IMDb #225 Review: Memories of Murder (2003)

Source: Wikipedia

Being a detective sucks anywhere in the world. Welcome to South Korean mid-eighties true crime, which translates to:

1. It’s not North American.
2. It’s gruesome, grueling, frustrating, and crushingly depressing.
3. Typewriters, tape recorders, rotary dial phones, and godawful CRT-TV resolution remind us that technology evolves but people remain morons and/or bastards.

The tagline -- “The true story of an unsolved crime under military dictatorship” -- should have been the first sign we weren't in for a barrel of laughs. That, or the opening shot of a girl dead in a ditch. Or the cops torturing a mentally retarded man to get a confession, though admittedly the tone was difficult to define due to the nonexistent soundtrack.

Not a happy story.

As spoiled by the tagline: expect zero closure. Escapists beware.

A rural police department tracks down a bad boy who likes to rape and strangle pretty girls. For a personal touch, he stashes various objects inside their body cavities. Like peach slices. In their, uh, peach slices.

Totally stumped, the detectives import a hotshot young detective from Seoul. This college-educated upstart introduces such revolutionary tactics as DNA testing, interviewing instead of torturing potential suspects, and reasoning from extant evidence.

Local cops ain’t down with that. They prefer the tried-and-true methods. Namely, relying on intuition to pick which suspect to torture for a confession. Conflicting tactics result in a clash of departmental priorities. But maybe the factions are more alike than they think. After months and months of failure, the easy way out looks more and more tempting.

Being cops, the sort-of-heroes process a revolving door of disturbing characters, who may or may not have anything to do with the case. Battered witnesses, likewise.

For Western viewers, there’s an exotic setting. Karaoke, chopsticks, ear-cleaning, and Korean barbecue allay the depressing madness with learning about another culture. Unfortunately, we also learn their humans are just as flawed as ours.

Recommended for free-roaming psychopaths, closeted necrophiliacs, and the twisted masochists who lap up gritty realistic police procedurals.

127 minutes.

IMDb #247 Review: Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter ... and Spring (2003)

Source: Wikipedia

At an idyllic lake temple, through a gate illustrated with flexing buff dudes, there lives a kindly old Buddhist monk and his young ward. This little bald kid is the WORST STUDENT EVER.

We follow their relationship through five seasons, spanning decades. Sadness ensues.

Spring. The problems start when the bored kid tortures animals for fun. The wise old man's karmic punishments do little to disinfect a rotten heart.

Summer. Years later, Korea's dumbest mother brings her ill daughter to stay at the temple for "spiritual renewal." Her teenage daughter, with a celibate monk and an adolescent male, living in a remote area and sleeping in the same. This goes about as well as you'd expect. At least the monk remains honorable.

When the time arrives for the girl to return to the world of blue jeans and shopping malls, the boy follows the booty. To the surprise of no one, least of all his guardian.

Autumn. The prodigal finally returns--older, cockier, shittier. As a twitchy fugitive from justice, he seeks refuge, and willingly receives the monk's punishment. Then the cops show up. The monk proves a generous host, to the astonished delight of all. (Except the cat, whose tail makes a poor calligraphy brush.) Delayed but not deterred, tragedy strikes.

Winter...I can't spoil. Just know it offers a ray of hope--then snuffs it out and drowns it in ice water.

As for the next spring? I don't have the words or the heart to find them.

I don't understand Korea's vendetta against happiness. Maybe it's meant to reflect nature. The setting's staggering beauty brings out nuanced portraits of the small cast and shines a favorable light on an existence dedicated to humble piety. But, for all the simple beauty, expect a heaping helping of nature's brutal cruelty as well.