Hacker Cinema
Memories of Murder
살인의 추억
2003 · Film · 131 min
Directed by Bong Joon Ho
A sadistic serial rapist and murderer of young women terrorizes a small province in 1980s South Korea. To prevent further crimes, three increasingly desperate detectives with conflicting methods race against time to unravel the violent mind of the killer in a futile effort to solve the case.
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9 comments on Hacker News
Along with a couple of others (this [1] being an example), thanks for responding. I read paganel's follow up post [2] and was flabbergasted at how out of touch he sounded. The shock is the main reason why I chose not to respond myself this morning. You and the others gave a far more eloquent explanation than the one I would have given.
I will say this, though: just because paganel considered Bong Joon-ho's 2003 film Memories of Murder to be his best work doesn't mean that Parasite winning the Oscar for Best Picture in 2020 meant absolutely nothing in terms of South Korea's state of its cinema scene. If anything, it's even more indicative of South Korean cinema scene's stock rising in the global stage in recent years. To put it in Civilization terms (which I'm sure he won't understand due to his dismissive outlook of video games), South Korea's going for the cultural victory. Soft power really is a thing!
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29761879
[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29761389
I'd say he is a product of the 2000s, his "Memories of Murder" (imo his best movie) dates from 2003 and "The Host" from 2006, it's only now that mainstream Western audiences have gotten a chance to see his work.
I echo the sentiment. It has become harder and harder to find movies you truly like. When I was in late teens, I had made the goal to watch every good movie out there. So I quickly ran through hundreds of 8+ rated movies on IMDb and I liked most of them.
Now, there are pretty good movies in 7+ rated class too, but they are often hit or miss. But it's not impossible to find them. There are hundreds of classic I still have to go through, but having watched the 8+ my expectations are high, and it's pretty difficult to match them. But still, I find myself appreciating little things in movies. For eg, Fantastic Planet (1973) doesn't have a smart plot per se, but I like how it reflects surrealism of the 70s and it's not the kind of movie that will ever be made again.
The hardest thing is it's impossible to find recommendations that truly match my taste. Memories of Murder (2003) is rated 8+ on IMDb but I absolutely hated it. It's slow and pathetic. Misery (1990) on the other hand was A+ movie for me, but I almost found it accidentally.
Frightening and disturbing movie. It's very dark, very realistic. Unless you're very hardened against watching realistic depictions of death it will likely leave you clenching your fists and feeling tense. Similar to Spielberg's Munich. It is not a thriller or anything like that, it has none of the fantastical over-the-topness of a fictional story like Se7en-- it's a very cold depiction of truth.
By the way if you liked this movie, plug for Bong Joon-Ho's Memories of Murder, which is terrific (and much less difficult to watch.)
You can find many east european movies on youtube. Try doing the same for Adam Sandler's netflix movie.
You could even watch Memories of Murder on youtube just until Parasite won an oscar. Then they started carring. And this is a relatively new movie of a known director.
Distribution is a problem but saying this isn't blatant piracy is wrong.
You should definitely consider korean movies (Parasite, Train to Busan, The Handmaiden, Memories of Murder, The Wailing, I Saw the Devil, ...)
> Even in film the convention is that if you're character is going back, standing in the way of another character moving the plot forward, or just feeling weak or uncertain, they should face the left.
Related to your comment, even if unrelated to the theme as a whole: “Snowpiercer - Left or Right”[1]. A video essay by Tony Zhou and Taylor Ramos. Unfortunately they’ve stopped that series[2]; it was easily one of my favourite things on the internet. Off the top of my head I’ll recommend “Jackie Chan - How to Do Action Comedy”[3], “Edgar Wright - How to Do Visual Comedy”[4], and “Memories of Murder (2003) - Ensemble Staging”[5].
[1]: https://vimeo.com/110329961
[2]: https://vimeo.com/tonyzhou
[3]: https://vimeo.com/113439313
[4]: https://vimeo.com/96558506
[5]: https://vimeo.com/149936243
Excellent writing, I read the article in its entirety. This reminds me of the film Memories of Murder - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0353969/.
This one in from 2003 , but I watched it this year: Memories of a Murder http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/memories-of-murder/. It's about the first recorded serial killer from Korea. There is also 2 amazing documentary: Into Eternity http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoyKe-HxmFk and Nostalgia for the Light http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ok7f4MLL-Hk