tm Does the QT 20 Part 17: Memories of a Murder

Memories of Murder (aka Salinui chueok; dir. Joon-ho Bong - 2003)

Despite the Hallmark/gotta be a rom-com, title, this is a very good movie.

Taking place in small-town South Korea, there’s a serial killer loose. The local cops are unable to solve it and public pressure is mounting; they are generally more inclined to force/beat confessions out of suspects so early confessions turn out to be deadends. A cop from Seoul arrives to help with the case; he’s not a fan of the rough justice of his new partners and they’re unhappy being saddled with an outsider.

The dichotomies are there – good cop/bad cop, city cop/country cop, solving the case by pounding the pavement or using your head, etc. but the movie never polarizes the characters. The main cops are nuanced and neither one is being set up as a straw man for the audience’s sympathies.

This director also did The Host and shares many actors with that movie. Memories has some genuinely chilling scenes but not sensationalized. It doesn’t answer all the questions that it poses about the characters, motivations, etc. but those that it does, it lets them unfold.

tm sez: 8/10

tm Does the QT 20 Part 15: J.S.A. (Joint Security Area)

Joint Security Area (aka Gongdong gyeongbi guyeok JSA; dir. Chan-wook Park – 2000)

Another Korean movie with an ensemble cast, featuring Kang-ho Song (here for the third time - soon to be seen in the QT 20 as the slacker father in The Host and the rural detective in Memories of a Murder).

The movie deals with the fallout from an armed confrontation between North and South Korean soldiers in the demilitarized zone between the two countries, leaving two North Koreans dead, a third wounded as well as one of the South Koreans. A Swiss/Korean woman leads the investigation, interviews the survivors and tries to piece together what really happened. The movie unfolds via flashbacks and there are allegations about the investigator’s impartiality.
The female playing the investigator is a bit one-dimensional but the four actors playing the Korean soldiers are very good and the interaction between them unfolds naturally.

Like Memories of a Murder, this movie is well done and was a pleasant surprise.

tm sez: 7/10