Unlimitedia Sick Product of a Sick System

SanEat A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

Arianna Moses Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Haven Kaycee It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

sitenoise ***this comment does contain spoilers that shouldn't, but might spoil the film***Criticisms of the writing and screenplay aside, this is a thoroughly engaging film on the surface. I loved it even though I didn't get it. The creative camera angles, the mostly gray/green color palette accentuating a sense of disease or decay, the original music and sound design, and the beauty of the actors add up to a sensuous ninety minute delight. At times the film seemed adrift on a sea of music carried along by the score instead of leading it, while at other times the conspicuous absence of any sound almost embarrasses the viewer in moments of voyeuristic character study. Having said that, there isn't much depth or background to the characters in Diary, but the focus on their moments of here and now is sharp and clear.Charlene Choi is magnificent as the schizophrenic, sad and lonely Winnie. Her face has a beauty suited to smoldering evil or desperate sadness inside, and she presents this facade so convincingly that in her very few, very brief moments of happiness, the shy and hopeful smile that accompanies the change evokes the poetic innocence of a rescued child. It's captivating and magnetic. It draws the viewer into a collaborative dream of promise that when quickly and sadly broken the feeling of empathy is profound. That's good acting and directing.The ending very clearly presents a major twist. However, as someone writes in the message board here, "I know it was the same person but why had two different faces?" The cast credits list only three people, so one must conclude that the 'real' instigator was Winnie's neighbor but it sure didn't look like the same person to me. Her character was presented as a likely ne'er do well, but I'm not sure if it was her or if it was some alter ego, some schizophrenic other personality of Winnie. I think the ending twist was unnecessary and even though I didn't grasp the director's intent, it didn't bother me remotely enough to spoil the film.Another aspect of the sensuousness of this film concerns the language and subtitles. This is a Hong Kong film, the language is Cantonese. I understand about three words of Cantonese but find the language wonderfully lyrical. Even in the few instances where the characters scream at one another there is a musicality to it. Most of the film drifts along like the melody of a bedtime lullaby, perhaps a byproduct of Charlene Choi's other profession as a (rather famous in Hong Kong) canto-pop singer.Concerning the English subtitles—at least the set that accompanied the film I watched. Subtitles are often a spongey issue. I imagine that one of two things are usually expected: that they are translationally accurate or that they convey more accurately the mood and intent of the speaker. One phrase uttered several times in this film by Winnie is, "I like to make puppets as I always think they are able to share with me". I don't know what that means because it could mean so many thing. I can only hope the native language meaning is also as wonderfully ambiguous.Anyone familiar with someone learning English as a second language has experienced moments of questionable grammar that are crystal clear in meaning and intent. I'm glad the subtitles appear to have been done by someone whose English was a second language. There are many examples, but a few gems for me were: "I like to make puppets and write my diary", "Do you have an affair?" (for, Are you having an affair?), "She instigated me!", and my favorite, "Seth often complained of my cookery." (You'll have to see the movie to enjoy the full impact of that last one.)

Jessica Carvalho Winnie Leung spends her days in her apartment making wooden dolls, cooking and writing in her diary. She is very lonely since her ex boyfriend, Seth Lau, left her. She doesn't have much success trying to contact him, and one day, after going to his job to see if she sees him, she meets Ray Fan, a guy who is very similar to Seth. Winnie decides to invite Ray Fan to her apartment to have a meal, and there, she tells him how similar to her ex boyfriend he is, and tells Ray that Seth died in a car accident. Eventually Ray and Winnie starts to date and live together, but never looking a real couple, since Ray doesn't show much love towards her. One night, when they both are having dinner, Winnie says that Seth died of cancer, making Ray feel confused and have a discussion with her. To prove she is right, Winnie starts to read her diary in the day that Seth died, but she discovers a bizarre and dark secret that will change everything.''Mon seung '' is a very nice movie, that makes you feel very surprised with the end. The movie starts being slow and a little boring, and then, after Winnie reads her diary, everything turns upside down, showing not only a different behavior from the characters, but also things that you would never imagine about them.I didn't like very much the story not being linear, because in some parts I felt a little lost, needing to watch them again to understand what was happening or if it was a present, a future or a past act.Ps: In the beginning of the movie, you really can feel Winnie's solitude and eventually have pity for her.

Lee Alon Sometimes when you're being derivative good things transpire, and that in itself can deliver a more shocking revelation than all the cheesy FX and predictable chillers put together.This is what happens with The Diary, a foray once more into the Pang Brothers breech with their entourage of Thai filmmakers and knack for intelligent gore. After the disappointing Recycle set the prolific siblings back a bit, it's pleasant to see them back in moderately satisfying form with a short yet titillating release timed nicely for the Halloween season.On the surface, The Diary seems like it's bound for also-ran perdition, hinting just a slight too much at working that tired old The Eye magic one time too many. Even its main star, Charlene Choi, puts on a spectacular Angelica Lee imitation to the point where at the onset of proceedings wary viewers will be tempted to give up and call it a write off.Do not: perseverance here is a bona fide virtue, and The Diary has going for it more than meets, well, the eye. Ironically, those very fears of this effort descending into a realm of rip-off fiascoes save it from a fate worse than celluloid death. As soon as one thinks they've seen it before, which they have in many ways, The Diary comes charging through to twist those well-worn elements and throw our own jaded sights right back at us.Choi dabbles in some of her best acting yet as disturbed Winnie (Leung Wing Ni we believe in the original Cantonese), a lone young woman trapped in a bizarrely old-fashioned dwelling full of marionettes and assorted memories. She has a diary going on, although it's not as imperative to events as the title suggests. Instead, this film revolves around perceptions, memories and knowing what's real. The prime horror here aren't ghosts, devils or monsters, but the worst enemy a person could ever have: their own mind.Winnie struggles with sadness and guilt over the parting of her boyfriend Seth, until meeting another man whom she believes to look remarkably like the flame lost. However, this entanglement soon also takes on sinister undertones. The man, Ray, offers scant solace and never truly feels to Winnie the way a significant other should. Wonder why. Ray's done by Shawn Yue, an excellent performer in his own right and worthy successor to sensitive-manly icons a la Chow Yun Fat and Di Long. Yue deploys his full range of down-to-earth but superlative tricks to help immerse us in the story, making up for The Diary's obvious genre associations and further highlighting serious acting going on here.Another boon comes from Isabella Leung (accidentally credited as Isabbela), doing Winnie's friend and sounding board, although, much like Ray, she too never really behaves the way you'd expect from someone who cares.The trio move around The Diary's reality, or lack thereof, with a pervasive sense of malaise, affecting the movie's delectable mood of diseased uncertainty. We must again mention their surprising and impressive work as seen here, something to write about, home or otherwise. They're not usually considered part of the annual awards posse, and so it's quite gratifying to behold the potent characterizations rendered so eloquently for the benefit of audiences willing to look past pop-star prejudices.Coupled with dozens of genuinely puzzling moments and several startling devices, they add up to a promising product that's by far the best Pang Bros outing since The Eye itself wowed us over four years ago.Despite its reasonable IIB rating, The Diary fields some gore and more than that beckons with the suggestion of things terrible lurking in the background. Its staunch refusal to commit to specifics such as time and place defy the desire to put it in neat brackets. There's dated entries from the diary Winnie keeps, but those eventually turn out to mean next to nothing in themselves. As for geography, the close-cropped cinematography denies the broad vistas needed for reassurances, as visuals deny audiences the comfort of knowing where and why anecdotes unfold. All we see are basically glimpses or brief vignettes of apartments, markets and office buildings. There's very little context, an important tool in establishing surrealism. However, this could conceivably have something to do with the Pangs maybe trying to pass the mainland off for HK due to cost cutting. Another mystery, apparently.Its short runtime alludes to The Diary's potential as a chapter in a Three Extremes-esquire project, as does Winnie with her penchant for "cookery". But just when it could have bowed out on a note of unresolved malice, its makers run away and close with extra scenes consisting of resolution we could have done better without.Even so, and despite lacking the brute force of a mind blower, The Diary has enough pseudo-horror intelligence and winding twists to be enjoyable. It likely won't stand the test of time in the long run, but nonetheless does something to inject more life into a thread of movie-making beset with settling for average and using one pasty-faced protagonist too many.For those on the prowl and looking to sink gnashing teeth into something fun and dark at the same time, The Diary comes recommended.

wishart188 Man. What a mind-boggling movie! And what horror. The horror... well, the movie does fall under the horror-movie genre... but the horror comes not from just the audio/visual effects of the movie, but the realisation of what a mind is capable of! The movie revolves the troubled mind of a talented but secluded girl, Winnie, who can't get over the loss of her boyfriend (through break up, car accident, cancer, or...?). Her hobbies are making wooden puppets/dolls and writing in her diary. She confides and seeks comfort with a friend, Yvonne, who gives her advice, like getting even with her boyfriend who dumps her, or getting a new boyfriend to get over the ex one... Soon, Winnie runs into a guy, Ray, who resembles her ex-boyfriend, Seth.Things seem to go well for a while... at least so it records in Winnie's diary... Ray and Winnie live and eat together. But then Ray starts to change and Winnie still feels that Seth is in the house with them. Confusion and suspicion arise. Winnie starts to accuse Ray of change of heart. In an effort to confront Ray of calling her a liar (because she is unable to maintain consistency in her own story-telling), she shows Ray the diary. But only ends up confronting her own ghosts of the past. Sudden realisation overwhelms her and she remembers everything in a flash. In her sheer anger, she kills Ray. Yvonne appears in the nick of time to advise Winnie on how to dispose the body...(Spoiler starts here) Police is called in when the neighbours smell something "fishy" in the corridor. Winnie claims that Yvonne is the mastermind, who instigates her on the killing. She even leads the police into believing that she may have murdered a guy called Seth 2 years ago. When Yvonne is hauled in to ID Winnie, only then the truth is revealed.... The whole time when "Winnie" lives in her world, she takes on the appearance, image and persona of "Yvonne". And Ray, though remotely resembles Seth, is seen as "Seth" in her own world. She sees and hears nothing and no one else. She writes in her diary, only to reinforce the world she has created in her mind and to script everything that is going to happen, because her diary dates as far ahead as in 2007. Meanwhile, the "Yvonne" that keeps appearing in her house, is no one but a life-size wooden doll that she has carved. And all the conversations she has with "Yvonne" and "Seth"/"Ray" are just pure imaginary dialogues. And the real Yvonne and Seth have been her schoolmate and ex-boyfriend respectively. Both end up as husband and wife. Audience by now realise that the very thing that drives Winnie to depression and madness is the betrayal of friendship and love/trust.