Memories of Murder

Director: Bong Joon Ho

2003 / 131min / DCP

The political upheavals of 1980s South Korea form the backdrop to Bong’s skewed, wryly satirical take on the police procedural, based on the true story of the country’s first serial killer, following three detectives—an overwhelmed small-town cop (Song Kang-ho), his partner (Kim Roi-ha), and a cocky backup called in from Seoul (Kim Sang-kyung)—as they follow the ever fainter trail of a sadistic murderer who goes forth on rainy nights to hunt for women. A tautly mounted tale of desperation, death, and dispiriting dead ends, Memories of Murder turns what might be, in lesser hands, a familiar cat-and-mouse genre exercise into a grimly funny meditation on human fallibility.

Part of In Pursuit of Shadows