When the discovery of the body of one young girl leads to the discovery of another young girl’s body, local police are suddenly and rudely made aware that this might be more than an isolated incident removed with paperwork. Though well meaning, cops in sleepy locales often aren’t prepared for such cases and the early efforts are often stymied by amateur stuff. Keenness isn’t necessarily a synonym for competence.
Enter the experienced ‘guy from the city’. A quiet man with an eye for detail, he instantly develops leads and theories, much to the chagrin of the earnest locals who mistakenly assumed they were the men for the job.
The search is lengthy and often leads to dead ends and occasional and tantalising near misses. There are chase scenes, breakthroughs and let downs. Thankfully there are equally no wise cracking sidekicks, no savant style geniuses or people with the ability to see the future. This might harm the Wow factor, but adds to the authenticity of the film. Something that was obviously a primary aim of the director, who went on to make the pretty good The Host and the overrated Mother.
Apparently based upon a real life series of unsolved murders in South Korea, Memories of Murder is a tantalising Zodiac style police procedural, with the point of difference being that in real life police investigations aren’t helmed by charismatic over actors with the ability to see the one vital clue regardless of circumstances, and that cases aren’t busted within 42 minutes, with the culprit always some guy or gal that they questioned earlier.
No in this case the truth is far more carefully secreted and not able to be uncovered after a rapid fire verbal exchange or a random clue appearing at the right time.
Final Rating – 6.5 / 10. Here is a film that ignores the thrill of the chase in favour of the authenticity and frustration of the tedious procedure. It is well made and often compelling, but not necessarily what you might expect going in.
