REVIEW: Memories of Murder (2003)
In the last two weeks, two related events happened in the United States: one was that a police officer was spooked when an acorn hit his car - he hit the ground, and, terrified, he unloaded his weapon at the acorn; the second was Air Force engineer, Aaron Bushnell, self-immolating in protest of the United States' involvement with Gaza - the responding police officer pulled a gun on him. Cops only know violence. This phrase was rattling around in my head on the day that my partner and I unwittingly chose Memories of Murder for our evening film. We're both fans of Bong Joon-ho and Song Kang-ho, but we just happened to have not seen this particular film yet. So down I sat to watch it with the phrase "cops only know violence" in my head. I didn't realize how primed I was for this film. Set during the 80s in South Korea where a small community was being stalked by the country's first serial killer. The police weren't ready to recognize what they were dealing w