Memories of Murder (2003)
South Korea’s first Zodiac killer.
Presentation:
The film that put Bong Joon Ho into the spotlight as one of Korea’s best directors on par with Hollywood’s. The film is a detective police procedural following the story of Korea’s first serial killer in a small, rural province in 1986. The film is bleak yet offset with some dark humor, adjacent to Zodiac but less precise, focusing more on the detectives’ emotional perspective and turmoil. The film has its ups and downs particularly with inconsistent tone, but you could also interpret it as different Korea sensibilities, which commonly balance humor, drama and thriller aspects.
Conclusion:
A great film to witness Bong Joon Ho’s prior works if you enjoyed his modern masterpieces. This film isn’t as masterful, but you can definitely see the similarities and groundwork for his future movies. It’s still a captivating story and you’ll be dying to get to the bottom of it, so much so you’ll probably research the events after the film and try to do a little detective work yourself. A great film in its own right if you wanted real performances of police officers in despair, racing the clock to catch a heinous criminal.
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Hollywood film noir doesn’t seem that high up anymore.