Review: Bong Joon-ho’s Early Masterpiece ‘Memories Of Murder’ Sees Two-Day Theatrical Re-release

After Bong Joon-ho’s landmark Oscar wins earlier this year for the thriller Parasite, the director’s prospects have never been brighter. What’s more, a number of his exceptional earlier films are getting new life outside South Korea, including the masterful Mother (2009), a murder mystery about a mother’s love, and Memories of Murder, a 2003 crime thriller based on the true story of one of South Korea’s first serial killers. It’s the second feature film of his career as director, his first true masterpiece, and the film will be available in theaters for two days (today and tomorrow, October 20th) as a newly remastered re-release (thanks to Neon, the company that distributed the history-making Parasite) before launching on VOD on 10/27.

Two women are found murdered in October of 1986, their bodies unceremoniously left in a ditch. The evidence was improperly collected, while detectives’ forensic capacity is limited and detective Park Doo-man (an excellent Song Kang-ho in his first collaboration with Bong Joon-ho) is overwhelmed with the difficulties of the case. He clashes with Seo Tae-yoon (an authoritative and great performance from Kim Sang-kyung), a Seoul detective volunteering assistance on the case, and we follow the detectives through a series of red herrings, investigative readjustments, and breaks in the case, until… I won’t spoil the ending.

Memories of Murder is an excellent police procedural with a strong script, co-written by Bong Joon-ho and Shim Sung-bo and adapted from Kim Kwang-rim’s stage play about the killings. The film also really highlights Bong Joon-ho’s excellence as a director, making use of a number of the elements that run through his later works. We see the comical ineptitude of authorities pitted against shockingly violent situations (a major element of The Host); effortless tonal shifts and moments of sudden levity breaking the tension before it tenses up once more (found in all his films from The Host and Mother through Parasite); and a deepening, multi-layered narrative that takes sudden twists and turns, staying continually ahead of the audience.

The film is now widely considered a stunning example of the potential of crime dramas, with smart satirical elements and an engaging set of shifts in the plot that keep the audience guessing as to what, exactly, will happen. It had the best domestic release in South Korea in 2003 at the time of its release (and was, at that time, the fourth most viewed film of all time in the country), saving one of its production companies (Sidus Pictures) from bankruptcy. The film hasn’t had as wide a viewership in the U.S. as some of his other films, receiving a comparably limited home release compared to some of the director’s other films (like the ever-popular The Host and Snowpiercer), and it hasn’t been re-released in the U.S… until now.

Fathom Events CEO Ray Nutt said in a statement:

“We are so proud to be partnering with Neon to bring Academy Award winner Bong Joon Ho’s thriller ‘Memories of Murder’ to U.S. audiences for the first time since its original release in 2003. Audiences will enjoy seeing the early work of this critically acclaimed director on the big screen.”

Bong Joon Ho added, “[This] case is an intertwined web of tragedy and black comedy — the eerie comedy that blooms within the air during the most absurd of times. The film is an uncanny, yet natural, mixture of horror and comedy because we were truly living in such times…I once threw my entire body and soul to create this film, and now my eyes are on how this film will plow through the long tunnel of time as it greets a new chapter in the fall of 2020 in the U.S.”

The film will be screened for two nights only on October 19th and 20th, followed by a post-screening dialogue between directors Bong Joon-ho and Edgar Wright about the film and its legacy. Following the re-release, the film will drop 10/27 on VOD and eventually be released widely on Blu-ray as part of the Criterion Collection. If you can see it safely, it’s easily worth your time.