Memories of Murder

This a review of Memories of Murder from the website Left Field Cinema by M. Dawson.

‘Over the past decade one nation has emerged as the leading force for cinematic innovation, and originality – South Korea. It came to wider notice with Park Chan Wook’s Oldboy in 2003, and outstanding and elaborate vendetta movie which presented a distinctive visual style with squirm inducing violence. Preceded by Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance and followed by Sympathy for Lady Vengeance, Oldboy was the centre piece of what is now known as the Vengeance trilogy. Continuing with Wook’s filmography there is his feature debut Joint Security Area and his latest release I’m A Cyborg, But That’s Okay. Both of which are excellent in their own right for different reasons. Wook brought South-Korean cinema to a wider audience but it is the output of his contemporaries which strengthens the reputation: Ji-woon Kim’s ultra violent action thriller A Bitter Sweet Life; Ki-duk Kim’s meditative, spiritual and deeply philosophical Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter and Spring and his follow-up Three Iron. The list goes on and on, and if we dig a little deeper then we discover a relatively unsung talent, that of director Joon-ho Bong, director of the 2006 world cinema stealth hit The Host. But before The Host comes his sophomore film Memories of Murder, released in the same year as Oldboy, it was unfortunately eclipsed by Wook’s massive success. A shame as it is a far subtler film, which challenges the conventions of its genre in unexpected ways as this episode will hopefully illustrate.’ [read more on leftfieldcinema.com]

The blog Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist posted a new review about Memories of Murder. It’s never too late to discovery this movie!:)

‘Despite my disappointment in Korean director Bong Joon-ho’s latest movie Mother, I was so impressed with The Host, the one that preceded it, that I was determined to look further into his work, especially since I found him such an intriguing personality when he spoke at The Korea Society about a month ago on a publicity tour for Mother.’ [read more on louisproyect.wordpress.com]