What’s the worst thing we can find in the snow? Aliens? Diseases? Ancient Gods? No, it’s man himself in the questionably written Antarctic Journal, where a group of intrepid explorers from South Korea become almost as lost as the plot they’ve been left stranded in.
Initiating with smiles and laughter, the ordeal of stress and isolation doesn’t take long to impact upon the crew, and once the deaths begin, tension, distrust and madness is only around the corner. Also they discover a diary of other voyagers who went crazy too, so that’s definitely not good.
The well established and graceful cinemotography is a nice feature. This is where its production budget spends its money most wisely, utilizing a clever and creative diversity of shots and compositions which are well designed to illustrate psychological environments as well as practical hardships in the Arctic wasteland of the story.
Shame there isn’t much of it. The protagonists are stunted and thwarted from their humanity, hardly appearing filled out enough for a drama and more built as pins to be casually knocked over. The tentative suggestions of the supernatural leave a bad taste in the mouth when they’re revealed as elaborately dishonest and intentionally misleading deceptions. And the score is on thin ice, comprising of drab synths, unimaginative strings and hollow drums.
A partial recovery is down to the performances. Apparently this held a fairly well-known cast on its release, hinting that the intention was possibly to sell the film based on their names and acting qualities. It’s not a bad move, as their confidence and ambition on screen is bold and assuring.
Does this make up for the dry and underdevelopment of the script? Nope. The cold and uninspiring journey with its uninteresting characters is half an hour longer than it really needs to be; and doesn’t land on a very solid or impressive ending. If you’ve survived that far though, you’re a fool for expecting anything else. (Fooled me too.)
4/10
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/namgeukilgi_antarctic_journal
Possession Media 