Salinui chueok (2003)

Director:

Joon-ho Bong

Writers:

Joon-ho Bong (writer)
Kwang-rim Kim (writer)

Release Date:

2 May 2003 (South Korea)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

Plot:

In 1986, in the province of Gyunggi, in South Korea, a second young and beautiful woman is found dead...

Plot Keywords:

Forensic Evidence | Forced Confession | Falsely Arrested | Serial Murder | Clue

Awards:

11 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

Kang-ho Song	...	Detective Park Doo-Man
Sang-kyung Kim	...	Detective Seo Tae-Yoon
Roe-ha Kim	...	Detective Cho Yong-koo
Jae-ho Song	...	Sergeant Shin Dong-chul
Hie-bong Byeon	...	Sergeant Koo Hee-bong
Seo-hie Ko	...	Officer Kwon Kwi-ok
No-shik Park	...	Baek, Kwang-ho
Hae-il Park	...	Park, Hyeon-gyu
Jong-ryol Choi	...	Du-man's father
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
In-seon Jeong
Mi-seon Jeon	...	Kwok Seol-yung
Ha-kyeong Kim
Jae-eung Lee
Young-hwa Seo
Ji-ru Sung

Also Known As:

Memories of Murder (International: English title)

Runtime:

Argentina:128 min | Canada:129 min (Toronto International Film Festival) | Germany:127 min (Filmfest Hamburg) | South Korea:130 min | USA:132 min

Country:

South Korea

Language:

Korean | English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Germany:16 | Argentina:16 | Singapore:M18 | South Korea:15 | Hong Kong:IIB | Japan:PG-12 | UK:15 | Australia:MA | USA:Unrated

Company:

CJ Entertainment

Trivia:

When Kwang-Ho was investigated in the basement of the police station, the two police officers and a suspect watched a TV program while eating their meals. The title of this program is "Soo Sa Ban Jang" which can be loosely interpreted as "Investigation Squad" in English. It was a famous TV detective drama which was aired for almost twenty years. The opening music was also very popular during that time.

Goofs:

The letter from the FBI about the semen DNA testing is signed by director Clarence M. Kelly. Kelly was director from 1973-1978. William H. Webster was director in 1986.

Quotes:

Rape suspect: But... is wanking a crime?

Movie Connections:

References Body Heat (1981)

Scapegoats Inc.

Memories Of Murder is based on a true story of a south-Korean little village in which someone begins to murder young women. The Police can't catch the killer so an agent comes from Seoul to give a hand in the investigation. Soon he'll find that local police's methods are rather brutal, and that they're most interested on finding a scapegoat, someone to blame in order to ease the in tranquility of the population, than on catching the real killer (according to the real facts, they never catched the author of those crimes).

The script is solid as a rock, and it's been filmed in a realistic style. trying to show the facts as they happened. Maybe they should've made a shorter movie, and cut some sequences out (the scenes of the interrogations to the three different suspects are a little bit reiterative), and the ending seems a little forced to me. Anyway, Memories Of Murder is much more effective and serious than the most of nowadays' Hollywood detective films.

My rate: 7.5/10