History Film / MemoriesOfMurder

* FailedFutureForecast: The film assumes that [[spoiler:the killer would still be on the loose in 2003.]] But in September 2019, the [[https://bnonews.com/index.php/2019/09/serial-killer-who-terrorized-south-korea-identified-after-30-years/ prime suspect was identified]] via DNA evidence as [[https://twitter.com/sel3nette/status/1174580605033431041 Lee Choon-jae]], who has been serving a life sentence in prison since 1994 for killing his sister-in-law in a similar fashion. [[spoiler:Due to this, it would be impossible for the killer to still be at large.]]

* BookEnds: The film starts and ends with a scene at the same corn field.

** Park's first suspect is Baek, a mentally handicapped boy with physical deformities, who Park assumes murdered the first victim in a fit of vindictive rage after she rejected him due to his appearance. While a seemingly logical conclusion to jump to at first, Seo quickly proves Baek's innocence due to his physical frailty and meek nature making him an unlikely suspect, much to Park's embarrassment. [[spoiler: Park also fails to pick up on Baek's confession actually pointing to him being a ''witness'' to the murder until it is far too late.]]

** An officer's observation that the murders always coincide with a certain song request made on rainy days becomes a major angle in the case, based on the cinematic but not particularly logical theory that the killer only operated in the rain and the song was the his pump up song for murder.[[spoiler: This is also proven incorrect when the final murder takes place on a clear night.]]

* ForWantOfANail: [[spoiler: The only reason the schoolgirl whom Seo befriended becomes another victim is because she happened to turn and walk down the same road as an older lady that the killer was stalking, and after some thought he decides to go after her instead.]]

''Memories of Murder'' is a 2003 [[KoreanMovies South Korean]] drama film co-written and directed by Creator/BongJoonHo, based on the then-unsolved [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hwaseong_serial_murders serial murders that took place in Hwaseong]] between 1986 and 1991.

The film follows police detectives Park Doo-Man (Creator/SongKangHo), a native of the small provincial town where the murders take place, and Seo Tae-Yoon (Kim Sang-kyung), a young detective from Seoul, in their investigation to track down and apprehend the killer. The case is far from simple, as multiple levels of incompetence conspire to obscure the truth, and as the bodies pile up, the resolve of all the officers becomes frayed. As a work BasedOnATrueStory, much of the plot is a ForegoneConclusion, but the work nevertheless contains a number of twists, so beware unmarked spoilers.

--> '''Seo''': "Hey, are you the murderer?"
--> '''Suspect''': "Yes I am."
--> '''Seo''': "Shut up, no you're not."
--> '''Suspect''': "I'm pretty sure I am though..."

The film follows police detectives Park Doo-Man (Song Kang-Ho), a native of the small provincial town where the murders take place, and Seo Tae-Yoon (Kim Sang-kyung), a young detective from Seoul, in their investigation to track down and apprehend the killer. The case is far from simple, as multiple levels of incompetence conspire to obscure the truth, and as the bodies pile up, the resolve of all the officers becomes frayed. As a work BasedOnATrueStory, much of the plot is a ForegoneConclusion, but the work nevertheless contains a number of twists, so beware unmarked spoilers.