Antarctic Journal is a 2005 South Korea survival psychological horror film directed by Yim Pil-sung in his feature film debut. Starring Song Kang-ho and Yoo Ji-tae, the film mixes elements of psychological thriller and classical horror films while showing the hardships met by a modern Korean antarctic expedition trying to reach the pole of inaccessibility. The film generated some buzz before its release due to its large budget (over ) and notable cast, but wasn't a box office hit.
Plot
During their journey to the Pole of Inaccessibility (POI), the remotest point of the Antarctic, the expedition of six men, led by Captain Choi Do-hyung, discovers a journal that was left behind by a British expedition 80 years earlier. The journal was remarkably preserved in a box in the snow and Kim Min-jae, another member of the expedition, gets the job of examining it. It turns out that the two expeditions shared the same goal and soon other strange similarities between them start to show up. Will they make it to their destination before the sun goes down for the Antarctic winter?
Cast Song Kang-ho as Choi Do-hyung Yoo Ji-tae as Kim Min-jae Choi Deok-moon as Seo Jae-kyung Kim Kyeong-ik as Yang Geun-chan Park Hee-soon as Lee Young-min Yoon Je-moon as Sung-hoon Kang Hye-jung as Yoo-jin Sam Hammington as English expedition party (voice) Oh Hee-joon as Person
Reception
Derek Elley from Variety wrote, "Some awesome widescreen lensing, with New Zealand convincingly repping the polar wastes, can't compensate for the dramatic emptiness of Antarctic Journal, in which the script gets lost along with the explorers."
See also List of Korean-language films Cinema of Korea K-Horror Contemporary culture of South Korea
References
External links
Kyu Hyun Kim's review at Koreanfilm.org