Memories of Murder (Criterion Collection)

Criterion do it again, superb.

This is a review of the film 'Memories of Murder', which we watched on the 2003 DVD from Optimum Releasing Asia, in co-operation with BBC Four. It appears to be All Regions, it plays in 16:9 and 2.0 stereo, in Korean, with excellent English subtitles. It comes with a small number of extras. Despite being an old product, this DVD has a superb picture, and good sound.Korean director Bong Joon-ho made cinema history in 2019, when his black comedy thriller ‘Parasite’, which he also co-wrote, became the first non-English language film ever to win the OSCAR for best film. It was also the first South Korean film to win the Palme d’Or, and one of only 3 ever to win both. He had already won international recognition with his daring, imaginative monster movie ‘The Host’(2006) and English language film ‘Snowpiercer’(2013). But it was with this film, made in 2003, that he first gained real recognition at home.The film was based on a 1996 stage play, adapted jointly by Bong and another Korean director/screenwriter, Shim Sung-bo. Their story was inspired by the infamous real life ‘Hwaseong serial murders’, which took place between 1986 and 1991, around this rurally-based city in north western South Korea. 10 women and school students were bound, gagged, raped and murdered; no culprit was ever caught. Only in 2019, did a man caught and convicted for a family murder, admit that he was also responsible for the Hwaseong killings.Bong’s film tackles the case in an almost documentary style. The nature of the attacks, whilst they do not make for easy viewing, is dealt with in a factual, sometimes almost clinical, manner. This is quite an adult film, however. But what makes the film genuinely and truly shocking, is the utter chaos and ineptitude demonstrated by the local police, and the complete lack of basic co-operation shown by the rural populace. The most rudimentary police procedures are ignored, the local force appears to have neither plan nor clue. Bong is clearly delivering a comment on the blundering, heavy-handed bumbling, the almost comic unprofessionalism ~ or comic if the subject wasn’t so serious and the consequences so dire. He does so with bite and heavy, bitter, irony. His portrayal of police interrogations is searingly critical, and clearly, accurate: in December 2019, 8 of the original investigators in Hwaseong were charged with offences against falsely accused suspects during the original investigation.Bong is well-served by his stars. Song Kang-ho, who has appeared in all his major films, is wonderful as the local cop, utterly out of his depth, but desperate to look in control. Kim Sang-kyung plays the professional young detective from Seoul, who volunteers to help, but is hindered and utterly bemused by his rural colleagues.A word about the cinematography: the rural location filming is absolutely gorgeous.Dark, detailed and disturbing, perhaps a shade too long, this is a fascinating, thoughtful and evocative film. Don’t miss it.

Only german and korean subtitles available understand only having korean and German audio but there should subs for more languages