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Memories of Murder

Salinui chueok (Memories of Murder)

2003

Bong Joon-ho

Song Kang-ho, Kim Sang-Kyung, Kim Roe-ha, Song Jae-ho ...

7.6

25,388

Mystery. Thriller South Korea in 1986 under the military dictatorship: Two rural cops and a special detective from the capital investigate a series of brutal rape murder. Their rude measures become more desperate with each new corpse found. Based on a true case.

	Media	Author	Review
		Derek Elley Variety	"A powerful, slow-burning portrait of human fallibility. "
		Jonathan Romney The Independent	"The film ends with a masterly closing touch that no mainstream mystery thriller would countenance: a big question mark and a sense of enduring unease. This, surely, is the stamp of a truly satisfying mystery thriller"
		Jonathan Rosenbaum Chicago Reader	"[Bong Joon-ho] made his feature debut with the grisly black comedy 'Barking Dogs Never Bite' (2000), but this one (2003) is far more ambitious and nuanced."
		Manohla Dargis The New York Times	"[It] is such a taut, effective thriller it's a shame you have to read subtitles to gauge just how good a movie it is (...) [It] works better than most Hollywood thrillers"
		Scott Tobias AV Club	"Bong plays most of the events for broad, uproarious comedy while still managing a devastating undercurrent of sadness. It takes enormous skill to pull off such a high-wire act without diminishing the gravity of the situation"
		Bilge Ebiri Village Voice	"[It] has lost none of its power to unsettle, and today it feels even stranger than ever"
		Jason Clark Slant	"The film sometimes feels like an episode of 'CSI': Korea (...) The film is overlong at 132 minutes, but never dull or predictable (…) Rating: ★★½ (out of 4)"
		Patrick Frater Screendaily	"'Memories Of Murder' is one of the most complete and compelling films to have come out of South Korea in recent years (...) [It] is by turn mysterious, dramatic, creepy and corroding (…) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"
		Brian Tallerico rogerebert.com	"While it may have taken way too long for 'Memories of Murder' to get a wide U.S. release, there’s something rewarding about seeing it in artistic conversation with his biggest hit (…) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 4)"

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