Memorie di un assassino

After two women are found dead in a rural community, a detective arrives from the big city to help out. Things quickly mushroom with the discovery of more bodies, more suspects and no end in sight.

Whether you like police films or not you should see this movie about the real hunt for Korea's first known serial killer simply because its a great movie. This is a movie that alters your expectations and changes your view of things. Its impossible to guess whats going to happen simply because the twists and turns are so unexpected. At times this is a funny funny movie, especially if you like shows like Law and Order or CSI since what we take for granted in those shows is stood on its head. At other times this is a very taut thriller and you become as desperate as the police in needing to put an end to the madness.

On top of all of this is a picture of Korea in 1986, a place with political unrest and civil defense drills that for me at least makes it seem like something out of the 1950's.

This is brilliant brilliant film-making.

I've given the film an 8 out of 10, even though it probably deserves to be higher, simply because some 12 hours after seeing the film, I'm still pondering what I thought of it, how good is it? At least an 8. I'm sure a second and third and fourth viewings will change my mind.

Yea its that good

What a good movie.What a great work of casting. Perhaps a little bit long, but the most part the movie is enjoyable and there's no perfection without mistakes. I think i haven't ever seen before a Korean movie and if there are much of them like this one i shall become Korean movie fan. The tempo, the thrill, the development of characters, everything it has been well worked.The direction is good yet without emphatic resources, there are just two moments with a little much use of slow motion but it doesn't arrive to be an abuse of it.

If you can see it don't loose your time with Hollywood sad-bad thrillers bet for this Korean present.

9/10 cause perfection doesn't exist.

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'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.

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.