This article was published on the Taotao Tao Film Public Account (ttfilm) on May 2, 2018. If you want to reprint, please contact DouPost .
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2003 was an extremely important year for Korean films.
Among the films released in that year, many have become classics now, such as Park Chan-wook's "Old Boy", Kim Ki-duk's "Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter and Spring", Kim Ji-woon's "Rose, Red Lotus", Kwok Jae-young's "If Love Had There" God willing"……
Of course, Bong Joon-ho's "Memories of Murder" is also indispensable .
Today marks the 15th anniversary of the film's release.
This is a movie that I will never forget after seeing it, and it is also the best Korean movie in my heart.
The film is adapted from one of the three major unsolved cases in South Korea. The real case happened in 1986, during the period of military and political rule.
Like David Fincher's "Zodiac," "Memories of Murder" tells the story of not catching the real killer. But the difference is that "Memories of Murder" blames the limitations of the times for not being able to catch the real murderer . The distinctive symbols of the times in the story connect the background of the story with the reasons why the unsolved case cannot be solved:
Violent incidents such as demonstrations and serial crimes occur from time to time.
The police deduced that the case was about to happen, but the garrison was all pulled to control the parade and could not send any manpower, missing the opportunity.
When the victim was dying, he accidentally ran into the civil defense training, and watched the lights around him gradually go out, and the doors of shops and residents were closed one by one;
The schoolgirl laughed and laughed during countless ambulance drills at the school, and finally hit the god of death.
Another difference is that the police and amateur detectives in "Zodiac" are not stupid, so this ending makes the audience feel powerless and indignant, as if it was a cruel joke from God;
And most of the police officers in "Memories of Murder" are so stupid that it makes people anxious , so there is an outlet for the annoyance of not being able to catch the real murderer.
The incompetence of the police is manifested in that everything is shabby and can't do anything well.
The car is broken, and the car has to be pushed on the dirt road during the handling of the case;
The level of typing is so bad that even the suspect can't stand it, and he needs to help;
Even dismantling a disposable chopstick can screw it up;
The key witness who has been looking for a long time is outside the window, but the police are still drunk;
The common denominator of the victims of the case was so obvious (the hint was on the side, the red dress on the scarecrow) that they had to think for a long time before they could give an answer.
They bear a striking resemblance to Zuo Yi, the mentally retarded suspect.
The incompetence of the police should still be contained within the limitations of the times. Officer Park played by Song Kang-ho and his old partner Qiao Yong-gu have never been to a big city and have little idea of the world outside of a small town.
In that era without the Internet, they had a narrow vision and received very little information, which made them accustomed to violent interrogation and even torture to extract confessions.
In those days, the difficulty of solving big cases in small towns far exceeded the ability of the local police. In the beginning, Officer Park did not like Officer Xu from the big city. In his words, they were the ones who solved cases with their feet.
Well, with feet.
However, the brilliant point of director Bong Joon-ho is that he did not blindly criticize the incompetence of the police. He made the audience have complex feelings for the police.
That Qiao Yonggu, who kicked people at every turn, every time he put on his shoe covers meant that he was about to start torture to extract a confession.
Later, one of his legs was amputated, and the footage of the shoe cover made people wonder whether to say "deserved" or sigh.
And the setting of the two male protagonists is not out of the norm.
Two protagonists often appear in criminal investigation-themed film and television works. The two protagonists often have opposite personalities and do not know each other. They cooperate more and more tacitly under the same goal, such as the violent Mills and the calm Somerset in "Seven Deadly Sins".
"Memories of Murder" also arranged a pair of partners with complementary personalities. But what is different is that at the end of the story, the characters of the two police officers have undergone a 180-degree change.
Detective Park, who "solved the case with his feet" originally only wanted to close the case in a hurry, but his mentality changed in the process of handling the case, and he began to learn the scientific method of handling the case, which prevented the torture of confession for the first time;
Even in the end, when Officer Xu lost his mind, he decisively took control of the situation.
Xu Taiyun, who "solved the case with his brain", was forced into a corner by the reality of disappointment again and again, and he attacked the most suspicious suspect when he could never find any evidence.
Unexpectedly, this sentence came from Police Officer Xu, who once insisted on being rational.
The so-called staring into the abyss for too long, the abyss is also staring at you.
Many people remember this final shot: In 2003, Agent Park had switched careers and became a decent middle-class successful man.
He revisited the same place and returned to the scene of the first murder. Hearing the little girl describe the person who might be the real murderer as "very ordinary", he stared at the camera in a daze, directly looking at us off-screen.
He once made up so-called murder memories for innocent people time and again in order to solve the case quickly, but now he is deeply troubled by the real memories of seventeen years ago. He always asks the other person to look him in the eyes when confirming whether the other person is lying. This habit has never changed.
Even if the sentence is just bragging.
He never put down this unsolved case and is still "watching" seventeen years later, even if he doesn't know who to watch.
This shot is a way for Korean filmmakers to speak out, and their efforts to find the truth will never stop .
Every day this movie exists, it speaks to the murderer on the loose. Even if you forget those who were killed more than ten years ago, we have not forgotten and will not forget.
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