A tense, old-school crime pic with a dark edge that's not for the squeamish, Bong Joon-ho's Memories Of Murder also works as a hilariously funny comedy in which a police officer and his bumbling colleagues arrest and abuse various suspects. Even The Three Stooges would wince at the extent of police brutality on display in this South Korean pic, as the investigative team rely on a torrent of slaps, cuffs, and outright beatings to get their man.
23 October 1986: the body of a woman is found in a drainage ditch in a field. The investigating officer is Sergeant Hee-bong Koo (Byun Hee-bong), a graduate from the school of hard knocks who's happier beating rather than convicting suspects. Within minutes of his arrival, the crime scene is in disarray as a tractor drives over a vital piece of evidence and kids run wild through the field. It's like watching the Keystone Cops, Korean style.
Professionalism isn't high on the agenda. A drunken night in a karaoke bar ends with the police chief puking into an ice bucket. Koo beats a mentally challenged suspect half-to-death then buys him a pair of Nike trainers to say sorry when he realises he's actually completely innocent (Koo's so cheap the label reads 'Nice', not Nike). A reconstruction of the crime features a policeman in drag and leaves Koo convinced - for reasons too difficult to explain - that the killer has no pubic hair.
"A REFRESHINGLY MATURE THRILLER"
Yet it's not played simply for laughs. Based on the real-life story of Korea's first recorded serial killer, Memories Of Murder raises some troublesome questions about the nature of justice and the fallibility of investigative police methods before DNA testing. A refreshingly mature thriller that succeeds in its ambitious attempt to blend quips and killings, it's reminiscent of Kang Woo-seok's equally slap-happy Public Enemy, only funnier, nastier, and with much more to say for itself.
In Korean with English subtitles.
Memories Of Murder (Salinui Chueok) (2004)
