In his breakthrough second feature, Bong Joon Ho explodes the conventions of the policier with thrillingly subversive, genre-defying results. Based on the true story of a string of serial killings that rocked a rural community in the 1980s, Memories of Murder stars New Korean Cinema icon Song Kang Ho as the local officer who reluctantly joins forces with a seasoned Seoul detective (Kim Sang Kyung) to investigate the crimes—leading each man on a wrenching, yearslong odyssey of failure and frustration that will drive him to the existential edge. Combining a gripping procedural with a vivid social portrait of the everyday absurdity of life under military rule, Bong fashions a haunting journey into ever-deepening darkness that begins as a black-comic satire and ends as a soul-shattering encounter with the abyss.
Technical Specifications
Supplements
- Audio commentary from 2009 featuring writer/director Bong Joon-ho, cinematographer Hyeong-gyu Kim and production designer Seong-hie Yu
- Audio commentary from 2009 featuring writer/director Bong Joon-ho and cast members Song Kang-ho, Kim Sang-kyung and Park No-shik
- Audio commentary featuring critic Tony Rayns
- New program featuring filmmaker Guillermo del Toro
- New interview with Bong Joon-ho about the real-life serial killer who inspired the film
- Documentary from 2004 on the making of the film
- Deleted scenes, with optional audio commentary by Bong Joon-ho
- New program about the use of sound in Bong’s work, featuring film scholar Jeff Smith
- Incoherence, a 1994 student film by Bong, with a new introduction by the director
- Teaser
- Trailer
- TV spot
- An essay by critic and novelist Ed Park