There are many aspects of Memories of Murder to unpack but one thing that stood out to me was the clear demonstration of how inept, violent, and corrupt cops who do more harm than good are a perennial issue across the globe. Yeah, there’s a serial murderer on the loose which is obviously no good but when the police are passively complicit in the ongoing madness due to their repeated, inexcusable failures there’s kind of a larger issue at play.

Bong Joon Ho (director of Parasite, Snowpiercer, & The Host) tells the mid 80s story of a small Korean province where many young women are being raped and murdered while the detectives tasked with investigating the case, Park Doo-man (Song Kang-Ho), Seo Tae-yoon (Sang-kyung Kim), and Cho Yong-koo (Roe-ha Kim), spend their time beating witnesses, torturing suspects, and generally stumbling around like fools.

I’ll put the astonishingly bad at their job cops aside for a moment and move on to other aspects, but really–they’re worse than useless. As one familiar with some of Bong Joon Ho’s other work might expect, Memories of Murder is definitely well directed. I can think of a few memorable scenes and shots off the top of my head, as opposed to many films that fade away once the credits roll. The score and cinematography were nicely done and the setting certainly had a lived-in reality to it. As far as the performances go, everyone was mostly adequate (not much more) but I will say a couple supporting cast members veered into cartoonish territory a little.

Memories of Murder actually has a bit of a sense of humor throughout, which is welcome, but now and again the silliness feels more like deleted scene material than final cut. Most scenes could use a trim, honestly. Just as easily as recalling a few memorable moments I could list many shots that simply go on longer than they need to like someone forgot to yell cut and it was left as is.

I was vaguely reminded of David Fincher’s Zodiac in how an endless investigation with a complete lack of communication and resources takes a toll on those people putting countless hours in over months or years. The detectives in Memories of Murder immediately go to the beating, degradation, and torture methods for any witness/suspect/person of interest/etc they’re partial to, however, so whatever long-term impacts the case might have on their psyche is fairly irrelevant to me as they’re all pretty much criminals who should be in jail. My two cents.

So, if you’ve enjoyed any of Bong Joon Ho’s other work then give Memories of Murder a chance when you can. I’d be surprised if you hate it. Oh, and once you watch it go ahead and look up the real cases much of it was based on–this movie came out in 2003 and there have been some additional developments. 

7 out of 10 Worse Than Useless Cops