Memories of Murder | Kang-ho Song, Sang-kyung Kim | A thrilling and unsettling depiction of what...

Memories of Murder | Kang-ho Song, Sang-kyung Kim | science into brutality

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Memories of Murder

	Memories of Murder Kang-ho Song, Sang-kyung Kim Palm Pictures / Umvd, 2005 average customer review:based on 30 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Based on the true story of South Korea?s first serial killer. When women start turning up dead in a small town in S. Korea in 1986, two reluctantly-partnered cops resolve to bring him to justice. Without DNA testing or modern forensics, the investigators are forced to rely mainly on intuition and brute force. At times both touching and hilarious, MEMORIES OF MURDER is a riveting tale of a mysterious killer and the ceaseless pressure on those charged with stopping his rampage.

A thrilling and unsettling depiction of what happens when old school Korean detectives meet American style psychotic killers

A hotshot young detective from Seoul is enlisted to help out the old school small town detectives when it becomes clear they have a sophisticated serial killer on their hands. The local detectives' old school methods -- unscientific crime scene investigation, gathering of usual suspects and assisting them to remember with threats and torture, planting of evidence -- aren't going to cut it with a sophisticated killer on the loose who threatens repeat violence. On the other hand, the new methods -- gathering evidence, looking for patterns, profiling the killer -- are slow and unable to produce certainty. This is a unique kind of serial killer thriller -- unlike almost any I've seen and much more entertaining: in part for the fact that while the threat of the killer and the perverted nature of his crimes are always on the periphery this is not a film that glorifies the killer, American style. It is about the simple people who work to solve such crimes and the way their efforts affect their lives. In that sense this film is much closer to David Fincher's Zodiac than it is to, say, Silence of the Lambs or Seven or the absurd Saw films and their ilk. Another excellent Korean film, well worth watching.

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science into brutality

Don't be put off by the tacky title and silly cover! This may sound pretensious, but I found Memories of Murder to be a wonderfully subtle criticism of the pretensions and tragedy of science -- a lamentation of the failure of Western modernity to deliver the orderly utopia it promised.

In CSI, science almost always reveals the truth, reveals the bad guy. What if the world is not so transparent, however? What if the life is such a complicated mishmash that no amount of methodological digging will reveal the truth?

[spoiler warning]

In Memories of Murder we begin with two old school detectives who have no notion of proper scientific procedure and criminology. When they come accross a nude body shoved under a drain pipe they blame it on the retarded guy in the villiage and coerce him into a confession. Of course he didn't do it and another body shows up making everyone look stupid. The methods of these "primative" detectives is beating reality to fit the vision they want.

Eventually a "true" detective from Seoul shows up -- a guy who knows criminology, a scientist. He immediately begins finding new clues and showing how inept the other two were. His methodological, scientific approach gets them ever closer to the perpetrator. Eventually they find what seems to be the right guy, but the DNA doesn't match! When the science fails the smart Seoul detective tracks the suspect down and ends up doing exactly what the other detectives did: attempting to beat a confession out of the suspect. When they can't get it there is nothing to do but let the likely criminal free.

The descent from science to brutality expresses perfectly the pain that comes with the realization that science has not brought, and likely will not bring the utopia it promised. Don't get me wrong it bring about a lot of good, but ultimately it fails in its promises. This is, in a way, the same point made in Yellow Earth (Chinese) about communism. It failed it's promise.

I love the final scene. Like many other Korean films it left me with the feeling so prevalent in Asia: the random wonder of the mishmash world and the inevitable failures of our pretensions to control it.

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A beautiful film and a bitter pill to swallow

Korea makes the best films. America has literally handed over the reigns of contemporary adult cinema to Asia, and directors like Joon Ho Bong and Park Chan Wook are running with them. This is one of the best examples of the kind of emotional, edgy, entertainment that comes out of Korea. It is a true story of murder and small town social politics. It is about people and how people are affected by death. It is scary, it is tense, it is well thought out, well-acted, and deftly directed. Watch this if you are finally bored of all the trash that America keeps creating. Then go rent this guy's other films, like "The Host", or rent, "Lady Vengeance" or "Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance" by Park Chan Wook.

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Intelligent, surprising police procedural.

Memories of Murder (Joon-ho Bong, 2003)

It has now been twenty-one years since the first known serial killer in Korea surfaced. The case remains unsolved to this day. Of course, that never stopped American directors from making serial killer movies (viz. the many movies about the zodiac killer, of which David Fincher's is only the latest), why should it stop the Koreans? Thus we have Joon-ho Bong's Memories of Murder.

Based on the actual events, Memories of Murder covers the case, but is more interested in the police investigating it. The murders are taking place in a rural area, and the lead investigator, Doo-Man Park (The Host's Kang-ho Song), is getting nowhere. The government, frustrated, send in a suave Seoul detective, Tae-Yoon Seo (A Tale of Cinema's Sang-Kyeung Kim) to see if he can break the case. Park and Seo are immediately wary of one another, and their rivalry leads to the case getting nowhere, to the point where Park's commander threatens to crack both their heads. After they grudgingly decide to start working together, the two discover that, perhaps, they have a lot more in common than they first suspected.

Bong (who achieved international fame a few years ago with The Host) obviously has some ideas on who the actual killer is, and he drops some tantalizing clues into the last hour of the movie; how much of what we see is based on the actual police reports and interviews, and how much Bong (who was also one of the screenwriters) slipped in of his own invention is unknown. Not that it probably mattered; the police are such lunkheads in this movie they probably wouldn't have caught the killer even if it turned out to be one of them. The actual investigation is secondary here, however, to the relationships between the characters; the power struggles, the alpha-male grandstanding, perhaps most interestingly Park's growing friendship with one of his first suspects. It all comes together in a surprisingly gripping tale, given how slowly it moves for most of its length. Bong and crew made a fantastic thriller here, one that's a must-see if you're a fan of serial-killer films. Highly recommended. ****

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sad letter and sad movie too

from the director who brought you THE HOST, MEMORIES OF MURDER is based on a true story of south korea most nortorius serial killer. women are murdered and a killer might be sending postcards to a radio station to alert police of upcoming murders, the song SAD LETTER is played during rainstorms(why either are connected are never fully explained). slow but involving with some strained attempt at humor. the pace of the film just feels ackward better editing/tightening would have helped. overall, a lackluster yarn based on real events. I enjoy foreign films and the dubbing is usually fine--the movies dubbing is nicely done but I think it looses translation. I think this film would have been better viewed if subtitles are on. ultimately unsatisfying ending but easily forgettable too. kind of mixed bag for me. 2.5 stars actually.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

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