memories of murder

The film, “memories of murder” by Bong Joon ho, is based on the true events in 1986 and 1991 in South Korea. There were ten women were raped and murdered within this crime. “‘Memories of murder’s appeal is its 1980s cultural references, using nostalgia and irony to appeal to viewers-a common motif in film of the 386 generation directors… the film indirectly references the political situation and atmosphere of the 1980s, hinting at the incompetence of the Korean military government then in power” (pg. 148, Jinhee Choi). When the detective Seo Taeyoon was on stakeout to follow the suspect, Park Hyungyu, he called the other detectives to help him, but they were sent to suppress student demonstrations (there were many students demonstrations in 1980s).  

In this film, audience can easily find that the director used various types of framing and “the entire film can be seen as a search for face, except that the viewer never gets to see the killer’s face” (pg. 149, Jinhee Choi). The most interesting farming with this film was when the director ‘medium shot’ Park Duman’s face whenever he deals with the suspects. Also, at the end of the film, after he hears that there was another guy (maybe the killer) came to see this drain to remember what happened in the past, the film ends with Park Duman staring into the camera. To end up with unsolved case and starring into the camera brings imaginations to the audience. Within the last scene, what I felt was maybe he will re-start the investigation of the case.

I found few gender roles within the film, memories of murder. First, Kwak Gwiok, who is a female worker at the police office, found that the song “A gloomy letter” was playing on the radio each time a crime occurs and raining that night. However, when Park Duman ignores her at first. From this, we could see that women do not have enough power to raise their voice when they are with man. The second gender role that one could find was, a woman who was attacked on her way to bring an umbrella to her husband. At the night, before the crime occurs, she received the phone from her husband, and he asked her to bring an umbrella to him. The screen shows the ambience of the room; she prepared the dinner for her husband. From this, we could see that women (wife) is the one who do the housework and man (husband) is the one who goes out to do the works and earn the money.