Mere memory for the murderer

Murder. Memories. Just by looking at the title of the film, I felt quite reluctant to watch the film in the beginning. But as soon as the movie started, the comedic elements provided a less tension given to the audience about the murder. However, these comedic elements might be an indication of the reason why they were not able to catch the murderer- the lack of professionalism and foundational ground in Korean society during a time of “Compressed modernity that threaten(ed) the sheer sustainability”(Cho, 31). It was because of lack of scientific skills, lack of professionalism(violence on suspects to force them to give false answers), and the lack of stability in Korea at the time that made them fail at finding the murderer.

Also the fact that two of the suspects were found within symbols of modernity, factories and trains, where ParkHaeIl was found working in a factory, and the handicapped suspect died on the railway, seems to be very critical of the social chaos and the “compressed modernity”.

Unlike other murderer movies that show the murderer as the villain, for the movie Memory of Murder, we are not able to know who the murderer is, creating tension as the audience does not know when in the movie the murderer might appear.  

Also the color use in the film was interesting because while all of the detectives wore black clothing, and even used a black umbrella on the last scene, the students were wearing white uniforms, which symbolize their purity and innocence. This implied that this instability of social order that resulted from the choices of adults, which eventually led one of the pure girls to be murdered.  

Murder. Memories. Just by looking at the title of the film, I felt quite reluctant to watch the film in the beginning. But as soon as the movie started, the comedic elements provided a less tension given to the audience about the murder. However, these comedic elements might be an indication of the reason why they were not able to catch the murderer- the lack of professionalism and foundational ground in Korean society during a time of “Compressed modernity that threaten(ed) the sheer sustainability”(Cho, 31). It was because of lack of scientific skills, lack of professionalism(violence on suspects to force them to give false answers), and the lack of stability in Korea at the time that made them fail at finding the murderer.

Also the fact that two of the suspects were found, where ParkHaeIl was found working in a factory, and the handicapped suspect died on the railway, seems to be very critical of the social chaos and the “compressed modernity”, since trains and factories are symbols of modernity.

Unlike other murderer movies that show the murderer as the villain, for the movie Memory of Murder, we are not able to know who the murderer is, creating tension as the audience does not know when in the movie the murderer might appear.  

Also the color use in the film was interesting because while all of the detectives wore black clothing, and even used a black umbrella on the last scene, the students were wearing white uniforms, which symbolize their purity and innocence. This implied that it was the instability of the social order created or resulted by decisions of adults, which eventually led the pure and innocent girl left to die. 

The line "I just remember what I did before here", indicating that this was only a mere memory of his life, shows how disgustingly cruel of a murderer he was in short.