Two boys from the same school are found murdered, and in their bodies are capsules containing scraps from a diary that describes the next victim. Dong-wook and his partner Ja-young suspects that the murderer might be from the same school, so they let all the students do a handwriting test and hopefully to match that with the handwriting from the diary. But when they finally find a perfect match, it seems that the handwriting from the diary belonged to Jin-mo, a boy who died in a car accident. When Dong-wook and Ja-young later on finds the actual diary, it reveals more clues to who'll be the next victim. Their search also leads them to find out that Jin-mo was being bullied by everyone in school, but he's dead so who's behind the murders?
It sure sounds a bit like a ghost story right? Well, it's not as the story actually sounds a bit cooler than the actual movie turns out to be. I'm not saying it's bad, but when first reading about it before seeing it, I was kinda expecting something totally different.
It starts of somewhat goofy and there are some pretty lame comical situations within the first 20 to 30 minutes. It then turns more serious and so becomes a bit better. Although it's a pretty standard thriller and the killer is revealed way too fast. But the actual ending is fantastic and makes the rest of the movie kinda worth while, but more about that later.
Like with most Korean flicks, it's looks visually great, terrific camera-work, photography and good acting as well. I like the fact that you can almost always count on these things to be great when it comes to Korean films, although it of course does not make up for a bad script.
 
Ja-young, the female detective, is played by Shin Eun-Kyung, that you might recognize from My Wife is a Gangster 1-2, two great movies. Also starring is Kim Yun-jin, the star from the Lost tv-series, and she does a great job with her character.
Being a thriller it of course should have some moments of tension, but unfortunately it doesn't really. It's a very good and interesting story, but the acual mystery is solved a bit too fast and so it loses the suspense. It has this typical ending and I figured that the movie wasn't really worth while. But then it goes on for a bit more than 5 minutes and shows things that the viewer already knows about of why things happened like they did.
We have already found out the background story, but the way the movie shows it and explains what happened is just brilliant and very gripping. This last part also includes a pretty unexpected and horrible scene. Diary of June delivers a message which is a very important message and worth to think about. So when the credits start to roll, you actually feel that you got something out from watching it.
If it would not have been for the very ending, I would probably have given this movie a rating of 4. It's a pretty standard thriller and I can't really say that it's that good, but the ending makes up for a lot. If you're into Korean flicks you might find it interesting and entertaining, but if you're just after horror and/or suspense, then I suggest you look elsewhere.
Back to Asian Review Archive
|
ALTERNATIVE TITLE: Bystanders
6wol-ui ilgi
MOVIE YEAR: 2005
DIRECTOR: Im Kyung-Soo
WRITING CREDITS: Kyung-soo Lim
GENRE: Thriller, Crime
CAST: Eric Moon, Kim Yoon-Jin, Shin Eun-Kyung
COUNTRY: South Korea
RUNTIME: 105 min
RATING: 6/10
Diary of June Website/IMDB Click here
Diary of June Trailer Click here
|
