Around
2003, roughly the time of Bong Joon-ho’s second feature film as a
writer-director, the story’s inspiration consisting of the Hwaseong serial
murders which lasted between 1986 and 1991 remained unsolved. Often compared to the still unsolved Zodiac
murder cases, Memories of Murder sought to make some sense of the crimes
as well as provide a testament to those who tried to bring the killer to
justice. Circa 2019, Joon-ho returned to
film in a big way with his Cannes Film Festival and Academy Awards favorite Parasite,
renewing public interest in his preexisting works. But that’s not all that happened.
Some
thirty years later around the time Joon-ho’s latest film was enjoying critical
and commercial success, a certain Lee Choon-jae was identified as none other
than the killer behind the infamous Hwaseong murders. Confessing to fourteen murders and nine rapes
connected to the Hwaseong murders, the new development in what is inarguably
the worst case of serial murder in South Korean history couldn’t help but generate
that much more attention for Joon-ho’s still scathing and permanently relevant
second feature film.
Briefly
in limited theatrical re-release in a new 4K restored transfer which recently
aired on digital as well as an upcoming new Criterion Collection blu-ray, Memories
of Murder might be among the first South Korean serial killer thrillers to
be based on a real subject. Co-written
by Shim Sung-bo based on Kim Kwang-rim’s 1996 stage play of the subject, the
film stars legendary actor Song Kang-ho (Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance; Parasite)
and Kim Sang-kyung as Detectives Park and Seo who use any means necessary
including but not limited to beating up suspects to try and solve the
crimes.
Much
like Joon-ho’s The Host and Parasite, the film presents a sneaky
interchangeable mixture of comedy and horror with a certain degree of mystery
running throughout. Much of the film is
carried on the shoulders of Song Kang-ho who brings a certain degree of charm
to the central character while also making him a flawed and desperate figure. Playing on the age differences between
Kang-ho and Sang-kyung as the younger yet more experienced detective, the film
manages to involve you in their uphill battle as well as capture in a bottle
the sense of hysteria running through South Korea with a serial killer on the
loose.
For
a second feature, the film looks splendid thanks to Hyung Koo-kim who would
later lens Joon-ho’s The Host.
The film makes fantastic visual use of the locations consisting of oceanic
open green fields stretching as far as the eye can see. Sound design is also key to creating suspense
particularly in sequences where you can only hear the bristling of leaves in
the wind coupled with an occasional stick breaking, letting you know the killer
may be afoot. Despite being a South
Korean production, the film employed the use of Japanese film composer Taro
Iwashiro who creates a moody, somber orchestral soundtrack with an overarching
sense of doom.
Considered
by many to be one of the greatest crime thrillers ever made with a sense of
urgency, fear and defeat, the film precludes works like David Fincher’s 2007
drama Zodiac which also dove headfirst into a real life yet-to-be-solved
serial killer saga. Seen now after the
big Parasite wins as well as the real killer finally being caught after
all these years, Memories of Murder couldn’t be more chilling in form if
it tried. Though released in 2003, the
film achieves a timelessness for being about the struggle to solve a
then-unsolvable crime and winds up probing the headspaces of those trying to
bring the killer to justice in the first place.
One of the most important mainstream re-releases of a South Korean
classic of this year.
--Andrew Kotwicki
