Memories of Murder

Powerful, unrelenting, and with excellent performances — especially from Song who is never less than outstanding — Memories of Murder is unforgettable and justifiably described as a masterpiece.

What emerges is quite extraordinary.

Dark—with a black wit to match—this serial-killer thriller from director Bong Joon-Ho functions clinically as a genre exercise, while also holding persuasive power as a stark meditation on police corruption.

As exciting for its narrative twists and turns as for its Korean textures and rhythms.

What distinguishes Memories of Murder, setting it apart from rank-and-file thrillers, is its singular mix of gallows humor and unnerving solemnity.

What seems like a meandering comedy of police ineptitude eventually tightens into a gripping character study that defies genre conventions.

The script is as sloppy as Song's unkempt cop, sprinkled with intriguing ideas and imaginative details that, like the investigation, simply get lost in blind alleys.

From start to finish this movie was amazing. Even when the movie introduces some comedic elements it always lands. The ending is just one of the and most tension filled I have ever seen.

Masterpiece. Very interesting and beautiful colour palate. Realistic. Every other scene was comical.

(Mauro Lanari) "Quid est veritas?" (John 18: 38) and "unde malum?" have weighed on existence long before the latinorum. In the noir, tunnels with this tragic connotation already appeared in "The Third Man" (Reed / Welles, 1949) or in the filmography of another "gòok" like Kurosawa. Recommended for greenhorns and recidivists.

I've seen worse and much, much better. This film does not know what it wants to be a comedy or a thriller. Many films have accomplished combining those two elements to success, but not this one. Though there are some very well done scenes and, at times, an appropriate dark mood attached to the film, it is quite uneven. The acting pretty bad, also.

If there was a film I was utterly disappointed in that I thought would be wonderful it would be Zodiac which took the intriguingly dark story of the Zodiac killings and brought a whole lot of suspense and mystery and built it up to a crescendo only to leave the viewer wondering what the point was with an ending so utterly muddled it spoilt the entire film. My opinion of Memories of Murder follows the same logic but I look back on it more favourably than Zodiac thanks to some artistic flair by director Bong Joon-ho and some entertaining dark comedy. The story is about a two inept police officers who are trying to catch a serial killer who is **** and murdering girls in the district. They are joined by an intelligent (in comparison to the other two he is Einstein) detective from Seoul brought in to apprehend the killer. The story is based on real events but it does bring an interesting theatricality to the events with the comedy lightening the dire situation. However it doesnâ