Memories of Murder

I first saw this more than a decade ago n loved it.

Revisited it recently.

This one is truly one of the best crime drama.

I feel Zodiac, True Detective S1 n the recent The Little Things borrowed few stuff from this movie.

After the discovery of two dead bodies in a small village, a detective n his partner decides to question a mentally handicapped young man because the man used to follow one of the victims around town but their forced confessions n interrogation techniques are questioned when a detective from a city volunteers to assist them.

Apart from being a very engaging movie, this one has sufficient suspense n tons of atmosphere.

Another good aspect is the character development.

This movie amazingly showcases the faulty police interrogation techniques, the lack of securing the crime scene, evidence being improperly collected, non availability of extra police personnel, the non-existent forensic technology n the superstitious beliefs.

The isolated rural landscape where the killings take place is as much a character in the movie.

It's hard to encapsulate what Memories of Murder stands for as a movie, but I would say it's a sorrowful, but human experience, portraying various emotional stages throughout a harsh story which we, the audience, are going to live with the protagonists.

Cinematographically mesmerizing, it makes the most out of the scenery of everyday life on rural South Korea. Rain, solitude, quietness, the vastness of the grassland, the depth of a tunnel, all tainted by sepia colored lenses.

In this film Bong Joon-ho proves that he not only is an incredible storyteller, but also master in composition and camera movement. One of the finest examples is the scene where a new body is discovered. Here, the director unfolds the situation with a long take through the grassland, taking us on a trip in the disaster that Detective Park Doo-Man is going through as reporters get into the murder scene, a tractor erases a footprint, police officials falling as they try to get to the place, etc.

One of the biggest achievements resides in its pacing, achieving a subtle and brief change of moods, the film takes its risks with the ludicrous methods of Detective Cho Yong-koo without making the viewer think that some particular scene is out of place. The chase scene inevitably comes to my head as another prove of Bong Joon-ho ability with the camera, as he doesn't abuse any resource, he sneaks it by switching between quick cuts and long takes.

Bong's films are always impregnated with a political background that includes class struggle, heavy bureaucracy, corruption & civil guard brutality. The Host, Mother, Snowpiercer, Okja are clear examples of this and Memories of Murder isn't an exception. South Korean police force is depicted as an inefficient and arrogant law enforcement political arm that isn't capable of accepting the case is beyond their capabilities and these feelings of discomfort and anger caused by the police's negligence are exacerbated by the political scenario South Korea was experiencing.

My final word on this masterpiece is the tunnel scene. It makes the film's final transition from what began as a crime thriller to an exasperating psychological and sorrowful cinematic experience as we grow fond with our desperate protagonist, in what seems to be his last try to see through the eyes of the number one suspect, which ends in a frustrated attempt to solve the case. This takes us to the ending of Memories of Murder, which I will say is one of the most powerful ever seen on film... as detective Park Doo-Man looks straight into the camera, breaking the fourth wall and sorrowfully starring at the audience, looking one last time for those indistinct murderous eyes within the average crowd.

10/10.

I have long since heard of the excellence of this korean movie on koreanfilm.org, but it was only after reading the review in detail and realizing that the score was written by Taro Ishiwaro ( a well known Japanese musician who also wrote scores for Shohei Imamura and Japanese TV serials, including The Inanimate World ), and that the DOP was Kim Hyung-gu (who also shot Musa, One Fine Spring Day and Chen Kaige's Together) that it stumped on me I was indeed missing a masterpiece.

And a masterpiece it is, one deeply haunting and disturbing asian crime thriller. The mood invoked during the last few minutes of the film is something you would probably never forget.

Watch this film not only for its cinematic brilliance, but also because of the mezmerising score written by Taro Ishiwaro, track no 29 on the OST the favourite on my list.

The more South Korean films I see, the more I understand how it came to pass that filmmakers from that part of Asia are basically leading the world in terms of cinema in the 21st century.

These films are always very well made, with interesting plots and characterisation. But above all, they have nuance in spades. Nothing on screen is as simple as it appears. None of the characters are typical heroes or typical villains. None of the responses to anything on-screen are simple, either.

Scenes unfold in comedy and then tragedy, or the other way around - or both at once.

The additional layers to every scene and every character add a panoramic realism to what unfolds. These characters live and breathe on the screen. After watching "Memories of Murder", "The Wailing", or "The Host", you imagine that the characters are still doing what they were doing when the credits played.

That's the gift the South Koreans have given us with their wonderful and inventive cinema.

Forget America, unless you are addicted to comic book movies or remakes.

Korea is the one to watch.

I'm one of those people who tend to think that South Korean movies are perhaps a bit too slow-paced for my taste. Memories of Murder isn't a fast-paced film, by any means, but this time the slow pace made this movie about an investigation of serial killings so much better than 95% of its American counterparts.

Essentially, Memories of Murder is a drama first with thriller and comedy elements (yes, in the first hour or so the movie is actually quite funny). Kang-ho Song and Sang-kyung Kim are brilliant as the two cops who have drastically different views on how to solve a crime. The character development is fascinating and believable thanks to a great script.

Highly recommended.