The Neighbour No. 13

Rinjin 13-gô (2005), Japan

Director: Yasuo Inoue

Synopsis

The Neighbour No. 13 explores the consequences of humiliation, abuse and torture among young teenagers and children. Juzo Murasaki arrives at a work construction area to take on his new job. Unfortunately for him, his supervisor turns out to be Akai, the one that has previously tortured him when both of them were only young teenagers. After years of repressed memories, Juzo develops a psychopathic alter ego that finally decides to seek revenge against Akai and his family, in a surrealistic journey that dissects the fears and enraged violence inside the human mind.

Review

The film is served in an exceptionally slow pace allowing the viewer to be submerged in the intriguing atmosphere in which a considerable number of disturbing scenes simply tend to pile up, notwithstanding no further clue of the upcoming events being expected. The violence in The Neighbour No. 13 is thoroughly presented throughout the movie, alternating with traces of humorous moments and apparently childish scenes. The scenes appear to be fairly well-orchestrated by the director, being presented in a particularly raw and cruel way, thus enhancing a feeling of repulsion since the type of violence and to whom it is addressed is indeed the most disturbing side of the violent behavior in this case.

As the number of flashbacks tends to increase, Juzo is apparently sent into a downward spiral, leaving him desperate to gain control of his own mind. Surrealistic unorganized events, sometimes-incomprehensible perspective and grotesque animated scenes contribute to perfectly illustrate Juzo’s disconnection from the reality. Nonetheless, towards the end of the movie however, the last scenes will eventually tie up any loose ends and a possible feeling of confusion that has been build up throughout the film.

The physical characterization of Juzo and his revenge driven created alter ego is also of particular interest as Juzo appears as a delicate young man and No. 13 is better described as a disturbing disfigured emotionless creature. The scenes representing Juzo’s mind were particularly well shot and quite bizarre in an interesting way. The remaining characters were for the most part attention-grabbers, even though rudeness and bullying can easily borderline annoyance, which was fortunately not the case in the movie. There is no particular character development for the most part excepting Juzo himself as the film represents his own journey, facing his own fears and demons and finding the necessary empowerment.

Bottom line, The Neighbour No. 13 may be described as a dark character study wrapped in surrealistic contours of a vengeance quest, that as clearly something to say about standing up for yourself and fighting back against anybody or anything, allowing the viewer to explore the consequences and costs when repressed hatred and revenge become a part of anyone's reality.

A Slit-Mouthed Woman

Kuchisake-onna (2005), Japanese

Director: Kôji Shiraishi

Synopsis

A rumor about a slit-mouthed woman starts spreading all over a small town, particularly among young children. Following a violent earthquake, which appears to open its tomb, an evil spirit appears only to randomly start kidnapping and attacking defenseless children.

Review

After penning Noroi: The Curse, one of the scariest J-horror movies of the last decade, Kôji Shiraishi decided, two years later, to focus on the Japanese urban myth of the slit mouth lady, which has been known in Japan for several generations. The legend has survived and has spread as any other urban myth, with the story of a woman asking the ones who cross her path if she is pretty and consequently showing them the hideous scar on her face and thus either killing them or disfiguring their face in a similar way. Among other terrifying (and sometimes hilarious) details, the slit-mouthed woman is supposed to carry with her a pair of scissors as her weapon, being able to run up to 100 km/h and having a bizarre interest in special Japanese candies. Interestingly enough, the director has however decided to distance from the urban myth, although one character refers the fact that the rumors of the slit mouth lady have been heard for decades. The appearance of the evil entity is, as always, explained on the basis of a cruel vengeful spirit that comes back for revenge, as it became a cliché in the J-horror panorama for the last few years. The plot lacks consistency, and even though the history of the slit-mouthed woman is well explained and detailed during the movie, bottom line, her initial appearance appears to be left to interpretation although a few possibilities may come to mind – the result of an earthquake and the opening of her own tomb, the result of a critical mass of believers sharing the rumors of the story of an evil entity, or simply the fact that her appearance may seem to symbolize an explanation for adult’s cruelty towards children.

Unfortunately during the movie, events simply seem to carelessly pile up, with a few scenes being particularly dumb to say the least. No effort is put into creating an atmosphere of intrigue. The repressed memories of professor Matsuzaki simply came back off a sudden when he visited his old home. No crescendos were registered, no increasing tension or hype were observed before each appearance of the slit mouth lady. Something could have been said regarding the abusive treatment and negligence towards children during the film, as well as the consequences of violence and these abuses. Unfortunately, the number of abusive or neglecting mothers would just serve as a way to keep the evil spirit coming back. In fact, violence is somehow excused in these cases as a result of insanity or an abrupt change of the familiar background.

Apart from the female teacher, the remaining characters were particularly uninteresting. The majority of the scenes lacked credibility, the abductions were always particularly random, and no patterns were observed with the slit-mouthed woman usually coming out of nowhere. Contrarily to what is usually common, the present ghost entity exhibited a physical body. For some reason however, the characters would not be able to fight back, being hilariously knocked down unconscious after being slapped by the slit mouth lady herself. Which is usually used to explore supernatural powers, was in this case a sequence of characters staring at the ghost, gasping, screaming and crawling, as the slit-mouthed woman, wearing heels, would continually kick each one of them.

The making-of suggested Kôji Shiraishi didn't put a particular effort or thought into the plot, with the movie being shot in a considerably short period of time. Probably as a result, the film seems to lack consistency and interest for the most part, with a few elements of interest being nonetheless terribly explored.

Noroi

Noroi: The Curse (2005), Japanese

Director: Kôji Shiraishi

Synopsis

A documentary of apparently unrelated events that finally piece together to reveal the darkest details of a history based on an ancient unknown entity. The demon, a tool capable of causing disasters referred to as Kagutaba, appears to be able to leave a trail of dark and sinister deaths.

Review

Noroi relies on tension building, being expected to be particularly intriguing with a satisfying twist at the end. The movie was particularly hyped as one of the scariest films to be watched. Limited CGI effects and visually disturbing moments were used which allowed the fear to be mainly psychological, leaving imagination to create itself an atmosphere of terror. Dead pigeons acting as a death omen, ritualistic symbols, disturbing videotaped sleepwalking scenes, massive suicides, resurrecting demons, characters simply loosing any shred of sanity they once had, exorcisms and even ghost fetus are all great elements that were effectively used. The camera-work was particularly satisfying inevitably reminding a few The Blair-witch Project scenes, especially towards the ending during a few moments shot at night deep in a forest. Therefore, while Noroi won’t scare the viewer per se, an unsettling feeling of insecurity throughout the film will most likely be well appreciated. A large number of loose ends are left for interpretation, which is however usually characteristic of found-footage movies as it allows an atmosphere of desperation to be prolonged as the film becomes to an end.

The construction of Noroi as a found-footage documentary is particularly satisfying. No credits were added at the end for example, the shooting and image quality are distinct during the different scenes and the use of different documentaries and news footage allowed making the story more grounded in reality. A few scenes were however by some means irrelevant. The pacing was slightly off during the first half of the movie, although the editing, the back and forth of a few disturbing moments and a few frozen-frames helped keeping the tension of the movie. Overall, the acting is satisfying as well. Regrettably, a few characters are particularly exaggerated borderlining a feeling of exasperation. Nonetheless, the overall character construction and development allows the viewer to create a connection with the demon itself, as each character appears to develop different ways to connect with the unknown entity, either by being able to hearing it, feeling it or even potentially seeing it.

All in all, the creepiness factor and the editing are all major points that are easily subjective. Furthermore, found-footage movies always seem to exhibit a thin line between credibility and fakeness. The plot, the argument and ultimately each scene shall imperatively be studied in order to allow the reliability of the film to be kept. Unfortunately, the shaking camera is sometimes extremely exaggerated and scenes in which the person holding the camera struggles to keep holding it are somehow extremely implausible or even inconceivable.

Even if considering it one of the scariest horror movies ever may however seem to be slightly overrated, bottom line Noroi succeeds as the movie it attempts to be, with a sense of increasing suspense and rising horror competently culminating in the final scene.

Sympathy for Lady Vengeance

Chinjeolhan geumjassi (2005), South Korea

It's a tradition to eat tofu upon release. 

So that you will live white as snow and never sin again.

Director: Chan-Wook Park

Synopsis

In Sympathy for Lady Vengeance, the protagonist Geum-ja Lee is sentenced to 19 years for kidnapping and murdering a five years old child, being released from prison, at the beginning of the film, after fulfilling 13 years of punishment. The movie serves as the third and final installment of the "vengeance trilogy" initiated years before with Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance.

Review

The movie deserves particular emphasis for achieving a slightly suspense-filled poetic narrative throughout the entire film, competently introducing the viewer to the deeply touching story of the protagonist. As commonly observed, similar background histories tend to naturally victimize the main character, forcing the viewer to instantly feel the desired compassion for the character. Interestingly, in this particular case, the empathy for the main character is conquered during the development of the story. The protagonist is far from being promptly characterized as a victim, as the character development is perfectly executed, allowing the viewer to fully appreciate the distinctive periods of her history. At some points, it may even be hard to feel any sympathy at all for the main character. The involving feeling of care, sympathy and compassion is nonetheless gently and emotionally constructed throughout the film. For that reason, a brilliant and incisive interpretation of the protagonist would be primordial for achieving the intended attachment. Yeong-Ae Lee delivers an extremely competent and secure performance, carefully allowing the viewer to observe the fissures of her character’s rigid personality that show her hidden fragility behind her tragic past. On a side note, and in agreement with the fact that I usually tend to dislike including foreign Languages when they are not perfectly executed (which was unfortunately the case), it must be pointed out that the dialogs in English seemed vaguely awkward.

Contrarily to Oldboy for example, the plot does not rely on shocking twists and turns. No big revelations wait at the end of the movie as on the contrary, the plot just beautifully reveals its essence piece by piece as the main events occur. The movie completes the vengeance trilogy, being aesthetically without a doubt the best achieved of the three. Beautifully shot, the particularly outstanding camera-work is only surpassed by the use of extremely contrasted and saturated colors, reflecting the beauty of the film itself. The movie reunites all the best elements Chan-Wook Park has proven to master. Filled with sporadic humorous and satiric moments as well as surrealistic settings contrasting the brilliantly executed scenes with real and extreme violence, the film transmits the usual aggressive character even though it might be considered considerably more lighten up compared with his antecessors. The superb soundtrack, for the most part composed by Choi Seung-hyun, brilliantly defines at the same time a few quirky moments and the saddest scenes during the film, embracing the nostalgic personality of the story.

Accordingly, Sympathy for Lady Vengeance is a brilliant ending for the proposed vengeance trilogy. Although it may not be comparable to the genius of Oldboy, as the plot is somehow inferior and does not have the impact the latter had, it seems obvious how the director intended to focus on beauty itself, constructing a feeling of nostalgia and melancholia which allowed the trilogy to end with a warm and peaceful sentiment of goodbye, as revenge and remorse appear to serenely fade away, as the characters embrace purity at the end of the film. “Big Atonement for big sins. Small Atonement for small sins”. Substance and meaning seem to be carefully injected throughout the movie, replacing the raw character of Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance or the aggressive and brutally insane personality observed of Oldboy. Most importantly, the film stands on its own as an undisputable masterpiece from Chan-Wook Park.

Be white. Live white. 

Like this.

4bia

See Prang (2008), Thailand

Synopsis

4bia is an anthology of four supposedly scary stories from four different Thai directors. Interestingly, horror movies’ compilations allow the viewer to briefly explore and experience the many competences of different directors. Yongyoot Thongkongtoon (Happiness), Paween Purikitpanya (Tit for Tat), Banjong Pisanthanakun (In the Middle) and Parkpoom Wongpoom (Last Flight) delivered, in this particular case, four entirely distinctive segments reviewed below.

Happiness, the first segment, introduces the viewer to the story of a girl who has suffered a car accident, which has left her at home for the past three months with a broken leg. As she feels lonely at home, the main protagonist decides to answer an unknown text she receives in her cell phone. Review. Peculiarly, no dialog is registered during the whole movie and the plot is based for the majority of the film in only one character. A nerve-wracking atmosphere is chiefly well constructed considering the characteristics of the short story. Even though the film aspires to principally create a feeling of insecurity and suspense, the director tentatively cared to include a minimal explanation for the occurring events throughout the movie.

In Tit for Tat, a group of obnoxious teenagers attacks a classmate, eventually accidentally pushing him off of a speeding vehicle. The victim returns nevertheless to punish the ones that have maltreated him. Review. Tremendously ineffective and mind-numbing, the second installment of the anthology seems to be pitifully dragged for more than 20 minutes, making it an exercise in patience. The characters are extremely annoying, the acting is probably the worst of the four segments, the death scenes aren’t even original, dreadful special effects, exacerbated amounts of blood coming out of one single body, stains of blood looking like red wine stains and with CGI being probably even worse than the one observed in a 0.49$ video game. All in all, Tit for Tat intends to be a tale of revenge although it only achieves being easily considered the worst segment of the movie.

In the Middle describes the adventure of four friends out camping. After spending the night sharing ghost stories, an unexpected accident happens the following day, as one of them appears to drown in the river. Review. From the beginning, an intended humorous component in the movie is observed, although it may seem out of place and particularly not that hilarious overall. Mentioning Shutter, his previous masterpiece, twice is also  peculiarly awkward and quite embarrassing specially considering that the quality of In the Middle is visibly inferior to the referred movie. The stereotypical teenagers are mostly annoying borderlining a childish attitude and the plot is poorly developed. A final twist is registered at the end of the movie although not being particularly satisfactory.

With Last Flight, the viewer is introduced to the story of a stewardess that is chosen to be the only flight attendant on a flight taking home the body of deceased princess. Review. Contrarily to Banjong Pisanthanakun who was also, alongside with Parkpoom Wongpoom, the co-director of Alone and Shutter, the director in this case is able to deliver the most mature and disturbing segment of the anthology. The four installment of the compilation is by far the best developed and most interesting. With the plot being claustrophobically confined to an airplane, the movie is capable of creating an atmosphere of suspense and terror. Notwithstanding a predictable ending and a few well-known clichés in every Asian horror movie, the movie embraces a decent and well-constructed argument. The acting is quite superior as well to the one registered in the previous segments and overall, the short story appears to be the most consistent and solid of the four.

All in all, the movie clearly does not work as a whole, being far from cohesive. Interestingly though, a connection appears to have been created between the four segments, although it almost seems irrelevant at the end considering how distinctive the stories are and how the concept of facing fears is treated in each segment.

R-Point

Arpointeu (2004), South Korea

Director : Su-Chang Kong

Synopsis

A mysterious and disturbing radio call is received by the South Korean troops during the Vietnam War in 1972. Strangely enough, the message comes from a unit that had previously been dispatched to a zone called R-Point six months before and long assumed to be death. Accordingly, a new unit led by lieutenant Choi Tae-in is sent to investigate, having seven days to find out any traces of the disappeared soldiers. As the soldiers enter the R-Point, a frightening island seemingly devoid of human presence, a bizarre message written in a rock comes across – "He who sheds others’ blood cannot return".

Review

R-Point is extremely competent as a horror movie with a suspense-filled plot. An abandoned mansion, a soldier following a silent ghost unit believing he is following his own unit, a French cemetery appearing during a storm, a nerve-wracking tension particularly well constructed and developed. As the plot is played out, the pacing slowly increases and the viewer is allowed to question the veracity of the events. Is this a ghost story? Or are these ghosts only the result of dementia and isolation of a group of fatigued soldiers during the Vietnam war? Visually wise, the movie is particularly well-shot, capturing the growing paranoia felt by each soldier throughout the film, which as a major impact in the horror atmosphere that is intended to be created throughout the film. The locations – an enormous abandoned mansion or a jungle, for example – and the extremely adverse meteorological conditions were particularly well chosen for a horror movie set. The wartime setting serving as a backdrop for a horror movie served as a thoroughgoing experience of the fears, paranoia and inhumanity of a group of soldiers during the war. 

Apart from both the Lieutenant Choi and the Sergeant Jin, the characters are unfortunately mostly uninteresting, few to near none information is provided for each one of the soldiers appearing during the movie. The acting stays nonetheless competent and the supposed military skills of the characters are fairly observed throughout the movie. Woo-Seong Kam delivers once again an interesting performance in the same year Spider Forest came out. As the Korean troops were not particularly seen as heroes when the Vietnam conflict came to an end, the movie seems to suggest that even without blood on their hands (as the movie proves for more than once), each soldier was haunted during the movie, which may allow the viewer to conclude that the fact that they were soldiers in the Vietnam conflict was already enough.

A few flaws can however be easily pointed out. The presence of the presumptuous American troops was for instance particularly unnecessary, with dialogues being extremely awkward to say the least, and the attitude of the American soldiers seemingly being out of place during the referred scenes. Furthermore, from this point on, the viewer knows that for each character death will be certain, which allied to a poor character development, allows an obvious lack of interest for each secondary character. My major concern at the end of the movie relies however on the number of questions that the film does not answer. Although several movies allow the viewer to actively participate in the end, unfortunately with R-Point the atmosphere of extreme incertitude and the number of unanswered questions for the sequence of events are considerably unsatisfying. 

In the current cinematographic panorama, R-Point will serve most importantly as a refreshing change of pace in the horror genre, with a particularly interesting and historical background in which horror and mystery are furthermore satisfactorily conjugated. 

Silk

Gui Si (2006), Taiwan

Director : Chao-Bin Su

Synopsis

In Taipei, after a number of unsuccessful attempts in order to obtain proof of what appears to be signs of paranormal activity, a photographer, paid by a team of ghost hunters, finally seems to capture the presence of a ghost child in an empty room of an old building. Taking the investigation one step further, the team’s leader and scientist Hashimoto decides to use his own invention – a magnetic cube which can split itself and capture energy of any form – to capture the energy of the child’s spirit in the empty room. At this point in the story, Hashimoto contacts a specialized lip reader detective in order to help his team understand the words the ghost continuously murmurs. For different personal reasons, both characters try to find why the ghost’s energy does not tend to dissipate and why the boy’s soul is still persisting contrarily to what should be expected.

Review

In the actual Asian cinema panorama and considering the number of clichés and déjà vu occurrences I’ve previously experienced, I must confess my own skepticism when it comes to Asian cinematographic horror movies involving ghost stories. Silk was nonetheless a pleasant experience to watch, although the opening scenes may seem particularly confusing and disconnected, as a significant number of elements and cinematographic genres appear to be carelessly mixed. Accordingly, in less than fifteen minutes, the viewer is introduced to a terrible harmless paranormal activity hunting, followed by a few confusing elements of the sci-fi component of the movie, an extremely displaced action scene expected to contextualize the main character’s life and diffused details of an apparently complicated mother-son relationship. Subsequently, thirty minutes may be needed to allow the viewer to find the leitmotif that will guide him through the film. However, from this point on, Silk gains contours of interest by intelligently creating a concise atmosphere of mystery capturing the different essences and genres for which the film initially proposed itself. Hashimoto’s team appears to conclude that the boy’s ghost tends to follow a fixed pattern of activities, ultimately freeing him in order to better understand his actions, with further investigation revealing his identity, tragic story and the fact that, along with his foot steps, a trace of silk seems to be observed.

The character development appears to be particularly vehement and revealing, at some points, for both main characters. The viewer is introduced to Hashimoto’s profound disconnection from reality and Tung’s relationship with his mother who has previously fallen into a coma, being on life support and tormenting his son, who believes she’s staying because she hates him. Additionally, the film allows the viewer to explore the different presented dualities of the story, as interestingly enough, both Tung and Hashimoto come to different conclusions at the closing stages of the movie. Are a ghost’s actions only representative of the most significant events of his life? Are the observed silk connections the result of eternal love or hate? According to the movie, when you die, your energy can only last for a short period, then disappearing forever. Nonetheless, a few ghosts appear to be able to stay around longer than expected. In this case, is love, hate or an external energy source the reason to sustain a ghost for a longer period of time? 

Visually captivating, an ineffective number of special effects were however also used, as commonly observed in any ghost story – sporadic silly moments (as having a ghost appearing in a bowl of noodles) or terribly CGI edited scenes (with ghosts being thrown away from a car crash) are examples of what could have been easily avoided. The sci-fi component is not particularly explored during the movie, although it seems obvious that this might have been the director’s will. Satisfactorily performed, following a particularly well-developed plot and (most importantly) a different path from any similar cinematographic adaptation of a ghost story, all in all Silk is able to mix a large multitude of interesting elements, having a fairly unique and unexpected angle on a ghost story.

Spider Forest

Geomi Sup (2004), South Korea

Director : Il-gon Song

Synopsis

Kang-Min, widower and producer of a transmitting TV station, wakes up in the middle of a forest at night, where he finds a small cabin where a middle-aged man and Su-Young, Kang-Min’s girlfriend, have been brutally murdered. Chasing a shadow that appears to be the author of the crime, Kan-Min is attacked and bludgeoned into unconsciousness. When Kang-Min awakes, he walks up to a nearby highway only to be brutally hit by a vehicle at high speed.

Review

Visually stunning, impeccably performed and ornamented with a significant number of symbolic and metaphoric elements, defining Spider Forest in a single cinematographic genre might be considered however a hardly solvable question. Indeed, what starts as an undeniably horror movie, slowly metamorphoses its premise into a melancholic love story with tragic contours narrated in a depressing way. The argument of the film is based on a series of puzzles outlined by the death of two characters in a forest named Spider Forest. In accordance, after waking up in the hospital having miraculously survived after brain surgery, the now amnesiac protagonist is considered to be the main suspect for the death of his girlfriend and the brutally mutilated man in the cabin. The narrative is then, from this point on, defined by the presence of flashbacks, memories, illusions and reveries from the subconscious mind of the main character. As memories trigger more repressed memories and the story explores  the obscure details of Kang-Min’s story, his childhood, the tragic events of his life, his guilt and his own painful inner conflicts, the viewer will most likely be piecing together the fragments of what is no longer a bizarre dream, but an emotional and tragic love story. 

Several elements are delicately explored, although there is a leitmotif that goes through the movie materializing the solution (quite logical, in my honest opinion) of the puzzle at the end of the film. Unfortunately, the movie appears to leave too many loose ends (that may not be considered particularly relevant to the story) and a substantial number of open questions that the viewer will have to solve. The ambiguity of Spider Forest might in this context not be particularly appealing to the viewer at the end of the film, although at the same time it allows the viewers’ perception to be taken into consideration. 

Spider Forest remains a man’s spiraling journey of searching for the truth wrapped in a surrealist atmosphere, and without a doubt a very bizarre yet unique cinematographic experience.

Diary

Mon Seung (2006), Hong Kong

Director : Oxide Pang

Synopsis

Diary narrates the story of Winnie, a solitary young woman who appears to have recently ended a relationship with her boyfriend, Seth. Encouraged by her best friend, Winnie decides to meet Ray whose appearance is very similar to that of her ex-boyfriend. Directed by Oxide Pang, Diary is a psychological thriller that will brilliantly lead the viewer through an excursion into Winnie’s mind, between what appears to be real and unreality itself.

Review

Chronologically, Diary follows Re-Cycle, the work that intended to end a cycle in the horror domains previously started by the Pang Brothers with the masterpiece The Eye. The psychological thriller initially explores the loneliness and depression of a young woman who appears to have been recently dumped by her boyfriend. The brilliance in this work however is its ability to repeatedly change the viewer’s perception of the story, repeatedly revealing a new reality until then unknown, as the originally structured storyline continues to suffer drastic metamorphoses along the movie. Accordingly, the director leads the viewer to believe that the movie had ended a number of times before it actually did, as a usually well-achieved final twist is, in this case, replaced by a symbolic number of twists and turns that brilliantly feed a dark and suffocating atmosphere of discomfort, focused on a limited number of characters. For the most part of the movie, the action is claustrophobically confined to just a few sets inside the main character’s apartment. Signs of paranoia and schizophrenia, dementia and isolation, as the director cleverly explores a disease that exhibits a several number of disturbing behavioral symptoms and a character that persuades herself to believe in things that are unreal and unrealistic.

Needless to say, the technical capacities of the Pang Brothers (cf. Ab-normal Beauty and Re-Cycle) are (once more) brilliantly explored by the director. Nevertheless, in this case, the character development appears to be the main priority of Oxide Pang, as the main character slowly reveals her psychologically fragile personality, later better described as obsessive, hopeless and extremely unstable. I agree though – the initial premise seems to be somehow a cliché of the Pang Brothers – how it is treated deserves however particular appreciation, as the character development seems to flow with certain spontaneity, without being dramatically rushed, inconsistent or exacerbated. A brilliant interpretation of the actress Charlene Choi, complemented by competent performances by Isabella Leong and Shawn Yue, must be as well pointed out. Diary comes out as a powerful experience into the tormented mind of a paranoid schizophrenic woman but, most importantly, the movie is able to distinguish itself from the predictable universe the Pang Brothers had given the viewer for the last four years, ironically achieving with Diary the same brilliance the directors had  aspired during the indicated period, without success.