Antarctic Journal Views

Books

Marching through the snow the expedition finds a journal of a British expedition written 80 years ago. Min-jae, the youngest of the expedition, who finds the ‘Antarctic Journal’ feels strange because the drawings in the journal are similar to himself and the Korean expedition. From the moment this Antarctic Journal comes into the hands of the expedition, strange things start to happen to them. Jae-kyung suffers a serious cold when in Antarctica virus cannot exist, a mummy of a British expeditionist wearing winter clothes is found, and as these strange phenomena happens, captain Choi shows greater tenacity for reaching the unreachable point. All this is as strange as the unknown lands of Antarctica.

Antarctic Journal (2005) is the feature film debut by South Korean director Yim Pil-sung. The movie mixes elements of psychological thriller and classical horror films while showing the hardships met by a modern antarctic expedition trying to reach the pole of inaccessibility. The film had generated some buzz before its release due to its large budget (over $8,000,000US) and notable cast but wasn't a box office hit.

During their journey to the Pole of Inaccessibility (POI), the remotest point of the Antarctic, the expedition of six men, led by Captain Choi Do-hyung, discovers a journal that was left behind by a British expedition 80 years earlier. The journal was remarkably preserved in a box in the snow and Kim Min-jae, another member of the expedition, gets the job of examining it. It turns out that the two expeditions shared the same goal and soon other strange similarities between them start to show up. Will they make it to their destination before the sun goes down for the Antarctic winter?

If you would like to see Matthew Lazzara's past journal entries from this same expedition in 1995, 1996, 1997 and 2000, simply click on the link below. We also have streaming video of the lecture he gave at Space Place in 2002 and his Power Point lecture available online, entitled Antarctica's Weather: Observing the Forbidding Continent from Earth and Space.