Memories of Murder

Director : Joon-Ho Bong
Starring : Kang Ho Song, Sang-kyung Kim, Roe-Ha Kim
2003

Another night, another Bong movie. It is definitely a lot more fun to blog about good movies then the garbage ones. I saw the Host a couple nights ago and loved it. After looking up some reviews on Bong and everyone said that Memories of Murder is his best. Of course I ordered and watched it right away. Was it better than the host? I'm not sure. If I had to pick the better it would probably be Host but Memories of Murder is still a great film.

The movie is set in 1986 South Korea. Two detectives are investigating the first serial murders in the countries history. I'm pretty sure it's based on a true story. I don't know if it makes things more interesting for you or not but whatever. Detective Park begins the film by checking out the first crime scene. The cinematography in this scene rules. He is in the middle of a golden field with no buildings around and a set of train tracks. After a little while we learn that Park is no more than a thug with a badge. He has a reputation of bullying(torturing) suspects into confessions to solve his cases and he lives up to it. This is the second murder that the victim appeared in exactly the same way, tied up and raped. Yikes. In steps detective Seo. He is a big time investigator from Seoul who went to college. This is a big deal to the people in the tiny town. Park is of course jealous of this and heckles. They are two completely different breeds of cops. Park says he thinks with his legs meaning getting out in the field and mixing it up with people. Seo thinks with his brain, analyzing documents and putting together evidence. The first half of the film they hate each other and get into a couple of fights.

As the movie goes builds, the cops learn that all the murders happen on rainy nights when a certain song is played on the radio and the victims all have red clothes. They go through a number of suspects and it seems like whenever they make a breakthrough something happens to go astray and leave them with nothing. When they finally think they have found the killer at one point they have to let him leave due to lack of evidence. They keep the suspect under surveillance until one night when he eludes Seo. That night it rains, the song is played on the radio, and another woman is murdered. Following this are two of the best scenes I've seen in a movie. I won't even hint as to what happens.

Rating : Four stars. If not for the last two scenes, the movie would've been just pretty good. Because the detectives had such a hard time putting a case together, the movie moved really slow. Watching dead end after dead end left me wondering where they were going with it. The movie was about 2 and a quarter hours long. It would've been great if some things were cut and made into a hour 45 or 50 minute long flick. The based on a true story thing could be a factor though and they had to follow the history of the movie. Not sure. Another one of my favorite things about the movie is the way the characters transformed. Park was the cop out looking for a fight and Seo was very reserved but by the end and because of all the hardships of the case they eventually reversed. Of course the cinematography is what makes this movie worth watching too like other Bong movies.

Best Scene: The two at the end easily. Other than that the opening scene is really pretty. There is a scene where Park has to sign for his former partner to get his leg amputated because of tetanus. That was pretty brutal. Just think about having to sign a paper saying it's ok to have your best friends leg chopped off.

Quotes: There are a lot of good lines in this movie but with it being foreign, it's hard to find them online. The only one I could find is pretty funny though.
"Rape suspect: But... is wanking a crime?"

Stills












































Trailer