Cinema World Tour, Film #6
Country: South Korea
Watched in: Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh, India
Rating: 8/10
Memories of Murder > Zodiac > Se7en.
Yes, mastermind Bong Joon-Ho's earlier film lives up to the expectations. A tragic story of three men, getting more and more absurbed and changed by a series of crimes. Beautifully directed like a theatre play, using ensemble staging instead of wild editing to tell the story.
I often don't enjoy police thrillers, as I hate the police and they often just show the search for a random criminal the audience has no connection to. But Memories of Murder is different because Bong Joon-Ho doesn't choose the side of his protagonists. He shows all three policemen as vile, selfish men. It also wouldn't be Bong Joon-Ho if he wouldn't set the story into a political context. The film is set against a backdrop of South Korea's time under a military regime. The government of the fifth Korean Republic gained power by a coup d'état and wasn't accepted by the public. Many students were protesting, the elections in 1985 were won by opposition parties. Some of the protestors died in police interrogation. Bong Joon-Ho shows that openly in his film: at one point, we can see an actual demonstration, in another scene, the Chief mentions that all cops are gone to put down a protest.
So, while many people today are unsure if the police is really bad, Bong Joon-Ho makes it pretty clear that in Memories of Murder in 1986, the police were definitely and without any doubt the villains. Not only that they torture the suspects in the basement of the police station, but also that they work for and defend the brutal military regime.
That's what makes such a film interesting. A memorable crime film has to offer more than just the search for a killer. Who actually is the killer doesn't matter anyways, as the audience probably never heard about him. That's the huge problem with Se7en for example – at the disappointing end, the killer is some random guy who never appeared in the film before. No, what matters for a good crime film (same goes for the excellent Prisoners) is the character's journey, the political background and the psychological abysses of the human minds in these circumstances. Go home with your crime films, Fincher.
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