More information about the “Crime Scene: Four Films by Bong Joon-ho” @ Wisconsin Film Festival 2010
Wisconsin Filmfestival 2010 Double Feature Preview: Bong Joon-Ho’s “Memories of Murder” and “The Host” by Adam Schabow at dane101.com
Memories of Murder
Bong Joon-Ho’s Memories of Murder is a beautiful piece of storytelling that wraps suspense, comedy and film noir into a complex investigative detective story. The movie is based on South Korea’s first known serial murders that occurred from 1986-1991.
The film follows Detective Park Doo-man and Detective Seo Tae-Yoon, two drastically different detectives willing to do whatever it takes to catch the murderer. Park (wonderfully played by Song Kang-ho) is in love with being a detective, but may not have the chops for it, while Tae-Yoon calmly and constantly proves Park wrong on his findings.
If this film was made in America, Detective Tae-Yoon, the good looking, genuinely cool handed detective would have been the lead. But instead, in South Korea, Jun-Ho takes a less traditional approach and rightfully hands the lead off to the more interesting character, Parks, who constantly comes to wrong conclusions and is repeatedly willing to plant evidence and beat and coerce confessions. Even the local mentally handicapped boy isn’t safe from his misguided efforts. [read more on dane101.com]
