Memories of Murder

The film Memories of Murder shines as a fine example of the multi-genre style of Korean cinema. In its
first viewing it is not hard to fall into the trap of calling it an engaging murder mystery, but on
magnifying each image in the carefully crafted plot, you stumble upon innumerable events that point
towards the actual aim of the film. Beneath the narrative there lie hints of events that point towards the
political situation in Korea during the time.

Set in the 1986 which is around the same time as the military dictatorship in Korea, each individual
character in the film has certain traits that are obviously formed and developed due to a harsh and
unsettling political uprising. in fact, right from the beginning, when the child is casually watching the
detective retrieving the victim’s decaying body from the drain, the tone of the film is set. Against a
picturesque, tranquil background of the yellow fields on a bright sunny day, a female corpse raped and
murdered is found while the local children casually run and play around it. This visual play between the
two extremes continues throughout the film and marks the multi layered agenda of the director when
he made it. The entire episode is even more disturbing as the rapes and subsequent murders of women
happen not in a big, bustling urban background but instead in a rural situation wherein people are
expected to know everyone and news travels fast. Moreover, the absurdity of their indifferent attitudes
strikes harder because owing to a smaller scale, the murderer would probably belong to the same
village. Despite these reasons, the people living around the area as well as the detective force are hardly
shown to have any sympathetic emotions towards the victims. Instead, they are consumed by the urge
to show their skills as crime fighters and are more concerned about the public image of their force.
Multiple mentions of the press reporters and the need to display a calm, collected picture of crime
control is a direct indicator of the distrust among people in the government.

The character building in the film has been done in a masterful manner. The protagonist who we more
or less follow throughout the film is, in a way, a spoof of the usual Hollywood style detective with
superhuman qualities. He claims to have ‘Shaman’s eye’ and you expect the character to unravel into a
detective who has mastered the art of deduction but soon this expectation shatters into pieces as he is
proven to be a rather slow witted, simple minded person who has occasional useful insights. Having said
that, it is also important to mention that the film never falls into a fully fledged comedic line as the
presence of some terribly realistic events and solemn moments balance out the ironic, parody like
scenes in the film. There are certain scenes that on the surface seem comedic and you may even chuckle
at the sheer ridiculousness of them but on being pondered on, are extremely painful and disturbing.
with the help of Cho younh koo, a violent cop, a local kid who suffers from a mental illness is tortured
and beaten up in custody with no evidence whatsoever. The desperation of the detectives to churn out
a forceful confession and their subsequent success in doing so is not as visually and emotionally painful
as the following scene where the three of them, two detectives and the innocent kid are together eating
and watching television. This scene brings out the apparent normality of the situation which under any
other circumstances would induce fury and some kind of upheaval from the victim’s side. The kid, on the
other hand is laughing and eating with the same people who just a few moments ago were beating him
up for a coughed up confession. This becomes a representation of the people’s attitudes towards crime
and injustice in Korea at the time. In this respect, the character of Cho young koo becomes a very
interesting example of the struggling youth of korea. In every questioning session with a suspect, he
would not wait to resort to violence and would hit them till they were had no choice but to confess to
the crime. When he is reprimanded by the chief for using excessive violence against the suspects, you
expect to experience a relief in the form of injustice being stopped by the chief but again, you get
disappointed as the reason behind this scolding was just to protect the image of the force. Again, the
lack of empathy among the people takes you by surprise and makes you think of the reasons behind it.
the characters, specially of the violent cop is a prime example of someone who is so consumed by the
system that he feels there is no choice but to act in violence. This idea further gets cemented when
during the presidential visit, riots break out and he is one of the oppressors who brutally attack the
protestors and rioters on the street. In the bar as well, he is quick to attack the people who voice their
opinion against detectives who torture innocent suspects without permission for forced confessions. In
this case, the detective does not even spare the woman in his blind rage as he violently turns the bar
upside down. This incident in the bar and the woman’s dialogue “ all detectives dicks should be cut off”
is very vital to the understanding of the killer’s as well the detectives’ frame of mind. the notion of
masculinity and the protection of one’s manliness is often connected to a man’s sexual conquers and
physical strength, which is why the woman’s shrewd remark in the bar becomes a trigger for him to
break out in such a violent manner. He in fact, can also be called a representative of the violent soldiers
who have been so badly contorted by the government that they are no longer in control of their
emotions, resorting to violence to escape the feeling of anger and helplessness.

Similarly, the killer, who is unexpectedly not revealed by the end of the film and in fact has no physical
presence, is also an important character adding to the purpose of the film. his inane presence through
the rampant rapes and murders sheds light on the unsettled frenzy he must have been under. Again, he
could be a witness or even a victim of the human rights violation by the military in Korea and could be
acting under this burden of torment. The rapes and murders of the women who only wear red could
lead back to a memory of the killer which reminds him of the massacre that took place in korea in the
1980s. these conditions are nowhere mentioned or shown in the film but are so subtly hinted that they
can easily be missed on the first viewing.

The detective from Seoul who enters the film has a very promising character in the beginning. he
watches other two detectives carry out their interrogation methods from the background, either
smoking a cigarette or collecting evidence on the case. Initially, the character is introduced to provide
relief from the disgusting and unjust methods of the existing detectives. He also makes a few
breakthroughs regarding the case, which further makes the protagonist, Doo man, feel undermined.
They often enter into an argument and it is made to believe to a first time viewer that this Seoul
detective has come to solve the problem of the rural dwellers. Soon, his character evolves as he finds
himself trapped in the same situation as the others. His cool, confident demeanor soon fades and
towards the end, after chasing multiple loose ends, he snaps. The cycle of events turn around
completely as the story unfolds and you realize that the aim of the film was never to reveal the killer, it
was in fact to shed light on the political condition of the country and its effect on the people, especially
the male youth. This play of revealing and not revealing continues throughout in different ways. The
histories and back stories of the characters are hardly spoken about. The faces of the victims are also
not shown, barring the school girl who was earlier introduced in the film.

‘Memories of Murder’ goes far beyond a crime thriller, a detective killer chase. It makes a comment on
the treatment of women at the time, the effect of the violent democratic uprisings in South Korea and
the mental and emotional struggle and the subsequent numbness that the people in the country
experienced at the time. The end, in itself shows the helplessness of the situation when the detective
asks the last suspect to leave. The blame for these murders and rapes could not be singularly put on one
person, the violence was interspersed in the air itself. Thus, the film is a just manifestation of the
disturbed country of Korea during the 1980s.