This movie is about a young man driven by hero worship who follows his leader into an adventure that far outstrips his ability to cope. The twist is we experience the story as it would feel like if he were actually telling it to us, if he were trying to communicate with his traumatized and fractured mind. Normally in a first person movie with narration we will see what the metaphorical fly on the wall sees, with clarification from other people's point of view and back story when needed. But there are no flies in Antarctica, not even viruses we learn. No third party witnessed what happened to this group of men, we will get no clarification. It gets weird right away - for example he tells us there was something in the snow, and that his teammates hated him and talked behind his back. There are times we're confused by what he says, we want to say something like, "Did you just say he fell into the ice and was stuck under it!?." Or perhaps we want to ask, "Did you just say that the ghost of his son was in the room, looking down, or was that metaphorical?" The movie does little to clarify, just giving us the feeling of that first jolt when believing the story, believing the misunderstanding. There is no time for questions as this crazy man pushes on and on. Eventually he loses track of the fact he is telling a story, and falls into delusions, thinking he is there, and taking us with him-- the movie portrays this by switching from first to third person. It's difficult to say what actually happened, what has been warped by his personal perspective, and what is complete delusion. I'd recommend questioning everything he wasn't there to see - this is only conjecture on his part and we know he is not in his right mind. I think he actually fell into the hole in the snow. The radio actually stopped working. And there was an actual British journal. He spends a lot of time conjecturing about what happened to the radio - it was sabotaged while I slept, they heard us but couldn't help us, they were looking for us but couldn't find us. This question is eventually answered for us, but not for him. What happened to the guys in the journal, he wrestles with. He tells, probably ruefully, about noticing the British trek seemed to have lost a member, and the reality that someone could die out there was so far from their minds they couldn't even say it out loud. I think what he tells us about the fate of the British Expedition is true. I don't think there is anything supernatural about the journal. Eventually he is way past the point of breaking and his focus narrows to simply reacting to the people around him, especially his leader. I don't think we learn what the leader actually said, or meant - only what we are told from this biased witness. Eventually we get back to where we started. We leave him, shivering on the ice. At this point he is beyond the ability to talk, so the story must end.

I was impressed with this one. Sure, I've seen some saying it's effective but not quite, not flawless but not perfect, well, maybe it's because mostly were expecting the standard Asian horror. A ghost in Antarctica? Another girl with long black hair, covering her face, but she has no place to hang over from, no ceilings to walk on, except their small tents of course. Anyway, if you are open for something maybe not new, but a plot not worn out, Antactic Journal is quite the pleasant surprise. It's more of a mystery movie, will let you guessing, hard to predict the end (which is NOT a twist this time) but easy to realize where its heading. So just sit back, grab some popcorn, a beer or two and enjoy it, cause it has around 2 hours if I remember correctly.The view is beautiful, all white, all silent, you can almost feel the cold. Shivers, shivers and an ocean of snow. I rated it 6, indeed not perfect, but nice to see something a tad bit different from time to time.

Funny thing about Antarctic Journal is that it reminds a lot of The last winter which I have seen few weeks ago. There are many similarities... the setting in the arctic desert, a small group of people growing desperate and paranoid, chilly atmosphere, nice pictures, minimalistic score. Just like The last winter this movie looks like its going somewhere, hints at several ghosts, hallucinations or in this case inner fears and then ends up stuck in this endless nothingness. Antarctic Journal is a very slow paced and atmosphere driven movie, spending more time on introducing the characters than going for cheap ghost thrills. After all I think the drawer "horror movie" is plain wrong for the movie, its rather a psychological drama to me. Anyway, the ending to me was just a let down as in last winter, although more consequent. Maybe I didn't quite get the idea behind the movie because the ending is pretty confusing so you don't know whats truth or hallucination. But like another comment here said the movie doesn't leave you with the feeling of wasted time... its calm, far from chilling, rather strangely interesting and keeps your attention till the end. Maybe my rating might be too bad considering this and the nice cinematography but still I was expecting far more from the set up. Judge for yourself.

An expedition team led by Choe Do-hyung marches on toward the Antarctic Point of Inaccessibility,one of the most difficult places to reach on the planet Earth and trodden upon only once by a Soviet team in 1958.Min-jae,formally trained in mountain climbing at Switzerland and in awe of the charismatic Do-hyung,is joined by the bookish navigator Young-min,the rather thuggish but sharp communications expert Seong-hoon,the genial cook Geun-chan and the electronics specialist Jae-kyung.When Min-jae discovers an old journal left by a British expedition 80 years ago,he begins to notice odd parallels between the journal entries and his team's experience."Antarctic Journal" is an impressive horror film that slightly resembles "R-Point" and "The Thing".There are some genuinely unnerving moments and Kenji Kawai's score evokes the utterly cold and relentless atmosphere of Antarctica.Unfortunately the film leaves a lot of questions unanswered.Still it gets a solid 8 out of 10 from this viewer.