Released on April 25, 2003, Bong Joon-ho’s sophomore feature is considered by many academics and critics as one of the finest Korean films in history.
Moving away from the realist aesthetic associated with directors such as Park Kwang-su, Bong’s unique sense of dark humour and rich aesthetic tackled similar issues to those facing filmmakers during the 1980s. Set during this decade, Memories of Murder captures a particularly turbulent period of Korea’s history.
Based on Kim Gwang-rim’s theatrical production Come to See Me(1996), it depicts the hunt for one of South Korea’s most notorious serial killers who raped and murdered ten women between the years of 1986 and 1992 in and around the provincial town of Hwaseong. The killer was never caught.
The events in the film take place between October 1986 and late 1987, while the film’s epilogue takes place in the then present day (2003). We are introduced to one of the film’s central characters, a detective called Park Du-man (Song Kang-ho) in the film’s opening scene. The detective is being taken to a site on a tractor where a young woman’s body has been discovered. Nestled in a rice paddy is a small drainage tunnel where the corpse has been hidden but instead of the area being cordoned off, children have contaminated the scene playing with the victim’s clothing in what becomes a recurring theme of utter incompetence that continues to plague the investigation. It is also colourfully illustrated in the wonderfully crafted long-take of the second crime scene that depicts the chaos of Du-man struggling to take charge and restrict access.
Evidently ill-equipped to solve such a crime, Du-man along with his partner Jo Young-gu (Kim Roi-ha) have been trained to supress rather than investigate made evident through their interrogation tactics. Fabricating evidence and the beating of suspects soon becomes a central part of their investigation turning the investigation into a farce. Meanwhile a detective from Seoul, Seo Tae-yun (Kim Sang-kyung) is also assigned to the case but is more methodical in his approach. His methods initially deliver results as he correctly determines that there is a third body lying in a field and he takes the investigation to what initially seems closer to finding the killer only to reveal he is no nearer to solving the case than the local detectives.
Ultimately what hampers the investigation is the 1980s backdrop, the true villain in the film. Causation lies not so much on the detectives themselves but what prevents them from fulfilling their duty. Characterized by intense oppression under the Chun Doo-hwan authoritarian government, Bong uses cause and effect to underline the brutal nature of this period.
It’s reminiscent of the Coen Brothers’ Fargo and its villainous neoliberalist backdrop that’s also set in the 1980s. Similarly dark and comic, it’s a film that has evidently had an impact on Bong’s thematic and stylistic approach.
Where it differs from Fargo is through its ending as Bong refuses to provide narrative closure underscoring his complex relationship to American genre cinema. Bong doesn’t simply imitate styles and traits he cleverly emulates them before turning them upside down.
The epilogue is arguably the most important part of the film. Flashing forward to present day we see a very different Korea. Du-man and his wife now have two children and they are eating breakfast in what is particularly interesting setting. Their home is modern; the daughter is seen playing on her mobile phone and the son has been playing on his computer all night. It’s a very brief scene but it reveals a great deal. Within a short space of time, Korea’s economy had grown exponentially with technology playing a central part in the country’s rapid rise that’s signified in this scene. Politically too Korea made the transition into a democracy, albeit a painful one as reflected in the film with references made to governmental suppression and protests. Indeed, such changes allowed the film industry to flourish – crucial investment was brought into the film industry through the Chaebols and later venture capital, while changes to the censorship laws enabled films such as Memories of Murder to be made.
Bong is acutely aware of this depicting both the struggles inherent in Korea’s turbulent history and the consequences of them. The film ends on a sombre note as Du-man looks directly at the camera having been told by a young girl that a man had recently visited the same spot – the first scene in the film where a young female corpse was discovered. Realizing that it was quite possibly the killer, the scene turns to horror as the film concludes. While the economy has grown enormously and Korea’s road to democracy is also the envy of much of the developing world, it has come at a painful cost that is captured in the film’s final scene that refuses to provide narrative closure in what is a masterclass in storytelling and filmmaking.
Jason
Professor of Korea Soongsil Cyber University, and also works as a film critic for Screen International. He did an MA in Global Cinemas and the Transcultural at SOAS, University of London. He completed his Ph.D. in Film at Hanyang University
