♥♥♥♥♥
+ Best Crime-Drama of the Year + Best Serial Killer Movie of the Year + Best South Korean Movie of the Year
 | |
| Tense and uncomfortable, the detective leads look towards us on this B/W, unsettlingly slanted poster for Bong Joon Ho's Memories of Murder |
A rapist and murderer of women roam a distant province in South Korea, and a big city cop travels there to assist the local police in their effort to catch him.
Memories of Murder is written by Sung-bo Shim (Blade of the Phantom Master/Shin angyo onshi (2004)) and South-Korean master filmmaker, co-writer/director Bong Joon Ho (Barking Dogs Never Bite/Flandersui gae (2000)), whose 2nd feature it is. It is based on the same-titled 1996 play by Kim Kwang-lim (Bird Made of Language/Eoneoro mandeun sae (1979)), in turn based on the so-called first serial killer of South Korea, who murdered at least 10 victims between 1986-91.
It is a classical procedural crime drama tale, but it is told atypically, using some unusual means, not least a lot of humor. - The characters are mostly not having a fun time in it, - but they are funny nonetheless: The local police are enormously incompetent, and they are confronted with the outsider, whose professionalism on the other hand begins to crack, as the breaking of the case continues to elude them all.
Periods of Memories of Murder are sorely thrilling, but the narrative doesn't arrive at a fever pitch of thrills and so should be regarded more a drama than a thriller. It probes our basic lacking ability to gaze into the machinations of another human being, to see guilt and intentions, and also the slippery nature of confessions.
The setting is dismal, so no-one is likely to be tempted to traverse South Korea based on watching Memories of Murder, but this seems also to reflect the reality of the men trying to catch the savage killer.
Kang-ho Song's (Hindsight/Poo-reun so-geum (2011)) performance as the local cop, who gradually comes to realize his lacking abilities, is awards-worthy, practically a lighthouse in this incredible film, which also has a strong and disturbing ending.
Related posts:
Bong Joon Ho: The day after ... the 2020 Oscars
Parasite/기생충 (Gisaengchung) (2019) or, The Haves and the Have Nots
2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
Cost: 2.8 mil. $
Box office: 27 mil. $
= Mega-hit (returned 9.64 times its cost)
[Memories of Murder was released 2 May (South Korea) and runs 131 minutes. Shooting took place in South Korea The film became the 2nd highest-grossing South-Korean film of the year in South-Korea and the 3rd highest-grossing in the country that year overall, with 5.1 mil. admissions at a 5 $ average ticket prize, coming to 26 mil. $. The film's Box Office Mojo sheet lists Italy with 460k $ (1.7 % of the total gross) as the film's largest foreign market, and France with 197k $ as its 3rd biggest market, but the sheet is missing Asian markets such as Japan and Taiwan, which may have turned significant gross numbers. SPOILER The real-life Hwaseong serial killer was not made out until 2019, when DNA evidence connected a man already serving a life sentence in Busan for the rape and murder of his sister-in-law to 4 of the murders. He later admitted to 14 murders and more than 30 rapes and attempted rapes. IMDb's users have rated the film in at #177 on the site's Top 250 list, sitting between Fargo (1996) and Tokyo Story (1953). Joon-ho returned with 3 short films prior to his theatrical return with The Host/Gwoemul (2006). Song returned in The President's Barber/Hyojadong ibalsa (2004); Sang-kyung Kim (The Deal/Salineuiloe (2015)) in Nae namjaui romance (2004). Memories of Murder is certified fresh at 91 % with a 7.82/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of Memories of Murder?
No comments:
Post a Comment