Memories of Murder

Before I watched Joon-ho Bong's Memories of Murder (2003), I had heard a lot of good things about the film. There was even a guy who included it in his five favorite films of all time. So naturally, my expectations were high for the film even though I doubted a little whether the film could be so good.

Memories of Murder tells about three detectives working on a serial murder case in a small Korean town. The film subverts the viewers' expectations all the time by breaking the conventions of the genre. While it uses a lot of the cliched tropes (such as false arrests, torturing innocent people), the path these tropes take the story is vastly different from a conventional detective story.

Instead of focusing on the mystery completely, the film is more about the main characters. Their gradual yet complex character development is the driving force of the whole film. I read somewhere that there is a strong political subtext behind two of the detectives, but I'm not sure if it was only someone reading too much into the film or not. However, the film does have social themes along with the more personal ones so the interpretation of the two characters is probably not completely pointless.

The most confusing thing about Memories of Murder is its balance between comedy and drama. Bong is better when he focuses more on being satirical, but in Memories of Murder he leans more towards being serious and dramatic. And that's why the bits of hilarious comedy don't really fit into the film. The dramatic moments are also handled in a weird way because the film is emotionally quite confusing - and I don't see why this film should be so.

Formally Bong delivers again. His cinematography is simply wonderful to look at: the lighting and colors represent the psychological state of the characters (becomes darker and darker as the film goes on); the compositions are beautiful; the camera drives are impressive yet again in the long takes. Bong can create intensity to any scene with simple yet excellent camera movement.

Memories of Murder is a film that had the potential to become a masterpiece, but some of its brilliance was lost already in the writing process. However, the final result is an entertaining and thought-provoking film that I would recommend for anyone.

Score: 8 out of 10