Diary (2006)

i must have seen a different film!!

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

The Pang Brothers really outdid themselves this time..what a powerful experience DIARY was. It's truly a tragic insider's look into the tormented mind and soul of a paranoid schizo woman(Isabella Leong)who sees horrors that haunt her, as well as reliving traumatic memories of a relationship that went sour, and a friendship that seems suspect. What makes DIARY so extraordinary is how the Pang Brothers ably create a disorienting nightmare we experience along with Leong. The twist at the end throws you for a loop because we come to a realization as to just how devastated Leong's state of mental well being really is. What we do know is that Leong is a good cook, writes her thoughts and actions in a diary, and crafts puppets she talks to. The characters of her life are Shawn Yue(..as both Seth, her long lost love who left her, and Ray, who looks identical to him)and Charlene Choi(..as Leong's influential pal, and the one who may've took Seth away from her). The Pang Brothers highlight examples of Leong's schizophrenia such as the moment a thundercloud moves through her window into the living room, a chair moves on it's own when Leong and Yue are eating supper, and how the whole house trembles as the floor cracks open. Reliving certain situations which truly never cease to remind her of the separation, Leong is incredible at conveying the confusion, sadness, loss, and fear confronting her conflicted and sick character. It's a kind of disturbing poetry, performance and direction deftly portraying a character in turmoil. Shades of REPULSION, as this woman often isolates herself from the world, participating in a delusion she considers real. The Pang Brothers really throw some curveballs our direction as well, as we often relive situations two, three times, in certain ways, challenging us to figure out what is real and what is a fictitious creation of a disturbed mind. You could say we are like puppets on a string, manipulated often.

Charlene Choi is a schizophrenic woman obsessed with another man (played by Shawn Yue) in this film by director Oxide Pang. The condition of schizophrenia is given ample attention and the script is exceedingly well-written and complex. The visuals are dark with limited (yet effective) use of CGI to communicate important elements to the viewer. There are a lot of twists and turns within this originally structured storyline, but in the end they are all logical extensions when the film is studied and understood properly. This is one of the best horror films I've ever had the pleasure of watching. If Gillian Chung had her breakthrough performance in Beyond Our Ken (2004), then Charlene Choi has now officially had her breakthrough performance in Diary (2006). She's practically unrecognizable from her previous roles. She's psychologically fragile, obsessive, desperate, subtle, and very unstable. In other words, she's fantastic.The cinematography and settings are gorgeous, using a variety of techniques to create a dim, murky atmosphere. Some scenes are in black-and-white, while others are shot with restricted colors. The overall feel of the film reminded me of Kiyoshi Kurosawa's work, absent the ambient soundtrack – Oxide uses his trademark horror beats to great effect here. The limited CGI is very fantasy-like, which is interesting considering the fact that it occurs within an apartment. Basically, Diary is eye candy from minute one.It is ironic that all of the great storytelling that was lacking from Re-Cycle (2006) has miraculously appeared in Diary. It's almost as if the Pangs decided to sacrifice the former for the latter, because Diary simply could not be written more effectively. It acts like a mystery that slowly reveals itself until the very last frame. There is a significant focus on character perspective and subjectivity that ultimately provides the driving force.Most of the reviews I've read have been positive. However, some have taken issue with the structure that Oxide chose to use. Needless to say, it's wacked out and totally different than most movies. I don't want to get too specific, but all I will say is that I thought the movie had ended a number of times before it actually did. Fortunately, all of those "extra" scenes were the best parts. I personally think that the critics are misguided, since the weird format works very well.Let's put it this way. I've seen over 200 East Asian horror films, and Diary ranks among the top 5. Rating: A magnificent 5 out of 5.

Its one of those oddball hits you don't expect when you first pop it into the player. Starring EEG Canto-pop stars Charlene Choi and Isabelle Leung you'd expect this film to be a stinker; and you'd be very wrong. Very well done atmospheric suspense film about a girl who has apparently been dumped by her boyfriend for no reason. She broods on this for a long time (its implied early on she has mental issues, she even goes so far as to decide he must have died), until she finds a new guy who looks a lot like him. She keeps on mixing up the two men, so one night she reads her diary and discovers...Id strongly suggest you just watch this film first Reading too much about it beforehand will spoil it

This is a masterpiece from the Peng Brothers.I will not categorize it into horror genre. I'm totally mesmerized! I mean totally! Charlene Choi's acting is impeccable! I just couldn't believe my eyes that this young actress could deliver us such a sophisticated and troubled psycho! It is said that people kill because they fear. When people get hurt, they torture. They torture others, and themselves, piece by piece, until they can't tell themselves from others! Look at those horror movies now playing in theaters like the gory Saw 3, you will understand how pathetic it is for the Hollywood. For a very long time rarely has Hollywood any original idea to produce an real horror movie. Cutting open eyeball things and soaking in blood are all they can think about.They need to make another adaptation. Mark my words.