Memories of Murder

In October 1986, two women are found raped and murdered in a ditch. Local detective Park Doo-man, not having dealt with such a serious case before, is overwhelmed — evidence is improperly collected, the police's investigative methods are suspect, and their forensic technology is near non-existent. Park claims he has a way of determining suspects by eye contact. He decides to first question a scarred mentally handicapped boy, Baek Kwang-ho, who resides in the town because he used to follow a dead victim all the time creating some suspicion among the detectives. He uses his eye contact method, thinking Baek is responsible, and has his partner Cho beat confessions out of Baek.

Seo Tae-yoon, a detective from Seoul, volunteers to assist them. However he and Park's methods clash. Seo deems Baek's hands too weak and scarred to be able to commit such an elaborate crime, clearing his name. After more murders are committed, they realize that the killer waits until a rainy night and only kills women wearing red. Officer Kwon Kwi-ok realizes that a local radio station is always requested to play a particular song during the nights the murders are committed.

At the latest crime scene, Park, Cho and Seo all arrive to investigate in different ways, but a local man there masturbates in a woman's red lingerie. Park and Cho apprehend the man, brutally beating him. Seo finds a survivor of the killer with Kwon's help. Upon learning that the killer's hands were noticeably soft, Seo clears the man, as his hands are rough. Infuriated that they lost their suspect, Park scuffles with Seo until Kwon alerts them that the song on the radio is playing. They realize it's raining but arrive too late, finding another woman murdered. Park, Seo and Cho finally decide to work together.

Upon doing an autopsy of the latest victim, they discover pieces of a peach in the body. Clues lead them to a factory worker, Park Hyeon-gyu. Seo notes that his hands are soft like the survivor had described. Hyeon-gyu begins to show discomfort when Seo presents the peaches and they think they've found the killer. Cho loses control and beats Hyeon-gyu, prompting their superior to ban him from the interrogation room. Park and Seo listen to Baek's earlier confession. Seo points out that he talks as if someone else did it and they realize he knew details of the murder because he witnessed it. They go to Baek's father's restaurant, only to discover a drunken Cho there. As people watch news and ridicule police officers, he beats everyone and Baek joins the fray, swinging a wooden board at Cho's leg and accidentally piercing it with a rusty nail. Park and Seo chase Baek and question him, but he gets frightened and runs into the path of an oncoming train, where he is hit and killed.

Park learns that Cho's leg will have to be amputated because the nail caused tetanus, leaving him feeling guilty. They discover semen on one of the bodies, but because of lack of technology, the sample has to be sent to the United States to confirm if suspect Hyeon-gyu is the killer. That night, a young girl is killed. At the crime scene, Seo recognizes the girl as the same schoolgirl he had befriended while investigating. Enraged, he attacks Hyeon-gyu until he is interrupted by Park bringing the results from America. The sample does not match Hyeon-gyu's DNA. Park lets Hyeon-gyu go.

In the end, the crimes remain unsolved. While visiting the crime scene years later in 2003, Park Doo-man, now a businessman, learns from a little girl that the scene had recently been visited by an unknown man with a 'normal' face, someone who looked very ordinary. The little girl had asked the man why he was looking at the ditch; the man had responded that he was reminiscing about something he had done there a long time ago. The film ends as Park, realizing the truth, looks straight at the camera, seemingly using his eye-contact method to spot the killer among the audience.

• Song Kang-ho – Park Doo-man, the detective in charge of solving the murders
• Kim Sang-kyung – Seo Tae-yoon, a younger but also much more experienced detective from Seoul who volunteers to help Park
• Kim Roi-ha – Cho Yong-koo, Park's partner who beats suspects, and is popular among women
• Song Jae-ho – Sergeant Shin Dong-chul, the detectives' superior
• Byun Hee-bong – Sergeant Koo Hee-bong, another superior working on the case
• Go Seo-hee – Officer Kwon Kwi-ok, a female police officer who works with the other detectives to solve the case
• Park No-shik – Baek Kwang-ho, an intellectually disabled man and one of the suspects
• Park Hae-il – Park Hyeon-gyu, a factory worker and another suspect of the case
• Jeon Mi-seon – Kwok Seol-yung, Park Doo-man's girlfriend
• Yeom Hye-ran – So-hyeon's mother

Memories of Murder received as a cult film following his debut in a year, later in decade was internationally praised by numerous publications, referred to as one of the greatest films of 2000s, one of the best crime films ever made, and one of the best South Korean films of all time. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 94% based on 63 reviews, with an average rating of 8.20/10. The site's critics consensus reads, "Memories of Murder blends the familiar crime genre with social satire and comedy, capturing the all-too human desperation of its key characters."[4] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 82 out of 100 based on 15 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[5] The film won the South Korean film industry's 2003 Grand Bell Awards for best film, while Bong Joon-ho and Song Kang-ho won the awards for best director and best leading actor respectively.[6]

By the end of the film's domestic run it had been seen by 5,101,645 people,[7] making it the most watched film during the year 2003 in South Korea. While it was eventually outgained by Silmido, which was released in the same year, most of Silmido's audience did not see it until 2004. At the end of the film's run, Memories of Murder was also the fourth most viewed film of all time in the country, after Shiri, Friend and Joint Security Area. The commercial success of the film has been credited as saving one of its production companies, Sidus Pictures, from bankruptcy.[8]

Memories of Murder received screenings at several international film festivals, including Cannes Film Festival, Hawaii International Film Festival, London International Film Festival, Tokyo International Film Festival and San Sebastian International Film Festival, where Bong Joon-ho won the Best Director Award.[9]

Director Quentin Tarantino named it, along with Bong's The Host, one of his Top 20 favorite movies since 1992.[10] It was also chosen as the best Korean film of the century.[11] Sight & Sound included it in their list of "30 key films that defined the decade".[12] It was no. 63 in Slant Magazine's list of the 100 best films of the aughts.[13]

In 2010, Film Comment listed their top films of the decade based on an international poll of various cinephiles including filmmakers, critics and academics.[14] Two films directed by Bong Joon-ho were included in the list – The Host (no. 71) and Memories of Murder (no. 84).[14]

While a total body count was never mentioned in the film, at least 10 similar murders were committed in the Hwaseong area between October 1986 and April 1991. This killing spree became known as the Hwaseong serial murders.

Some of the details of the murders, such as the killer gagging the women with their underwear, were also taken from the case.[15] As in the film, the investigators found bodily fluids suspected to belong to the murderer in the crime scenes, but did not have access to equipment to determine whether the DNA matched with the suspects until late in the investigations. After the ninth murder, DNA evidence was sent to Japan (unlike the film, where it was sent to America) for analysis, but the results did not correspond with the suspects.[16]

As in the film, at the time of its release, the actual murderer had not yet been caught. As the case was growing closer to reaching the statute of limitations, South Korea's leading Uri Party sought to amend the law to give the prosecutors more time to find the murderer. However, in 2006, the statute of limitations was reached for the last-known victim.[17] More than 13 years later, on 18 September 2019, police announced that a man in his 50s, Lee Choon-jae, had been identified as a suspect in the killings.[18] He was identified after DNA from the underwear of one of the victims was matched with his, and subsequent evidence linked him to four of the ten murders.[19] At the time he was identified he was already serving a life sentence at a prison in Busan for the rape and murder of his sister-in-law.[20]

Lee initially denied any involvement in the serial murders,[21] but on 2 October 2019, police announced that Lee had confessed to killing 14 people, including all 10 serial murders and 4 others. Two of those murders happened in Suwon, and the other two happened in Cheongju. As of October 2019, details about those 5 victims have not been released because the investigation is ongoing.[22] In addition to the murders, he also confessed to more than 30 rapes and attempted rapes.[23][24]

After Lee's arrest, Bong Joon-ho commented, "When I made the film, I was very curious, and I also thought a lot about this murderer. I wondered what he look[ed] like." He later added, "I was able to see a photo of his face. And I think I need more time to really explain my emotions from that, but right now I’d just like to applaud the police force for their endless effort to find the culprit.”[25]

Screenwriter Kim Eun-hee (Sign, Phantom) was attached to a television adaptation with the working title Signal, which aired on tvN in 2016.[27]

Gap-dong, which aired on tvN in 2014, was also loosely inspired by the film.

• Memories of Murder at IMDb
• Memories of Murder at AllMovie
• Memories of Murder at Box Office Mojo
• Memories of Murder at Metacritic
• Memories of Murder at Rotten Tomatoes
• Darcy Paquet's review at Koreanfilm.org
• Memories of Murder at HanCinema
• Memories of Murder at the Korean Movie Database