REVIEWED - MEMORIES OF MURDER (SALINUI CHUEOK): Based on the true story of the aftermath of South Korea's first recorded serial murders, this singular thriller seeks to marry the procedural police drama with the comedy of incompetence, writes Donald Clarke.
The film doesn't really fit together, but it features a number of startling set-pieces and boasts one of the most impressive final scenes you could hope to witness.
It is 1986 in the province of Gyeonggi, and local girls are being brutally raped and murdered in the remote forests and swamps. A disciplined, careful detective arrives from Seoul to help the local police force that, throughout the film, bungles its way about: suspects are hung up by their heels, the cops get drunk and vomit into ice-buckets, badly planned murder reconstructions go hopelessly wrong.
Memories of Murder is, however, a thoughtful piece of work. When the detectives are forced to wait days while they send a DNA test to the US, it becomes clear that director Bong Joon-Ho wants to get across the grim, backward state of Korea at the time. To reinforce the point, a coda shows one of the characters living in relaxed affluence in the present. At such moments the film really starts to make sense. But the seriousness of intent is constantly undermined by lurches into unlikely slapstick.
Nonetheless, the rooted, sincere performance of Byun Hee-bong as the local detective who feels the universe pressing in on him and the crisp, no-nonsense direction compensate for the film's unsatisfying turns. Memories of Murder may not always work, but it is never boring.
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