Introduction: Another Day, Another Dead Kid
South Korean cinema is usually known for tightly wound thrillers, shocking twists, and the ability to make you cry into your instant ramen while questioning the meaning of life. Diary of June (also known as Bystanders) tries to join the ranks of Memories of Murder and Oldboy but instead feels like the moody cousin who insists on reading bad poetry at family dinners.
The premise sounds juicy: two boys are murdered, and in their stomachs (!) are diary entries predicting who’s next. Creepy? Sure. Original? Almost. Executed well? Not unless you consider “confusing pacing and a script stitched together with leftover crime-drama clichés” to be execution. What could have been a razor-sharp dissection of bullying and revenge instead plays like a rejected CSI: Seoul pilot with a hangover.
The Plot: Stomach Ulcers and Scooby-Doo Logic
Detective Chu Ja-young (Shin Eun-kyung) and her rookie partner Kim Dong-wook (Eric Mun) are investigating a string of teen murders. Their only clue: the killer leaves capsules filled with diary entries inside the victims’ stomachs. Which, if you ask me, is way too much effort. Stabbing someone is one thing. Forcing them to swallow your LiveJournal first? That’s serial killing with extra homework.
Naturally, the cops turn to handwriting analysis because apparently DNA, fingerprints, and CCTV cameras don’t exist in this universe. When they find a match, the writer turns out to be… already dead. Jin-mo, the deceased student, was killed in a car accident a month prior. Cue dramatic gasps. Cue violins. Cue me wondering if the script was written on a dare.
The detectives eventually uncover that Jin-mo was bullied, which leads to a “dark secret” reveal so predictable you could spot it three diary entries away. The movie keeps insisting it’s a shocking mystery, but it’s about as mysterious as a Scooby-Doo episode where the janitor is always the villain. Spoiler: yes, the janitor is always the villain.
Characters: Moody Detectives and Discount Emo Kids
Chu Ja-young (Shin Eun-kyung): The tough-as-nails detective with the personality of wet cardboard. She scowls, she smokes, she mutters grim one-liners like she’s auditioning for a Korean remake of NYPD Blue.
Kim Dong-wook (Eric Mun): The rookie partner who mostly stands around looking like he just wandered in from a K-pop rehearsal. His job is to ask obvious questions and remind Ja-young that she’s jaded. Riveting stuff.
Seo Yoon-hee (Yunjin Kim): A teacher who floats in and out of the story with the kind of distracted energy that says, “My agent made me do this.” She’s supposed to anchor the emotional weight of Jin-mo’s bullying, but instead she looks like she’s waiting for a Starbucks order.
Jin-mo (the dead kid): The emo heart of the movie, bullied to the point where his diary becomes the serial killer’s murder manual. His story should be tragic. Instead, the film treats him like a plot device with bangs.
Themes: Bullying, But Make It Boring
The movie wants to tackle the heavy issue of bullying in schools, and to its credit, it doesn’t sugarcoat how brutal kids can be. But instead of delivering raw emotional impact, it shoves the theme into a Scooby-Doo murder-mystery framework, complete with clunky exposition and the kind of dialogue that feels like it was translated through Google twice.
Yes, bullying is serious. Yes, the idea of posthumous revenge via diary is intriguing. But here, the bullying scenes are so ham-fisted they might as well have been directed by someone whose only exposure to teenagers was watching Mean Girlsonce.
Direction: Thriller Lite™
Jeremy Kasten this is not. Leigh Scott this is not. Diary of June is directed like a daytime soap trying on a trench coat. Scenes drag. Suspense evaporates. The supposed “twists” are announced five minutes in advance by the score, which blasts ominous horns whenever anyone so much as opens a locker.
The murders, which should be shocking, are edited so blandly they feel like outtakes from a medical PSA. The whole thing is so restrained it’s practically anesthetized. This isn’t tension—it’s Ambien.
Performances: Acting on Autopilot
Shin Eun-kyung does her best grumpy detective impression, but it’s hard to root for a protagonist who looks like she’d rather be home watching TV. Eric Mun is handsome, which is nice, but his rookie cop skills are about as convincing as a toddler in a Halloween police costume.
Yunjin Kim (Lost, Shiri) is wasted here. She brings gravitas to a role that doesn’t deserve it, like someone sprinkling caviar on instant noodles. The rest of the cast are mostly teens whose primary job is to look mean or dead. Sometimes both.
Pacing: Death by Diary Entry
The film is only 105 minutes, but it feels like three hours. The diary gimmick quickly loses steam after the second stomach-autopsy reveal. By the halfway mark, I was less invested in who the killer was and more curious about whether the detectives were ever going to eat a meal that didn’t involve reading paper chunks out of corpses.
The Big Reveal: Shocker, It’s Not a Shocker
The finale insists it has a jaw-dropping twist. What it actually has is a whimper dressed up as a gasp. By the time the credits rolled, I wasn’t shocked—I was just relieved it was over. The “dark secret” turns out to be the cinematic equivalent of lukewarm tea: technically present, but disappointing and forgettable.
Why It Doesn’t Work
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Derivative: Every frame feels like a reheated version of better Korean thrillers.
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Flat Characters: I’d care more about these people if they were NPCs in a video game.
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Bad Pacing: The suspense dies early, leaving us with filler and scowls.
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Wasted Talent: Yunjin Kim deserved better. Honestly, so did the audience.
Final Thoughts: Diary of a Film That Should’ve Stayed Unwritten
Diary of June wants to be a dark, haunting thriller about revenge from beyond the grave. What it actually delivers is a half-baked procedural with a gimmick so silly it borders on parody. A killer stuffing diary entries into corpses is creepy once; by the third time, it just feels like someone trying way too hard to be edgy.
If you’re looking for a gripping Korean mystery-thriller, you’ve got a buffet of better options: Memories of Murder, Mother, The Chaser. If you’re looking for a film where people pull soggy notebook pages out of cadavers like fortune cookies of doom, then congratulations—you’ve found your niche.
In the end, Diary of June is less a thrilling mystery and more a cautionary tale: if you’re going to write a diary, maybe keep it away from homicidal ghosts and clumsy screenwriters.
