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- K-CINEMA LIBRARY
- Antarctic Journal
- by Pierce Conran / Jul 25, 2016
2005｜114 MIN | Thriler
DIRECTOR YIM Pil-sung
CAST SONG Kang-ho, YOO Ji-tae, PARK Hee-soon, YOON Je-moon
RELEASE DATE May 19, 2005
CONTACT Mirovision Inc.
Tel : +82 2 3443 2568
Fax : +82 2 3443 4842
Email :jason@mirovision.com
A few months ago, Korean production house JK Film scored a major hit with their expedition drama The Himalayas, starring the red-hot HWANG Jung-min, but it wasn’t the first mountaineering film to be made in Korea. A decade prior, the local industry released two films on the subject, one the melodramatic love triangle Ice Rain (2004), the other, the psychological horror-thriller Antarctic Journal.Featuring massive pedigree both in front of and behind its camera, Antarctic Journal was a highly anticipated film in its day. Featuring stars SONG Kang-ho and YOO Ji-tae, fresh off of Memories Of Murder (2003) and Old Boy (2003), respectively, and a team of writers that included BONG Joon-ho and LEE Hae-jun (director of Castaway on the Moon, 2009), the film was the ambitious debut of YIM Pil-sung, who had previously drawn great acclaim for his short films, including 2003’s Mobile.A team of six Korean explorers sets out to reach the Point of Inaccessibility on the Antarctic, led by the gruff and charismatic CHOI Do-hyung (SONG). During their trek, they happen about an ‘Antarctic Journal’ written by a British explorer 80 years prior. Following its discovery, strange things begin to happen to the expedition, with the equipment beginning to malfunction and group members starting to exhibit strange behavior.At the time of its release, the costly Antarctic Journal failed to set the box office alight and was seen as a major disappointment commercially. Critically, the film received mixed reviews but YIM’s talents were noticed by many, including the international film festival circuit, as the film received invitations to the Sitges Fantastic International Film Festival and many other events.Beautifully put together through an alternating series of claustrophobic closeups and immaculately composed long shots, many of which were shot on location in New Zealand, YIM’s strengths in the mise-en-scène department were evident. What unsuspecting viewers were less prepared for was the film’s embrace of surprising horror tropes and unusual narrative progression.Time has been kinder to YIM’s feature debut, with many now recognizing it as one of the more interesting genre experiments to emerge in the heyday of Korean cinema’s millennial renaissance. YIM would continue to divide viewers and critics with his subsequent works, Hansel and Gretel (2007), Doomsday Book (2012) and Scarlet Innocence (2014), but he has remained a popular presence on the festival circuit.
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