back to normal life so Young-Eon tries to pull her into the mysteries (and danger) to keep her with her.

The dangers that Young-Eon leads Sun-min to are also symbolic.  The longer Sum-Min is talking to Young-Eon the more impact it has on her real life, this is show by the reaction she gets when she is talking to Young-Eon.  Most of the time Hyo-Jung interacts with Sun-Min also seem to be an attempt to stop her from talking to Young-Eon and push her away from the ghosts.

The voice is a good watch, the fact it brakes down the days  helps with the non linear nature  of the film and the fact that half the things that happen don’t really lead anywhere means that you don’t miss much.  I think a second  viewing may uncover more things but the film is enjoyable any way.

Wishing Stairs

Title - Wishing Stairs (Ghost School 3, Whispering Corridors 3)
Language - Korean
Genre - Ghost, horror

Wishing Stairs is the third film in the ghost school.  This time around it focuses on the pupils of a ballet class. The film follows 3 students:

So-Hee, who is the top dancer but who has been pushed into dancing by her mother who is, it is hinted, living through her.  

Jin-Sung is So-Hee’s close friend, possibly her girlfriend, her dancing is not seen as being as good as So-Hee’s but she is more driven.  

Hae-Ju is the class misfit, she is overweight  and clumsy which leads to her being mocked by most of the class, she spends most of her time in the old art room.

The film really starts with So-hee going to the art room where she finds Hae-Ju. The two girls talk and So-Hee is kind to Hae-Ju, this is something Hae-ju is not used to  and she starts to develop a crush on So-Hee.  Hae-Ju starts to become fed up with the insults and wants So-Hee to pay her more attention, desperate she decides to see if the urban legend is true.  The legend states that, if you climb the  old stairs that lead up to the dormitories and you have a strong enough desire in your heart a new step will appear, if you stand on the step it will grant your wish.

After standing on the 29th step Hae-Ju wishes to be thin and, over the next few days she begins to lose weight although her appetite seems to increase.  Whilst this is going on as a side story the main part of the film concentrates on So-Hee and Jin-Sung.  During the class it is announced that there is to be a dance contest where each school can enter students and the winner will be granted a place at a high ranking Russian Ballet school.  The school can only afford to enter one student and so has it’s own competition to see who will be sent altho all the teachers and students know that it will be So-Hee.  So-Hee is not interested in the competition but she is being pushed into it  by the teachers and her mom.

jin-Sung on the other hand wants to win but she is also of the assumption that So-Hee is going to get the prize, this assumption is made worse when she overhears one of the teachers talking to So-Hee and telling her that shes all but won.

After seeing that the Wishing step had worked for Hae-Ju, Jin-Sung use’s it, wishing that she will be the one to go to Russia.  The day of the school competition Jin-Sung puts glass in So-Hee’s shoes but So-Hee still wins the competition.  Jin-Sung and So-Hee get into an argument which ends when So-Hee accidentally gets knocked down a  flight of stairs, injuring her and opening up her pace in the  main competition for Jin-Sung.  Soo-Hee dies in hospital but Jin-Sung is interested in winning the competition to pay much attention, this turns the rest of the class against her as they blame her for So-Hee’s death.

By this time Hae-Ju’s infatuation with So-Hee has reached a high level due to the students still mocking her about the amount she eats. Hae-Ju returns to the   wishing step and asks for So-Hee to be returned to her.  So-Hee’s spirit returns and uses Hae-Ju to help her get back at Jin-Sung.

The main focus of ‘Wishing Step’ is ambition and the effect it has on the people around you.  although it’s only mentioned So-Hee’s life is being pushed in a direction she really doesn’t want to go firstly by her mother who is trying to achieve her life's goals by living through So-hee’s success and then by her teachers who are pushing her towards the competition and the Russian school when So-Hee is not really that interested a point that is pushed forward when she tells Jin-Sung that the thing she wants more than anything is just to be with her.

Jin-Sung is the one with all the ambition, her skill in the dancing may not be quite as good as So-Hee’s but she has the drive.  Her drive is further pushed by the treatment So-Hee gets by the teachers who seem to giver her special treatment and this blinds Jin-Sung to So-Hee’s true feelings both towards the dancing ad to Jin-Sung.  The blindness leads to jealousy which leads to Jin-Sung not only try to cheat by putting glass in So-Hee’s shoes but to also make the wish which resulted in So-Hee’s death.

Hae-Ju’s ambition is  not academic.  She wants to be accepted even if it is only by one person and this is why she becomes fixated on So-Hee once she has been kind to her once.  It is not that there was any fixation or attraction to So-Hee before any of this started  but the one act of kindness played on Hae-Ju’s mind and developed into something a lot stronger.  When everyone believed that Jin-Sung had killed So-Hee to get her place in the competition Hae-Ju saw it as even more of a problem, So-Hee had shown Jin-Sung the attention that Hae-Ju had wanted and had rejected it which had then pushed Hae-Ju over the edge.

It is also not obvious if the step has any actual power.  Hae-Ju does lose wait but we see that she is carrying pills around with her  and her attempts to hide them show that they may be diet pills and it may be these coupled with Hae-Ju being sick after eating that may have led to the weight loss.

Jin-Sung only gets through to the main competition because So-Hee fell down the stairs and she got the place in Russia because she is a good dancer, So-Hee fell down the stairs as an accident brought on by Jin-Sung’s jealousy and all of this would probably have happened even if Jin-Sung had not made the wish.

this leaves the ghost, So-Hee’s ghost was around before Hae-Ju made the wish, we know this because she visited Jin-Sung the night she died.  For most of the ghost’s interaction with Hae-Ju we don’t see So-Hee and when we do only Hae-Ju sees it.  what we do see is the ghost in the mirror talking Hae-Ju into making herself look more like So-Hee (a process that may already have started when Hae-Ju had started to lose weight) and then we see Hae-Ju switch between being Hae-Ju and So-Hee.  This could be down to either So-Hee possessing Hae-Ju which is what Hae-Ju believes or it could be that Hae-Ju is having a break down.  Whatever the case it is evident that So-Hee is still not interested in Hae-Ju as her actions are all directed at getting Jin-Sung to stay with her.

Out of the three ‘ghost School’ films that gone so far Wishing Stairs is the one that most (western) people would recognize as a ghost film, whispering corridor has more of a slasher feel to it and Memento Mori is more of a psychological film. the film plays on this fact most people who see it will know it’s a ghost film and may be waiting for the jumps.  In one scene So-Hee climbs in through Jin-Sungs window unexpectedly and the set shows her as many J-Horror ghosts are shown, only to see that So-Hee is alive and well.  This scene is mimicked later in the film when So- Hee is dead.

Wishing Stairs, like the other films in the series takes it’s time into building up to the ghost and the horror, spending a lot of time on  developing the characters and, like the previous two films it’s worth staying with as it seems to be the best so far.  It does not have the confusion of Memento Mori and is more of a ghost film than whispering corridor.

Memento Mori

Title - Memento Mori (Ghost school 2 or Whispering Corridors 2)
Language -  Korean
Genre - Horror, ghost

Memento Mori is the second film in the ghost school series of films, the first being Whispering Corridors but, like all the films in the series, it is not a sequel.  It has the same setting of an all girls school, it focuses on the relationships between some of the students  and teachers and there’s a ghost but it is a different tale with new characters.

Memento Mori was a hard film film to follow as it it is not linear, the story follows events that happen in the present but is also interspersed with flashbacks.  The main problem with this is that it was hard to tell when it switch from one to the other.

The film starts with Min-Ah, one of the students at the school who seems to be obsessed with a diary she is reading.  The diary was written by two other students, Hyo-shin and Shi-Eun and most of the film follows their relationship both through flashbacks of Min-Ah (and later Shi-Eun) reading the diary and of what is happening in the present.

Memento Mori starts by setting what the school life is like, the classes are chaotic and the girls all have their own groups of friends, the teachers have trouble keeping the classes under control.  Min-ah has a group of friends but she seems to be drawn to the diary and after Hyo-Shin’’s death she seems to  become increasingly obsessed with Shi-Eun.

While Min-Ah has the diary we follow Shi-Eun & Hyo-Shin’s from their getting together through their coming out and touching on the events that lead to them breaking up and when Shi-Eun is reading the diary we see more about their breakup and the events leading to Hyo-Shin’s death.  It is during the time Hyo-Shin is reading the diary that the ghost is most active and Min-Ah’s obsession seems at it’s strongest.

I found the flow of Memento Mori hard going, half the story is told through flashbacks but there didn’t seem much to say when it was a flashback of the present.  The film not only jumps from past to present without any warning but the flashbacks are not in order for example the scenes in the hospital is split up over a couple of flashbacks which are between other flashbacks.  I think it is done to slowly reveal the past events of the main two characters but, at times it just makes the film a bit of a jumble.

A small part of the film does make sense and that is when the ghost first starts to manifest.  The ghost starts to haunt Min-Ah and even tells her that she wants the return of her diary but by the end of the film the diary is not mentioned.  The ghost does go away at the same time as the diary goes missing but it is never shown that this is why the ghost leaves.

Another thing that can make the film hard to follow, especially at the end is the telepathy that is first shared between Hyo-Shin & Shi-Eun and then later between Shi-Eun and Min-Ah.  I think part of the problem I had with this was due to me using subtitles, there is a lot going on at the end of the film  so when two characters are talking without a lot of the normal visual cues and time taken from looking at the action to read the text it can cause extra problems.  The telepathy itself is an interesting plot device, I've read a few different views on what it means but, at least on a basic leave it seems to symbolize the state of the relationship between Shi-Eun & Hyo-Shin and then later Shi-Eun & Min-Ah.  The telepathic link is strongest between the couple(s) at the beginning of the relationship but, as Hyo-Shin and Shi-Eun drift apart the link is used less and less and then is used again between Shi-Eun and Min-Ah at the end of the film as their relationship starts.

The one thing Memento Mori does do right (in my opinion) is how it handles the romantic relationships.  There are a couple of times that Memento Mori could have fall back on using sex scenes either to help move the plot along or just because there is an opportunity there to do it but it doesn’t.  The fact that we see any kind of sex helps keep the story more emotional and, for one part of the plot helps to keep a bit of the mystery, we never know if Hyo-shin is pregnant.

There are a couple of plot line that seems to go nowhere.  At the start of the film there is a scene with two girls tied up by the leg in the swimming pool but this is never mentioned.  In the film  At the beginning of the film  and part way through it is mentioned that there may be a curse on the school and that five people have already died and that one more person (after Hyo-Shin) needs to die to lift the curse but nothing is made of this, we do not find out about any other deaths.  We do see one other character dead and there are some theories that Shi-Eun died at the end but none of this is ever linked back to the curse.  I do think that the theory about Shi-Eun being dead at the end is not true, if any of the girls are dead then it would most likely be Min-Ah because of the dream like sequence we see whilst the school is locked upped, but this doesn't make any sense to any of the relationships in the film so I don’t believe she died.

For all its faults Memento Mori has a good story and is an interesting film but it isn't an easy watch you need time and patience to work out what is happening when and you probably need to see it more than once.