Review of Memories of Murder / 살인의 추억, directed by Bong Joon-ho

For many years, before I started focusing on this blog and doing my own thing, pursuing my individual interests, I was a specialist in Korean cinema. I worked as a film critic at an online outlet, and I often covered Asian cinema at film festivals and through advance screenings, as well as larger BIPOC cinema.

But life got in the way, and now i”m working here on the blog. I kind of like this better sometimes, as I can watch what I want whenever I want.

Anyways, I was in college when Parasite came out, and being the devout Korean cinema nerd I was even at 18, I bought a ticket immediately at one of the few theaters showing it in New York: IFC. Little did I know that Bong Joon-ho, Park So-dam, and Song Kang-ho were showing up to the screening I went to, and I was lucky enough to watch it all unfold from the third row.

That is what made me realize that film was cool, and that I wanted to be in the industry for a bit. I did follow my dreams for a while, which was so cool, but I’m glad I had that chapter in my life. It did also make me realize I had seen every Bong Joon-ho movie except for the one that initially got him street cred: Memories of Murder.

It’s quintessential early Bong movie, and while I had many chances to see it throughout the years, I had never actually gotten myself to sit down and watch the movie.

But because I recently ended up unemployed due to unexpected reasons, it was time for me to finally get through my list of movies to watch. And once I found Memories of Murder on a streaming platform, it was game over on my procrastination.

Let’s get into the review! I don’t want to ramble too much just in the introduction, I know that these can get a little long sometimes.

Based on a true story, a detective tries to unravel the mystery of who a serial killer is.

Before we get deeper into the review and summary aspect of this movie, I think it’s important to acknowledge that the context behind the movie is a real one. There was an actual serial killer in the area, and this is considered to be the first modern confirmed serial killer in Korean history. If you want to argue that some tyrants during the Joseon dynasty were serial killers, be my guest.

The killer was caught relatively recently at the time of posting this, which means that after all of these years he was walking free and seeing himself depicted in such media. It’s wild that he went free for so long, but it was rural Korea in the mid-1980s and 1990s, so I’m not surprised.

This movie opens in 1986, when two women were found raped and murdered. Park Doo-man, a detective in the area, is assigned to the case and finds himself unable to really cope with the situation. There is a lot going on with the police that’s simply poor planning, as DNA is lost, and there is no technology they can work with.

He believes he can find suspects through eye contact, and then he goes to a boy who’s mentally handicapped. His partner beats the poor kid, and then he confesses, probably because he’s scared of what they’ll do to him. The duo is then joined by Tae-yoon, a Seoul detective, and they realize that the kid probably did not d this.

Another victim is then found, and they deduce that the killer goes out on rainy nights, specifically goes after women wearing red, and the same song plays on the radio when he goes out. They still cannot find him the next time it rains at night, and another woman is dead. A man found on the stakeout tells them where to find a surviving victim (the only one, in fact), who gives them details about the man.

The two clashing detectives put aside their differences when another victim is found. They continue their quest, investigating around the town, and they go to the mentally handicapped kid’s family, as they think he witnessed one of the murders. They go to his father’s restaurant, where they find Doo-man’s older partner, but he gets into a fight with the kid.

The poor boy runs off as the cops chase him, but then he’s killed by a train. The former partner’s leg is amputated, but while this happens, there’s a big lead. One of the corpses has semen in it, and they send it to the US. One of the students from earlier is the next victim, and Tae-yoon attacks their main suspect.

Doo-man comes and stops him, as the DNA test proves this guy might not the perpetrator. The guy leaves after Doo-man stops Tae-yoon from shooting him. Years pass, and it is now 2003, the year of the film’s release. We see Doo-man as a father and in a different career, but he passes by the scene of the first cirime.

A young girl tells him she saw a man there, and he asks her what he looks like. She says he looks ordinary. The film ends with Doo-man staring into the camera, referencing how he once thought he could find a culprit by looking them in the eyes.

Overall Thoughts

I can see why this movie has garnered so much praise throughout the years. It’s quite the unsettling movie at the end of the day, especially considering it is based on true events. The script itself is also quite tight and pretty much something that you can study for screenwriting tips.

One of the main components for me is the performance by Song Kang-ho. This is his heyday, in the early 2000s, before he was truly an established actor and considered one of South Korea’s finest. He has so much control over this character, and he masters the emotional arcs for him throughout the film quite well.

That said, this is a movie I think I am going to return to throughout the years. Bong Joon-ho has proven time and time again that he knows what he’s doing when he has a movie in mind, and his work tends to resonate with me. While this is an earlier movie and misses his direct commentary on class and socioeconomic struggles, I liked this one a lot.

So go watch it if you haven’t already! You might find it very much worth it in the end to pick it up at least once in your life.

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