Memórias de um Assassino

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.

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.

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.

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.

This movie is in the tradition of hard-boiled detective stories. A rag-tag bunch of largely incompetent police detectives are on the hunt for a serial killer and blunder their way through a thick-headed investigation. Although it's based on real events, it never falls into the trap of treating its characters as accurately portrayed historical figures and instead goes full-on with digging around in the dirt of the story.

The recreation of 80s Korea is amazing. Everything is portrayed as cramped, squalid and thoroughly grimey. The cinematography is great all the way to the end, as is the music, costume, set design and acting. There is a good dose of comedy in many scenes, which I didn't expect in this sort of story. It works well.

It's a rock-solid piece of cinema with characters that never fall into good guy / bad guy stereotypes. It's much more thoughtful than it initially lets on, hiding a complex theme behind a seemingly straightforward cop thriller. Will watch again.