Where to Watch:
9/10
FilmFascination Rating
If you have no idea about the basic facts of the true story on which the movie is based on, then it is recommended that you do not read this review prior to watching the movie. But otherwise, if you have slightest of the idea about the killings then this review won’t harm your experience as it does not contain any spoilers other than some facts of the true story.
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‘Memories of Murder’ is based on the Hwaseong serial murders of the late 1980’s which remained unsolved until this film came out. Now that the killer has been arrested, the film is more haunting than ever.
Early in the film, Park’s commander points at two men and asks Park (a local detective), who claims that he can identify the criminal just by looking at them. Before Park answers, the scene cuts. We assume he picked the right guy and he might be the one of those gifted investigators. But a few scenes with Park and we realise that we need to reanalyse things. He is nowhere near what we thought he would be. He is not a complete idiot as we might think but is just naïve.
In October 1986, two women are found raped and murdered on the outskirts of a small town. Considered to be committed by the first serial killer of Korea, Park has never dealt with such a serious case before. Instead of actually investigating, he resorts to fortune tellers and instead believes in hunches. Instead of finding the criminal, he would interrogate the suspects to the extremities that they would confess whatever he wants them to. After successfully losing faith in Park, the film introduces Sae Yoon, a detective from Seoul who has been assigned to help Park on the case. Sae Yoon is methodical and genuinely skilled. This makes us realise how bad Park really was. And the film does this many times. It leads us to believe something and then compels us to reanalyse things.
There is this incredible scene in which a body is laying in a field and the locals just move about in the area. There is complete chaos – a cop tumbles down the hill, the evidence of a shoeprint is wiped away by a tractor. The people just don’t know how to handle such situations and have no idea how worse it could get. Bong evidently shows the carelessness of the authorities in handling the case and is a direct reflection of how the system is. Even though intelligent officers like Sae Yoon stretch their hand to catch something, the incompetency of the system pulls him back.
Our heart just cries for justice. The detectives continue to come to dead ends and the killer continues to claim more victims. Kim understands that the police are getting outsmarted and this is costing them lives. Kim starts to work along with Sae which gives us one of the greatest character developments I have seen since a long time. Kim learns and matures from a detective fooling around to an adult who has been scarred with the memory of not solving the case. And this turns out to be the most admirable thing about both Song Kang-ho and the movie.
The movie handles the comic and serious part really well. It makes the transition just seamlessly. One scene I was giggling and the very next moment I was staring into the screen seriously. And I’ve just never felt that while watching a movie. And you would say, isn’t that a little weird. It is, but Bong Joon- Ho’s calibration of tone in this films is just incredible. They just take you on a ride where you enjoy and laugh, and the next moment it gets you intense. But they do so without giving any jerks.
The movie got me invested into the story. It is really unbelievable how desperate it got me just like the detectives. I was really praying and hoping for that one clue that would give you that hope of slightest of the chances. And the moment you seem to have it all, that feeling you think you’ve figured it all, in that very moment everything slowly slips out of your hand.
I did not actually know that the movie was based on a true story and hence had no idea if the case gets solved or not. Now on any regular day, I would have been a sucker for closure. But I am surprised myself because I am not really disappointed that it did not give me the satisfaction of catching the killer.
The experience of being with the detectives, looking at all the clues, scratching your head with them, that desperation to find the perp and the enthralling journey the movie takes you on is just phenomenal. The chilling dying seconds of the movie tops it all. Till then, you are as helpless as the regional detective himself. Sometimes that is all I look for in a movie. It gives you a glimpse of the world you never really would be a part of otherwise. And when you really think about it, it was just a drop of the ocean of what it actually would have been like.
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