"Memories of Murder": Gaze into the depths of history

Kelsie 2022-04-22 07:01:14

Bong Joon Ho is a humanist.

From "Kidnapping the Dog at the Door", "Memories of Murder", "The Monster of the Han River", "Mother" to "Snowpiercer", from urban comedy, dark humor, detective suspense to science fiction blockbuster, behind the ever-changing themes is his consistent belief in Human care. Man as a product of history and society and the distortion and alienation of man by history and society have always been the themes of his creations.

Specific to "Memories of Murder", criticism of politics and society is not the ultimate goal. As a means, it provides a necessary context for taking care of the characters' living state and spiritual world. In the final analysis, the film's foothold is still "people". Because of this, the gaze of Detective Park at the end of the film breaks through the barriers of national culture and deeply touches the hearts of audiences all over the world.

In this case, our analysis of this film might as well start with "people".

In the film, four groups of main characters are depicted around the investigation process of the murder: the police (Park Doman, Seo Tae-yoon, etc.), the suspects (Bai Guanghao, Qiao Bingchun, Park Xinggui), the mysterious murderer and many victims. These four types of people reflect a certain aspect of society, so that the audience can get a glimpse of the general situation of Korean society in the 1980s and 1990s. From the perspective of narrative function and character setting, there are also differences in the individuals in each type of characters (mainly in Park Doman and Seo Tae-yoon), let us analyze them one by one.

1. Park Doman

In October 1986, somewhere in South Korea, autumn is getting stronger, and the golden rice has not yet been harvested. Small town detective Park Doman rode a tractor through the vast rice fields, chasing a group of playful children behind the car. He had come here for a murder case, a young woman was brutally murdered, naked and bound with her hands and feet, and dumped under a dark and dirty gutter by the side of the road.

In the eyes of Detective Park, this murder is not too big, but not too small.

It is not small because Agent Park is a local and knows the local customs. The small town has a small population. Residents look down when they go out and don’t look up. People walking on the street are either relatives, friends or neighbors. Daily quarrels and disputes are inevitable, but this case is a bit special, and the tragic state of the deceased is truly shocking.

Saying it's not big is because the murder happened at a sensitive node. The 1986 Asian Games in South Korea are just around the corner, and preparations for the 1988 Seoul Olympics are in full swing. The ill-fated Republic of Korea has finally had a chance to express itself on the world stage since modern times. The government obviously attaches great importance to this. Meanwhile, South Korea's democratization process is struggling. In 1987, South Korea’s contemporary political development entered a decisive stage. The seven-year term of President Chun Doo-hwan, who pursued a military dictatorship, was about to expire. The social contradictions caused by his violent dictatorship continued to intensify during this period. Repeated delays eventually led to the outbreak of one of the most attended, largest and most violent nationwide pro-democracy protests in modern history, known as the "June Protests." This is reminiscent of the "Gwangju Incident" when Chun Doo-hwan launched a bloody military crackdown seven years ago when he came to power in a coup d'état. In these turbulent times of the country, the death of one or two people is not a "big deal".

Through the desaturation of tones and high-contrast lighting, the film presents a bleak and depressing faded texture. The vast rice fields, large factories, dilapidated towns, and air defense drills create a unique color of the times. Detective Park walked around here all day, to and from the dark interrogation room and the humble town. For him, "Korea is just a few handfuls of places, and it's enough to handle cases with your feet." If it's not enough, a small camera and a small tape recorder are enough. He often boasted that he had a pair of "criminal eyes", and he could tell if he had committed a crime just by staring at others.

Detective Park's somewhat absurd words and deeds are really out of a helpless compromise and adaptation to reality. The imperfect state system, imperfect democracy and rule of law, backward economy and technology, and insufficient local police force cannot provide Detective Park with good conditions for handling the case. All this forced him to find his own way of coping - lack of evidence to destroy clues? Then make it yourself; the suspect refuses to admit it? Threats of violence and confession inducement. The image of a police officer in the 1980s and 1990s, like Detective Park, who was on the edge of law enforcement and illegality, is often seen in Korean films as a typical feature of the times.

The film does not take a derogatory stance against Agent Park because of this, as the incompetence of the police is ultimately due to the incompetence of society. On the contrary, the police as individuals are no different from the women who were killed, and they are also victims of this incompetent society. For Detective Park and his colleagues, the film takes a sympathetic attitude towards their real situation, revealing the alienation of their spiritual world from society.

Detective Park alone is impossible to contend with a sickly incompetent society by any means, and protracted investigations and successive setbacks constantly wear down his will, making him struggle between social responsibility and dark reality. Watching the victims continue to be killed one after another, watching the key witness Bai Guanghao being hit by a train, and watching Detective Cao, who has been with each other day and night, amputated, Detective Park deeply felt the powerlessness of being tricked by reality. As a normal person, his emotions and bottom line made him unable to face this painful experience, so Detective Park gradually began to retire. When the identification document from the United States dashed the last hope, the always tenacious Detective Park also collapsed. He used his last strength to catch Park Xinggui, gave up his identity as a policeman, and used him as an ordinary person with normal emotions. The pair of "eyes that can identify criminals" almost begged Park Xinggui - "You look at me...are you a murderer...do you eat every day like ordinary people...".

The moving thing about Detective Park is that he has always had a little bit of a beautiful obsession with human nature in his heart, and he did his best to maintain this obsession. He believes that this obsession is the only proof that he was born in this dark reality. He believes that even if he is cruel like a murderer, he still has normal emotions that are no different from ordinary people. It was this obsession that made him let go of Park Xinggui and kept his faith.

2. Xu Taiyun

Xu Taiyun existed as a bystander in the investigation process of the case at the beginning, and he provided the audience with a perspective of scrutiny and questioning. Compared with Detective Park, Xu Taiyun, who has a university degree, is still young. Like thousands of young Koreans at that time, he has a simple faith and believes that by his own efforts, he can do his best to change this dark world.

Therefore, he often questioned and opposed Detective Park's approach, and he tried to find clues about the case through rational analysis. At first, he did it. He found that the murderer had three characteristics: haunted in rainy nights, radio love songs sounded, and the young woman in red was the target. But he could only find this little pitiful clue. In any case, he had to face the same predicament as Detective Park. The vague clues failed to help him solve the problem. The victim was also killed right under his nose. After the initial setback, Detective Xu realized his similarities with Detective Park, and the competitive relationship with Detective Park began to improve. , he no longer blindly opposes Agent Park's behavior, and even he gradually becomes as simple and rude as Agent Park.

Unlike Detective Park, Detective Xu has never been able to see the essence behind this series of murders. His obsession is the same as that of most audiences, that the murderer must obey the law, and the murder must be rewarded with life. The logic behind this belief is that justice must be done in a healthy society. It is a pity that Detective Xu is not in a healthy and normal society. On the contrary, this sickly and incompetent society makes the murderer destined to go unpunished.

Therefore, Detective Xu is blind. The frustration of reality makes him realize his powerlessness, which is in conflict with his beliefs. When the case got stuck, Detective Xu became more and more paranoid and impulsive. He firmly grasped the last clue and firmly believed that Park Xinggui was the murderer. Detective Xu, who was blinded by anger, insisted on shooting Park Xinggui.

Detective Xu is also sympathetic. If he lets the murderer escape, it means that his belief in social justice and his own ability has completely collapsed. He pointed his gun at Park Xinggui, not to achieve justice, but also to maintain the beautiful obsession with the future in his heart. The change of Detective Xu is a more direct proof of the distortion of the individual spirit by the morbid society.

3. Suspects, Murderers and Victims

If you look closely, the audience will see a slightly morbid, female desire in all three of the suspects in the film. Whether it is Bai Guanghao, who is ugly and often follows Xiangshu, or Qiao Bingjun, who wears red underwear and reports on women's underwear and murders, or Park Xinggui who often orders a "Sad Love Song" on a rainy day, there are deep characters in his character. A repressed, crazy longing for women. It is because of this that they are the main suspects of the police.

Looking back and analyzing the murderer's psychology, it is not difficult to find that, similar to the above three suspects, he also committed the crime with similar motives. Using women's underwear as a tool for tying women, stuffing peach pulp and a pen ruler into women's lower body, these criminal details with obvious sexual meaning all imply the murderer's crazy sexual fantasies about women. On a deeper level, the film points out the murderer " The essence of sexual impotence.

The psychological analysis of the three suspects and a mysterious murderer pointed out that the criticism of the film not only pointed to the incompetence of the government and social system, but also pointed to the morbid cultural psychology of the entire Korean nation. The incompetence of the whole society is not only at the political level, but also at the physical and psychological level of the individual. Throughout the film, there are numerous single male images and the depiction of the incomplete family form, without exception, revealing the social and cultural repression of erotic desire as a basic personal need.

In the 1980s, South Korea’s economy took off from the outside, and it quickly entered the ranks of newly industrialized and urbanized countries, but in essence, as shown in the film, large paddy fields and large factories coexisted, and Korean society was still in an agricultural society and an industrial society. Era of slow alternation. Times are advancing, a large number of highly educated women have taken to the streets to participate in political protests, and more and more women have joined the system of urban and industrial economies. The concept of loving husband and children at home. Korean values ​​are teetering at the crossroads of this era: long-repressed longing for basic needs to be fulfilled, while conservative moral codes forbid it. The final takeover is the distortion of people's psychology, and a sick society is a breeding ground for sick psychology.

In addition, the audience needs to pay special attention to the image of the mentally retarded Bai Guanghao in this film. One of the hallmark features of Bong Joon-ho's films, the idiot, appears in almost every one of his films. Bai Guanghao in this film is the only person who has witnessed the real face of the murderer, which is revealed at the beginning of the film, and the characters in the film go around in circles before turning their attention to the really useful clues (i.e. Bai Guang Hao) came up, which undoubtedly constituted a satire on the incompetent system.

The greater irony is that the film allows Detective Park to witness Bai Guanghao being killed by the speeding train. As a special image, the train also appears many times in the film. It is obvious that this is a train leading to the future. The train itself represents the era in which the characters are moving forward and swallowing everything. The truth represented by Bai Guanghao and the spiritual trauma of the generation represented by Detective Park were all ruthlessly swallowed up by the train of the times and ruthlessly left behind.

Today, we can only glimpse the circumstances of that day through the dark tunnel of history. The end of the film reminds the audience that the passing of time is not the reason why we choose to forget, the influence of an era will eventually be passed down from generation to generation through the carrier of "people", and it will have a subtle impact on our current world and today's life. . Just as Detective Park revisited the old place many years later, the vast rice fields and the sky could not hide the painful memories of murder. Through the shocking images of Detective Park facing the camera, we were able to enter the repressed and dusty period. History allows him to enter the real inner world of Detective Park and experience the helplessness, trauma, distortion, anger, resentment and obsession that history brought him.

View more about Memories of Murder reviews

Extended Reading
  • Marcus 2022-03-22 09:01:38

    After seeing it, I felt quite scary... The open ending is a bit like the Zodiac

  • Kristoffer 2021-11-18 08:01:27

    In an era of chaotic legal system, any ordinary person can become a criminal and a demon.

Memories of Murder quotes

  • [last lines]

    Detective Park Doo-Man: Did you see his face?

    [Girl Nods]

    Detective Park Doo-Man: What did he look like?

    Schoolgirl: Well... kind of plain.

    Detective Park Doo-Man: In what way?

    Schoolgirl: Just... ordinary

  • Detective Park Doo-Man: Do you get up each morning too?