Memórias de um Assassino

I first saw this more than a decade ago n loved it.

Revisited it recently.

This one is truly one of the best crime drama.

I feel Zodiac, True Detective S1 n the recent The Little Things borrowed few stuff from this movie.

After the discovery of two dead bodies in a small village, a detective n his partner decides to question a mentally handicapped young man because the man used to follow one of the victims around town but their forced confessions n interrogation techniques are questioned when a detective from a city volunteers to assist them.

Apart from being a very engaging movie, this one has sufficient suspense n tons of atmosphere.

Another good aspect is the character development.

This movie amazingly showcases the faulty police interrogation techniques, the lack of securing the crime scene, evidence being improperly collected, non availability of extra police personnel, the non-existent forensic technology n the superstitious beliefs.

The isolated rural landscape where the killings take place is as much a character in the movie.

This is probably the best crime thriller I've seen since "Insomnia," and contains the most haunting climax of any serial killer flick since "Seven." But like most films reaching for greatness, this is most admirable for its striking details.

The filmmakers here craft a taut, careful, and delicately strung together motion picture that relishes in its amazing development of mood, place, and character.

First, the mood: Haunting cinematography (rain falling on a small village at night, shadows darting across a thick field of grass, figures lurking in the woods, a masterfully choreographed hot pursuit scene on foot), a poignant music score (aided by the creepy use of a Korean pop song that accompanies each murder), and no-nonsense direction (peppered with fabulous doses of comic relief--how Shakespearan!) keep the film more and more intriguing at each turn and fascinating to watch.

Second, the place: South Korea, circa the late 1980's, and apparently under some sort of militia rule. This is inspired by the true story of Korea's first publicized (and still unsolved) serial killer case. This unique time and place serves as a wonderful respite from the typical American big-city setting of so many other films of this ilk.

Finally, the character development: The small details revealing the haunted souls of the detectives on the case is nothing short of brilliant. Witness the tiny executions of minutae: The cloth one rogue cop wraps around his boot so as not to leave scars when he kick-boxes suspects into submission, the harried chief of police checking his own blood pressure while trying to keep his off-the-cuff detectives in line or fighting to keep headline-starved reporters at bay, the young female officer desperately trying to showcase her abilities in crime solving between serving the chauvinistic detectives cups of fresh coffee, the outsider detective from Seoul's insistence that documents never lie (and the brutal irony at the climax that challenges his entire sense of being), and the main village detective's scathing speech on the difference between American FBI agents and Koren policemen. The beauty is in the details, and this film, like all the great ones, revels in their uncovering.

One flaw is that some might find the film a bit long in the tooth, but this is not to be missed for fans of serial killer thrillers and police procedural movies. For the Korean filmmakers, and the amazing cast...this is their master stroke.

What a good movie.What a great work of casting. Perhaps a little bit long, but the most part the movie is enjoyable and there's no perfection without mistakes. I think i haven't ever seen before a Korean movie and if there are much of them like this one i shall become Korean movie fan. The tempo, the thrill, the development of characters, everything it has been well worked.The direction is good yet without emphatic resources, there are just two moments with a little much use of slow motion but it doesn't arrive to be an abuse of it.

If you can see it don't loose your time with Hollywood sad-bad thrillers bet for this Korean present.

9/10 cause perfection doesn't exist.

The more South Korean films I see, the more I understand how it came to pass that filmmakers from that part of Asia are basically leading the world in terms of cinema in the 21st century.

These films are always very well made, with interesting plots and characterisation. But above all, they have nuance in spades. Nothing on screen is as simple as it appears. None of the characters are typical heroes or typical villains. None of the responses to anything on-screen are simple, either.

Scenes unfold in comedy and then tragedy, or the other way around - or both at once.

The additional layers to every scene and every character add a panoramic realism to what unfolds. These characters live and breathe on the screen. After watching "Memories of Murder", "The Wailing", or "The Host", you imagine that the characters are still doing what they were doing when the credits played.

That's the gift the South Koreans have given us with their wonderful and inventive cinema.

Forget America, unless you are addicted to comic book movies or remakes.

Korea is the one to watch.

I have long since heard of the excellence of this korean movie on koreanfilm.org, but it was only after reading the review in detail and realizing that the score was written by Taro Ishiwaro ( a well known Japanese musician who also wrote scores for Shohei Imamura and Japanese TV serials, including The Inanimate World ), and that the DOP was Kim Hyung-gu (who also shot Musa, One Fine Spring Day and Chen Kaige's Together) that it stumped on me I was indeed missing a masterpiece.

And a masterpiece it is, one deeply haunting and disturbing asian crime thriller. The mood invoked during the last few minutes of the film is something you would probably never forget.

Watch this film not only for its cinematic brilliance, but also because of the mezmerising score written by Taro Ishiwaro, track no 29 on the OST the favourite on my list.