Memories of Murder

Salinui chueok

(South Korea, 2003, 132 mins, 35mm)

production designer: Ryu Seong-hie, Yu Seong-hie
writer: Bong Joon-ho, Kim Kwang-rim, Shim Sung Bo
cinematographer: Hyung-ku Kim
executive producer: Lee Kang-bok
editor: Sun-min Kim
producer: Cha Seoung-Jae, Kim Moo Ryung, No Jong-yun
cast: Song Kang-ho, Kim Sang-kyung, Kim Roe-ha, Song Jae-ho, Byeon Hie-bong, Ko Seo-hie, Park No-shik, Park Hae-il, Choi Jong-ryol
sound: Lee Byung-Ha, Lee Seung-yeop
original music: Tarô Iwashiro

Before giving the classic monster movie a much-needed shot in the arm with The Host (WFF10), Bong Joon-ho applied many of the same correctives to another staid genre: the true-crime procedural. The Host’s Song Kang-ho stars as a rural detective investigating the still-unsolved case of South Korea’s first serial killer. The wild goose chase stretches on for years, perhaps because the backwater detective’s skills are, to put it kindly, unorthodox: his interrogation methods include high-flying karate kicks, and binge drinking. Meanwhile, the bodies keep piling up. A singular entertainer, Bong can veer from hilarious slapstick to shocking police brutality in the blink of an eye, while his patient attention to narrative digressions elucidate the Sisyphean frustrations of police work. To this end, Memories of Murder makes a fascinating diptych with Corneliu Porumboiu’s Police, Adjective, also playing this year’s festival. Where Porumboiu’s keen observations are grounded in resolute realism, Bong’s deft tonal variety is counterintuitively just as lifelike. “In the tradition of New Korean Cinema, which can shift tonal gears faster than a Maserati, Bong plays most of the events for broad, uproarious comedy while still managing a devastating undercurrent of sadness. It takes enormous skill to pull off such a high-wire act without diminishing the gravity of the situation, but Bong and his first-rate cast are up to the task, perhaps because they root the questionable antics of the film’s provincial detectives in palpable frustration and anguish.” – Scott Tobias, The Onion A.V. Club. 2003 Cannes, 2004 Rotterdam Film Festivals.

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