Movie No. 96 (2013): MEMORIES OF MURDER

Memories of Murder (2003)
Director: Joon-Ho Bong
Cast: Kang-Ho Song, Sang-Kyung Kim, Roe-Ha Kim
In Korean, with English subtitles

The film is based on actual events that took place in a South Korean province in the '80s. In the film, a group of (what looks like) incompetent local detectives go after a serial killer who rapes and murders girls clad in red when it rains.

I will always be reminded of this film as one with good pacing, which is a requirement for any movie of this kind or genre. At some point, I almost lost patience because of so many 'instances' thrown into the script to establish one thing that has already been established even without the last one or two later 'instances.' There was even one scene, a sort of a teaser, that would give away the identity of the serial killer the local detectives had been going after. I don't know what exactly that's for; the ending, although powerful, is quite contradicting that. It must be stating a point.

This film is set at a time when the local police didn't have access (yet) to modern technology in crime scene investigation. So, it's quite a delight to see the detectives doing their job the old-fashioned way. This way it's easy to get into the detective's characters, therefore, easy to understand their actions. So, their frustrations and desperation as a result of their commitment and incompetency are easily understood. 

As I've already pointed out, this is one of the movies with memorable ending; it is also one with beautifully photographed scenes suggesting desperation and resignation.

Rating: 3.5/4.0

Date seen: April 20, 2013