Locking eyes with the man in question, Byun-su knows instantly that Tae-ju is just like him – a killer, probably the man behind a series of unsolved murders. An unexpected collision with a young man in a swanky silver car, Min Tae-ju (Kim Nam-Gil), gives Byung-su something else to think about when he notices what looks like blood dripping from the boot. Having recently confirmed that he has Alzheimer’s, the doctor says possibly a result of trauma from that earlier car crash, Byung-su does not know what to do for the best seeing as he’ll have to give up work. These days Byung-su is a successful vet living with his grown-up daughter, Eun-hee (Seol Hyun). That is to say, he was the “noble” kind of serial killer who only killed “bad” people (in his own moral judgment) such as instigators of domestic violence, heartless loan sharks, or people who harm animals. The inability to remember is not the same as forgetting, and forgetting is not the same as ignoring, but there are some truths so essential that a superficial inability to recall them does not destroy their power.īyung-su (Sol Kyung-gu) was once a serial killer. The “hero” at the centre of Won Shin-yeon’s Memoir of a Murderer (살인자의 기억법, Salinjaui Gieokbeob), adapted from the novel by Kim Young-Ha, literally cannot remember his past crimes – he is suffering from dementia possibly brought on by brain damage sustained in an accident 17 years previously. The grand finale is a bloodbath and the ending, typical for Korean films (and the reason for me loving them so much), slips into a pure melodrama, with a few genuinely touching, sentimental moments.Memory, particularly traumatic memory, coupled with the inability to overcome painful truths through the act of forgetting, has a become an essential part of Korean cinema. “The movie’s atmosphere of a sleepy country town, constantly wrapped in fog, creates a perfect sense of danger. The execution is practically perfect, the story is approached refreshingly, and its ability to bend the tones of good, bad, heartfelt, and awful makes it one that’s never predictable in its emotional core either.” Matt Reifschneider, Blood Brothers ” …one of the most impressively fresh feeling thrillers of the year and one that daring cinephiles will want to experience. Some promising story elements are tossed into the pot, only to be left to float around listlessly until they sink out of sight.” Pierce Conran, Modern Korean Cinema Ultimately, the same could be said of the story. A few nice locations and snowy exteriors are mostly filmed with shot/reverse shots and the occasional slow zoom in. Nevertheless, it’s a top-notch thriller that is guaranteed to keep audiences engaged and thinking after the credits have rolled.” Richard Gray, The Reel Bits “It’s a white-knuckle ride as the film escalates to an extended confrontation between the three leads, but also one that has a few twists that may not hold up to closer examination. For small-town creepiness, it is a much better bet than IT this week. It all looks darkly eerie thanks to cinematographer Choi Young-hwan’s evocative lensing. “Won and screenwriter Hwang Jo-yoon borrow elements from scores of films, like Confession of Murder, Memories of Murder, and Blood and Ties, but like productive magpies, they weave them into something new and formidable. “Though almost laughably contrived, the premise of Memoir of a Murderer is an intriguing one and the film gets off on the right foot with fast-paced storytelling framed with moody and menacing visuals The problem is that after setting several layers of intrigue in motion, the film proceeds to get tangled up in its own mystery, pushing its already strained credibility to breaking point.” Pierce Conran, Screen Anarchy
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