Memories of Murder

• When women start turning up dead in a small town in South Korea in 1987, two reluctantly-partnered cops resolved to bring him to justice. But it was a very different world then, and without DNA testing or modern forensics, the investigators are forced to rely mainly on intuition and brute force. This film is a riveting tale of a mysterious killer and the ceaseless pressure on those charged with st

Based on the true story of South Korea’s first serial killer. When women start turning up dead in a small town in S. Korea in 1986, two reluctantly-partnered cops resolve to bring him to justice. Without DNA testing or modern forensics, the investigators are forced to rely mainly on intuition and brute force. At times both touching and hilarious, MEMORIES OF MURDER is a riveting tale of a mysterious killer and the ceaseless pressure on those charged with stopping his rampage.A South Korean thri! ller based on a true story, Memories of Murder comes across like a hybrid of Silence of the Lambs and One False Move. A pair of rural detectives, Park (Song Kang-ho) and Jo (Kim Roe-ha), chafe when a Seoul detective named Seo (Kim Sang-kyung) gets involved in their big case: Korea's first known serial killer, who's killed two women on rainy nights. Seo is dismayed by the rural cops' interrogation methods, which consist of beating suspects until they confess--and they aren't above planting evidence or "helping" a suspect remember the details of his crime. While Park and Jo seek clues from fortune tellers and magic charms, Seo struggles to build a case from hard evidence and the forensic approaches only just starting to take hold (the movie is set in 1986). Shots of the victims and jolting moments of violence give Memories of Murder a dose of gruesomeness, but the movie has more on its mind that exploitation. Visually stylish and psychologically a! stute, Memories of Murder is as much a portrait of cult! ural cha nge as a serial killer mystery. --Bret Fetzer