2003 | South Korea | Fiction

살인의 추억 | Salinui chueok (Memories of Murder)

  • Korean 131 mins
  • Director | Bong Joon Ho
  • Writer | Bong Joon Ho, Shim Sung Bo
  • Producer | Tcha Sung Jai

STATUS: Released

This film is currently not available.   

In his breakthrough second feature, Bong Joon Ho explodes the conventions of the policier with thrillingly subversive, genre-defying results. Based on the true story of a string of serial killings that rocked a rural community in the 1980s, Memories of Murder stars New Korean Cinema icon Song Kang Ho as the local officer who reluctantly joins forces with a seasoned Seoul detective (Kim Sang Kyung) to investigate the crimes—leading each man on a wrenching, yearslong odyssey of failure and frustration that will drive him to the existential edge. Combining a gripping procedural with a vivid social portrait of the everyday absurdity of life under military rule, Bong fashions a haunting journey into ever-deepening darkness that begins as a black-comic satire and ends as a soul-shattering encounter with the abyss.

Investigation Oppression Absurdity Darkness Tragedy
Film Organizations
The Criterion Collection
DISTRIBUTION