Salinui chueok (2003)

User Rating:

8.1/10   

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:

South Korea | Murder | Serial Killer | Serial Rape | Unsolved Crime

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:

Canada:129 min (Toronto International Film Festival) | Germany:127 min (Filmfest Hamburg) | South Korea:130 min | USA:132 min | Argentina:128 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 | France:U | Sweden:15 | 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:

Anachronisms: 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)

Jarringly disturbing and haunting film

I have long since heard of the excellence of this korean movie on koreanfilm.org, but it was only after reading the review in detail and realizing that the score was written by Taro Ishiwaro ( a well known Japanese musician who also wrote scores for Shohei Imamura and Japanese TV serials, including The Inanimate World ), and that the DOP was Kim Hyung-gu (who also shot Musa, One Fine Spring Day and Chen Kaige's Together) that it stumped on me I was indeed missing a masterpiece.

And a masterpiece it is, one deeply haunting and disturbing asian crime thriller. The mood invoked during the last few minutes of the film is something you would probably never forget.

Watch this film not only for its cinematic brilliance, but also because of the mezmerising score written by Taro Ishiwaro, track no 29 on the OST the favourite on my list.