Criminal Adaptations

Memories of Murder

• Criminal Adaptations • Season 5 • Episode 4

Share episode

In this episode, we dive into Bong Joon Ho’s Memories of Murder (2003), the haunting crime thriller based on South Korea’s first confirmed serial killings. We unpack how the film portrays the Hwaseong murders of the 1980s and early 1990s, what details were dramatized for the screen, and how the real investigation unfolded. From the frustrations of a police force unprepared for such crimes, to the decades-long mystery that finally, after the wrongful conviction of Yoon Sung-yeo, ended with the real killer’s confession in 2019. 

 Primary Sources:

Instagram: @CriminalAdaptations

Email us: criminaladaptations@gmail.com

TikTok: @criminaladaptations

X: x.com/CriminalAdapt

Theme: DARKNESS (feat. EdKara) by Ghost148


Ashley:

Welcome to Criminal Adaptations, the show where we take a look at some of your favorite movies and the true crime stories that inspired them. I'm Ashley. I'm a clinical psychologist and forensic evaluator in the state of Oregon.

Remi:

And I'm Remy. I spent over a decade working in the film and television industry in Los Angeles, California.

Ashley:

Good morning everyone. Welcome back to another thrilling episode of Criminal Adaptations. Thank you so much for tuning in and we just cannot wait to get into this episode. But before we do, remy, how are you doing?

Remi:

I am doing A-OK, just getting ready for the Halloween holiday coming up in a few weeks, but today we will be discussing the Bong Joon-ho film Memories of Murder, which was inspired by the real-life serial killings of Lee Chun-ja. Now we just want to warn everyone, before we get started here, that this episode will contain discussions of topics which may be disturbing to some listeners, including sexual assault and graphic details of serial murders, so listener discretion is strongly advised for this one.

Ashley:

We'll also be referencing quite a few Korean names and locations throughout this episode. We've done our best to get the pronunciations right, but if we slip up here and there, just know it's completely unintentional and we do apologize in advance.

Remi:

And this week we will be diving into our first foreign film, specifically our first Korean film, and I know that I've introduced you to quite a few Korean films during our time together. Ashley and I have a number of favorites myself, including Train to Busan I Saw the Devil Old Boy and, of course, parasite, which is directed by the man we will be discussing today.

Ashley:

Parasite is my favorite Korean film that I've ever seen. It is great. We're actually working our way through the New York Times list of the 100 best movies of the past 25 years, and Parasite is number one. This one is also on the list, coming in at 99. So this director is a force to be reckoned with.

Remi:

I am a big fan of this director, as well as other Korean directors, like Park Chan-wook, who did the Vengeance trilogy, which was Old Boy, sympathy for Mr Vengeance and Lady Vengeance, and he also directed Thirst, and has worked with the actor who stars in this film a few times as well. But today we are discussing Bong Joon-ho, who is primarily known for two types of films sci-fi films or psychological dramas that are some sort of social commentary on inequality and corruption. His other movies are Snowpiercer, the Host, okja and the latest one, which came out in 2025, mickey 17. And I think it's safe to say that those movies and Parasite and Memories of a Murder are very, very different films, and I personally love all of his movies, but I do prefer it when he does the more psychological, thriller type movie.

Ashley:

Yeah, I've seen all of those. Okja is one that is a real standout in my eyes. It's such a good movie. It is a tough watch. I actually liked Mickey 17. I know it kind of got mixed reviews, but I enjoyed it. I thought it was fun, and seeing Robert Pattinson play two different people was really a joy and he just did such a good job. He is one actor that I'm just so glad got out of the Twilight box and is just really impressive in my eyes.

Remi:

And this film that we're discussing stars probably my favorite Korean actor of all time, song Kang-ho, who starred in Thirst, which I mentioned earlier, and is the star of Parasite, which I think he is the most recognized for, at least here in the States. He was also in a film called A Taxi Driver in 2017, which was amazing, and, of course, the other Bong films, snowpiercer and Host, and he is incredible, and I think it is insane that he was not nominated for Best Actor for Parasite.

Ashley:

He's also in this other movie that has been on our list. I don't know why we haven't watched it yet. It's called Broker. It came out in 2022. And I believe it's about undercover illegal adoptions. It's listed or cited as a dramedy, so it's definitely one that we have to check out sometime soon. I've been interested in it for a while because of this actor.

Remi:

All of his films, even if they are dealing with really serious subject matter, he always adds a hint of comedy to his performance, which I think is brilliant, because he never really goes over the line to be too comedic or too silly. It's always very grounded and relatable. And while we're on the subject of Parasite, I just want to let our listeners know that we will in the future have an episode diving into the death of Lee Son-kyun, who was one of the other leads in Parasite. He was the rich father in the film and he had a very tragic end to his life and we plan on going into more details of that in a future episode.

Ashley:

Well, I think that is a really good segue. Let's get into Memories of Murder.

Remi:

Memories of Murder is a 2003 South Korean neo-noir crime thriller directed by Bong Joon-ho, co-written by Shim Song-bo and based in part on the 1996 stage play Come to See Me by Kim Kwang-lim. The film stars Song Kang-ho and Kim Sang-kyung. The film stars Song Kang-ho and Kim Sang-kyung. Though inspired by the real-life Hwasong serial murders of the 1980s, Bong credited Kim Gwang-rim's play as essential to shaping the film's structure, later saying If it weren't for Kim Gwang-rim's play, I would have had a lot of problems establishing the structure. Bong also drew stylistic inspiration from Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell's graphic novel From Hell, which we will be covering next season, and it's a brilliant novel I recommend for anyone who has not read From Hell. Work on the script began in June of 2000 and took about a year to complete. Bong recalled For the first six months I didn't write a line of the script, I just did research, which is the way to go with a story like this.

Remi:

Two years later, on September 9, 2002, Bong held a press conference in Seoul's Kumbo Museum of Art to announce the start of filming, while emphasizing that the film's subject matter would be handled with care. Bong additionally avoided filming in Hweseong, itself sensitive to the fact that many of the victims' families were still alive at the time. This would also mark Bong's second feature film, coming after the domestic box office failure of Barking Dogs Never Bite, which he had called an enumeration of personal interests. Bong described his motivation for making memories of murder as both artistic and personal. As a fan of detective fiction, he wanted to capture the horror that has not yet been revealed, through the emotions evoked by the clash of scenic landscapes and grotesque corpses. He has quite the way with words.

Ashley:

Yeah, he should have gone on to be a writer. Well, I guess he co-writes a lot of his movies or writes them, so in a way he did.

Remi:

Memories of Murder also marked the first collaboration between Bong Joon-ho and Song Kang-ho, who would go on to make three more films together including the Host, snowpiercer and, of course, parasite.

Guillermo del Toro:

So from the very beginning I knew that he was the only actor who could play that role.

Bong Joon Ho:

So I wrote the script with him in mind. He was the only person who could represent that role, so I wrote the script with him in mind. He was the only person who could represent the face of Korea of the 80s and also he has this animalistic instinct for comedy, so he's an actor who had it all.

Ashley:

We talk a lot about actor-director relationships and muses in this podcast, and these two definitely seem to be that for South Korea 100% agreed and they do their best work together For authenticity.

Remi:

Actor Kim Sang-kyung, who plays Detective Seo in the film, deliberately restricted his sleep and food intake in order to make his character appear more worn down by the stress of the investigation. In order to make his character appear more worn down by the stress of the investigation, filming took place in South Jola Province, with the Reed Field scenes being shot in Hainan County and the tunnel sequences filmed at the Jokbong Tunnel in Jinju. For the film's score, the production initially sought out several well-known Japanese composers until ultimately partnering with Taro Irashiro. Bong and Irashiro went on to have two 10-hour meetings together, working to craft a score that wouldn't overwhelm the imagery resulting in rhythms Bong has described as almost connected, yet almost disconnected.

Ashley:

I'm excited to hear what they ended up with.

Remi:

Well, let's get into Bong Joon-ho's Memories of Murder. Our story begins in 1986 in the Korean countryside, with a small boy wandering through a reed field collecting crickets in a jar. Approaching from the distance, a group of young children follow playfully behind a slow-moving tractor carrying Detective Park Doo-man, played by Song Kang-ho. The detective soon arrives at a drainage ditch along the roadside where he is led to the lifeless body of a bound woman, covered in small insects, concealed within one of the covered sections. Side note here the bugs covering the woman's corpse in this scene were all added digitally during post-production, which is kind of neat. I wouldn't have noticed it.

Ashley:

Well, and that's good for the actress that probably played that person.

Remi:

Yes, I'm sure she was very relieved as well. As Detective Park begins his investigation, the curious children drift closer and discover scraps of the woman's clothing discarded in the reed field, which they then begin to play around with. Annoyed. Park scolds the children for tampering with evidence, only to be mocked in return by the cricket boy who mimics his gestures, befuddling the detective. We then cut to Detective Park, conducting interviews with several male suspects, all of whom had some prior connection to the murdered woman. The police station itself feels cluttered, cramped and woefully underfunded as we watch Park type out his reports on a rickety old typewriter and take photos of each suspect using a cheap handheld camera. Later that day, park returns to the crime scene only to find that the area has not been roped off and the forensic teams still have not arrived yet. As a result, the entire crime scene has been overrun with curious villagers and reporters wandering freely and contaminating any potential evidence. Though Park does discover a partial footprint preserved in the muddy ground, which he is able to snap a quick photo of, it is quickly run over by an oblivious farmer passing by on his tractor as Park watches in utter disbelief at the sheer level of incompetence all around him In the days that follow, park meticulously analyzes each and every photograph he had taken of potential suspects, searching for any hidden details that he may have missed originally.

Remi:

Park's tactics are mocked by his colleague though, sergeant Ko Hee-bong, played by Byun Hee-bong, who suggests that Park might as well become a fortune teller if he thinks that staring at pictures will lead to solving the case. To prove his point, ku gestures towards two men brought into the station that day, one a rapist and the other the victim's brother, then challenges Park to guess which is which, based purely on their appearance. Side note here this scene ends before the truth behind Ko's question is ever revealed, but according to the director, the answer was never even decided. So not even Bong Joon-ho knew the answer to the question.

Remi:

We next cut to Detective Park in a dimly lit brothel, in bed with a prostitute named Kwok Seol Young, played by John Mi Son. Side note here some audience mistook this character of Kwok Seol Young as being Detective Park's wife, since their scenes together take place in an intimate, home-like setting, which I can understand. I probably would have thought the same thing if I didn't know this before watching the film. After having sex, she gives Park a flu shot and fusses over him like a caring mother tending to her child.

Ashley:

Wait, wait, wait. So sex workers in South Korea in the 1980s could also just give flu shots.

Remi:

She also cleans out his ears afterwards with like a little Q-tip. So, yeah, he's getting the full treatment here Flu shot, getting his ears cleaned and sex. It's a one-stop shop Exactly, Though I question the reality of this sort of thing. While fussing over Park, she casually shares gossip about the Beak family, and more specifically their son, Guang Ho, whom she says had a bit of a habit of stalking the murdered woman and had even been spotted by a neighbor doing so on the night of her death. After tracking down Guang Ho, played by Park No-Shik, he is brought back to the police station to be interrogated down in the basement. It soon becomes abundantly clear that Guang Ho is mentally challenged, yet Park nevertheless attempts to coax a confession from him, despite Guanghou being unable to fully grasp the severity of the situation at hand. Before long, Park is joined by Detective Cho, played by Kim Ro-Ha, who storms into the room, kicks Guanghou in the chest, then calls him ugly.

Ashley:

Aww, why'd you have to throw in a comment about his looks, dude.

Remi:

This Cho character is a menace. He basically dropkicks every single suspect in the film. It's crazy. I've never seen anything like it in a detective movie.

Ashley:

The detectives in this case did later get in a bit of trouble for using unconventional and abusive investigation tactics to try to coax confessions out of people, and it ruined several men's lives ethics that occur with the police in this film, but we'll get more into that in just a moment.

Remi:

We then cut to a lone woman walking down a rural road sometime later, being trailed by a man following a short distance behind her. When the man attempts to speak to her, she is startled and runs away, only to tumble into a ditch mere moments later. As the man tries to help the woman, detective Park just happens to drive by and leaps from his vehicle. As the man tries to help the woman, detective Park just happens to drive by and leaps from his vehicle, tackling the man and accusing him of being a rapist, as the frightened woman frantically runs away. This so-called rapist turns out to be Seo Tae-yeon, played by Kim Sang-kyun, a detective from Seoul who's come to assist the investigation by volunteering his expertise in crime scene analysis. Quite a welcome to the neighborhood. He got there Back at the police station, so Park and Detective Cho head down to the basement where Gwang-ho is still being held.

Remi:

Park had previously confiscated Gwang-ho's sneakers in order to take a picture of the shoe print and compare it to the one he had managed to photograph at the crime scene before it was destroyed. While Detective Seo reviews the case files. Park Cho and Gwang-ho sit nearby eating takeout, watching an old detective show on TV while waiting for the photographs of the shoe print to be developed. Side note, the program they're watching is Su Sa Ban Jang, a hugely popular Korean detective show which aired for nearly two decades, making its opening theme song instantly recognizable to the majority of Korean audiences.

Ashley:

Not a bad way to spend a day at the office watching one of your favorite shows and eating what looks like some delicious ramen.

Remi:

And I like that. At the end he comments this song is great, it's a good song, it's a catchy little tune. Once the photographs are finally developed, park resumes his clumsy interrogation of Guang Ho, insisting that these shoe prints are a perfect match, while in reality the crime scene print is anything but clear. While in reality the crime scene print is anything but clear when Guanghou continues to plead his innocence, the detectives march him into the woods and force him to dig his own grave in an attempt to terrify him into confessing. Detective so hangs back, chain-smoking, refusing to take part. But eventually Park coerces Guanghou into confessing to the murder. Since the details of Guanghou's story don't fully align with the facts, park fills in any gaps by spoon-feeding Gwang-ho the correct answers. Disgusted with Park and Cho's lack of ethics, so leaves for the station to personally re-examine the evidence. Park and Cho return later with Gwang-ho in tow, satisfied with their coerced confession and even stopping to pose for a newspaper photo to celebrate their supposed triumph While being led away, so notices that Gwang-ho's fingers are webbed, which would have made the specific attack they are accusing him of virtually impossible. Gwang-hou is then taken to the crime scene for a public reenactment, with another officer dressed as the victim standing in for the murdered woman, so insists that the charade be called off immediately, since the victims were found bound and strangled using three precise knots, which would have been impossible for Guanghou to execute because of his condition, which would have been impossible for Guanghou to execute because of his condition. So's objections fall on deaf ears, however, since the police sergeant appears more eager to close the case than seek out the truth. When the reenactment is allowed to continue, it quickly devolves into chaos, leading to Guanghou's arrest warrant being revoked and the investigative team being reshuffled.

Remi:

As a result of this failed public spectacle, park is summoned to present all of his findings regarding the investigation to Sergeant Shin Dong-chul, played by Song Ja-ho. During his presentation, we learned that the two victims were both women who were walking alone at night during a rainstorm. The victims were then bound with their own stockings and sexually assaulted, before being strangled and left partially concealed in rural fields less than a kilometer apart. Detective Soh adds that a third woman matching the other victim's profiles disappeared two months earlier and though her body has yet to be found, soh has pinpointed an approximate location and promises to locate it within two days. True to his word, so discovers the third victim's body in another read field, with the autopsy confirming that she had been bound, raped and strangled with her own stockings, just like the others. That night, the detectives dine at Guang Ho's family's restaurant, where Park gifts Guang Ho a new pair of white Nikes to make amends for the trouble he's put him through, though it is obvious that they're just a cheap pair of knockoffs.

Ashley:

I don't think a new pair of shoes is going to make up for the trauma that this guy probably now has.

Remi:

I know sorry for accusing you of rape and murder. Here's a new pair of Nikes. Yeah, that's not gonna make up for it. And personal side note here there are a ton of eating scenes in this movie, like way more than there actually should be. I mean seriously, these cops are shown eating meals together in basically every other scene and I have absolutely no idea the significance here. So if anyone out there knows, please send us an email and fill me in cause. I got nothing Later that night at a karaoke bar Park and so get into a brief physical altercation over their very different investigative styles.

Remi:

Following this, sergeant Shin leans over and vomits into an ice bucket after having one too many beers that night. Then, in a rare moment of clarity following his guttural purging, shin declares that now that they understand the killer's pattern, they will be ready the next time he strikes. Meanwhile, around town, rumors have begun to spread amongst the children that the killer hides beneath the outhouse behind the all-girls school lying in wait for his next victim, which sounds really, really fucking disgusting. So they're saying this guy is basically hiding in shit all day and just coming out to kill people. That's terrifying. Imagine being murdered by a man covered in shit On the next rainy evening. So and his team set up a trap by using a lone woman wearing a bright red dress as bait, while so and the other officers watch from nearby, ready to pounce at the first sign of trouble.

Ashley:

This is probably the best idea they have had thus far.

Remi:

Well, elsewhere that same night in the pouring rain, another woman walks alone down a dark rural path using a flashlight to guide her way. The woman hums softly to herself on her way to work the midnight shift down at the Remacon factory when she suddenly overhears the faint sound of someone whistling along to her tune, coming from somewhere out in the reed field. I still love you. It's a dark night, walking alone.

Ashley:

God, that would be absolutely terrifying. In the clip, when the wh whistling stops, she uses her flashlight to pan around her, but there is no one that she can see, so this guy is just crouched beneath the reeds in this field watching her.

Remi:

Is there anything more terrifying? Being somewhere and knowing that you are being watched, but you can't see who it is? You don't know their intentions, but you know that somebody's there. That just makes my skin crawl. It's terrifying. The woman breaks into a sprint towards her destination, trying to outrun the unseen presence when, out of nowhere, a man lunges at her from the roadside ditch, causing her to scream out in terror as the screen suddenly cuts to black. The next day, police discover the woman's lifeless body, dragged roughly 400 meters from where she was first attacked.

Remi:

Because of the complete absence of male pubic hair discovered at the various crime scenes, Park speculates that the killer may be a Buddhist monk who shaves their entire body, which Park calls the perfect crime. So and Sergeant Shin, however, aren't quite as confident in Park's theory, and I would tend to agree. There is also a scene where he goes to a bathhouse and is looking at everyone's pubic areas trying to see if any of the men there are bald. A new lead finally emerges when investigators realize that on the night of each murder, someone had written in to a specific FM radio station to request the song Sad Letter to be played on the same night as each killing occurred 80s Korean music has a very distinct vibe to it. I will say that, Since the mysterious radio listener had mailed a postcard requesting the song, so heads down to the radio station to see if he can procure it, but once there learns that the letter had already been discarded.

Remi:

Also, how crazy is it that this took place when people wrote letters in to request songs at the radio station? I didn't even know that ever was a thing, honestly. The radio station I didn't even know that ever was a thing, honestly. Meanwhile, Park has grown so desperate that he actually visits a shaman to ask who the murderer is, and I'll give you one guess how that turned out. One night, while so Park and Cho are separately staking out the crime scene, they spot a shadowy figure arrive who pulls out a pair of women's underwear from his trousers and places them gently on the ground in front of him. The man then drops his pants, revealing that he is wearing red panties underneath, and begins pleasuring himself while staring at the underwear.

Ashley:

Jeez, what a weirdo.

Remi:

When Cho accidentally steps on a twig during all of this, the man quickly realizes that he may not be alone, so hastily pulls his pants up and makes a break for it. The three detectives pursue the man into a bustling gypsum mine, where he manages to seamlessly blend in with the other factory workers until Park notices the man's unmistakable red panties still sticking out above his waistline. After being drop-kicked by Cho, the man is arrested and brought down to the station for further questioning. That is Cho's second dropkick of the film so far. There, the man is identified as Cho Byung-sun, played by Ryo Tae-ho, a husband and father caring for his sick wife and several children, all of whom live in a single room together.

Ashley:

Oh, now I feel bad for calling him a weirdo.

Remi:

Yeah, I wasn't going to say anything, but this is actually pretty sad.

Ashley:

I was thinking it was really weird that he was doing this in the middle of a field, but it sounds like there's probably no privacy at his home.

Remi:

They show his home. It's about the size of our master bathroom and he has about five kids and a sick wife, and it's because of this. Joe says that he will occasionally sneak out into the woods simply to masturbate in private, which honestly is completely understandable Even though he's got his kink, you know, he is entitled to it but maybe somewhere a little bit more private than just the middle of the woods or a crime scene. After holding Joe illegally for four days without a warrant, park forces another confession out of him, though many of the details still don't match the facts. Joe even alleges that he would hide under the outhouse behind the all-girls school, waiting to stalk his victims, believing that admitting to the urban legend was what the police wanted to hear from him. And this guy is being held in his underwear, with his arms above his head handcuffed, so he's basically being tortured during this interrogation.

Ashley:

He's just willing to say anything to make it stop.

Remi:

Exactly. He's pretty delirious by the time. He's confessing to anything Without any other leads, so decides to head on over to the all-girls school to investigate the outhouses. While there so learns of a deeply traumatized woman living alone in a remote cottage who turns out to be the killer's only known surviving victim. What are the odds?

Remi:

Who would have thought an outhouse visit would literally bring you to the biggest break in your case imaginable. So enlist the help of a female officer named Kwon Kwi Ok, played by Ko Si Hee, to conduct the interview. But because the woman purposefully did not look at her attacker's face, she is only able to reveal that his hands were unusually soft and almost feminine. This alone clears Jo of any further suspicion, but we never do find out how the woman managed to escape.

Ashley:

You will find out in my section.

Remi:

Back at the station, during yet another scuffle between so and Park, the song Sad Letter begins playing live on the radio, while outside it has just begun to rain. Early the next morning, another woman's body is found, with the autopsy revealing that seven small pieces of peach had been inserted into the woman's vagina. This latest killing is enough to finally push so and Park past their rivalry and agree to start working together. Fortunately, the radio station was able to save the most recent postcard sent in requesting sad letter leading so and Park to a strikingly handsome clerk at the gypsum factory named Park Yoon-gyu, played by Park Ha-il, who also happens to have remarkably smooth hands. During questioning, yoon-gyu admits that he did in fact write the song requests, while specifying for them to be played on the next rainy evening. This alone is enough to earn Yoon-gyu a swift dropkick from Cho, but is still not enough evidence to connect him directly to any of the murders.

Ashley:

Man. So this guy is just kicking people left and right, not even ones that are trying to escape.

Remi:

Yes, he is a non-stop kicking machine. In fact, I have a little montage that I am going to show Ashley, which you at home will not be able to see, of all of the dropkicks that this character, cho, does throughout the film.

Ashley:

Okay, so it is only three, but wow, that guy can really get high up in the air, can't he? He's kicking these people like in the chest.

Remi:

And he is leaping through the air, can't he? He's kicking these people like in the chest. And he is leaping through the air and doing this. He isn't staying on the ground and kicking them, he is literally throwing his entire body weight through the air to kick these men in the chest. Very suddenly and unexpectedly. I was very caught off guard the first time that happened in the film. I was very caught off guard the first time that happened in the film.

Remi:

After finally banning Cho from the interrogation room, so and Park revisit the taped interview with Gwang-ho the man with webbed fingers and realize that he may have actually witnessed one of the murders transpire. The two detectives rush to Gwang-ho's family's restaurant, where they find Cho drunk and suspended for assaulting Yun Gu. When the patrons mock the police for their incompetence, tensions quickly boil over, leading to an all-out brawl instigated by Chou. In the chaos, guanghou strikes Chou with a broken table leg, embedding the nail deeply in Chou's leg. Panicking, guanghou flees and is pursued by so and Park. But in his desperate attempt to escape, guanghou is struck and killed by a passing train.

Ashley:

God, this poor guy.

Remi:

I do feel sorry for this character. He really didn't know even what was going on and was just scared most of the time. Soon after, the coroner uncovers semen on the last victim's clothing, meaning they could potentially be able to match the DNA to Yeon-gyu. Unfortunately, Korea doesn't currently have that technology, so the sample must be sent to the United States for analysis. While they wait on the results, Cho's untreated leg wound develops a severe case of tetanus, forcing doctors to amputate and meaning Cho will never dropkick again.

Ashley:

That's the real tragedy of this whole story.

Remi:

I find it so crazy that Cho's dropkick has a story arc in this film. Crazy that Chose Dropkick has a story arc in this film. On the next rainy evening so stakes out Yeon-gyu from his car but drifts off to sleep and by morning another young girl is found murdered, with straight razor cuts along her breasts and a spork and pen inserted into her vagina, racked with guilt and rage. So tracks down Yeon-gyu, dragging him out into the train tracks and savagely beating him. So holds a gun to Yeon-gyu's head, demanding a confession, but is stopped by Park who arrives with the DNA results which have come back as inconclusive. So refuses to accept this and nearly pulls the trigger anyway. But Park stops him, leaving Yeon-gyu free to vanish back into the darkness of the train tunnel.

Remi:

And side note here the dark abyss which takes the form of a dark train tunnel in this scene is a recurring visual and thematic element which appears in many of Bong Joon-ho's films, often representing a dark, uncomfortable truth which individuals would rather not see but must inevitably confront. This was in Parasite in the Basement. Remember? There was a dark void going down in the basement and the man's head came out and that's all you could see.

Ashley:

Yes, how can you forget that scene?

Remi:

It's my favorite shot in the entire film. By 2003, the murders remain unsolved and Park no longer works for the police force. Instead, he is now a husband and father of two, currently working as a juice extractor salesman. One morning, on his way into work, he passes the site of the first murder and can't help but stop to look once more. While there, he encounters a young girl who mentions that she recently met another man visiting that very same spot, reminiscing about something he'd done there a long, long time ago. Park asks the little girl if she can remember what the man looked like, and she pauses, thinking carefully, before finally saying that the man looked so ordinary that she couldn't even recall a single distinct feature about him. And that was Bong Joon-ho's memories of murder. And I think my big question for you, ashley, is is Yeon-gyu the killer and is he a real person? That was the big question I had at the end of this film. Is this guy that the movie is heavily, heavily hinting at was the killer? Did he turn out to be the killer?

Ashley:

We'll get into that in a moment.

Remi:

Good, because I am really dying to know.

Ashley:

But first, what did you think about it? Did you think that this deserved to be in the top 100 best movies of the last 25 years?

Remi:

It is a great film. It was much stranger than I thought it was going to be. I figured this would be a pretty straightforward detective chasing after a serial killer type film, but Bong Joon-ho added so many strange elements that were almost comedic in numerous scenes, which really really caught me off guard and held my attention the entire time. I know he most likely took liberties with things, but he really crafted a brilliant film here and, honestly, behind Parasite, this would be my second favorite film he's ever done.

Ashley:

Wow, so you like this one even more than Snowpiercer and the Host.

Remi:

I do. I prefer his more grounded films to his sci-fi monster films. I feel like this film and Parasite are almost more similar to Park Chan-wook films, who did the Vengeance trilogy, and I like those types of films a little bit more than the fantastical ones with CGI, rhinoceros, elephant, hippo, things running around. I don't even know how to describe Okja, but yes, it's a brilliant film. Memories of a Murder. It is not for everyone, but it is a recommend for anyone out there who is a Bong Joon-ho fan and has yet to check this one out, like I had.

Ashley:

Well, I'm definitely going to have you watch it again, but we'll save it until we are done with the entire movie list, so there'll be ample passage of time for you.

Remi:

All right. Well, let's get into the release of Memories of a Murder, which gained a cult following within the first year of its release and by the end of the decade it was hailed by international critics as not only one of the best crime films of the 21st century, but also one of the greatest Korean films ever made Very high praise there. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film currently holds a 95% approval rating, with an average score of 8.2 out of 10. The critical consensus reads Memories of Murder blends the familiar crime genre with social satire and comedy, capturing the all-too-human desperation of its key characters.

Ashley:

Wow, so yeah, I guess it really does deserve a spot on that list. Bravo, key characters.

Remi:

Memories of Murder was also the most watched film in South Korea in 2003, with over 5.1 million people viewing the film domestically, and by the end of its run it had become the fourth most watched film in Korean history, behind Shiri, Friend and Joint Security Area, none of which I have seen but will be checking out. Its commercial success is even credited with saving its production company, Sidus Pictures, from having to file for bankruptcy. The film's influence spread far beyond Korea as well, with Quentin Tarantino naming Memories of Murder one of his top 20 favorite films since 1992. And I find it interesting he has to specify that it's his top 20 films since 1992., Because I guess it doesn't make the list if you bring it back to 91.

Ashley:

I mean, he's seen like every single movie to ever be made, so I'm sure he has just a million different top 20 lists.

Remi:

Pan's Labyrinth. Director Guillermo del Toro even called the film a masterclass in filmmaking and a prime example of perfect cinema.

Guillermo del Toro:

There is for me a kinship with Bong at many levels in this desire to take what would be a genre piece and put it through the prism of a concrete historical social context that changes the way the piece can be read, because it is not just something that happens somewhere.

Remi:

I'm sad that Guillermo has never done a true crime film, so we will never get to discuss him on this podcast.

Ashley:

Maybe one day.

Remi:

Memories of Murder went on to collect an impressive number of awards from many of Korea's major film ceremonies in 2003. The film swept the Chunsa Film Art Awards, earning wins for Best Film, best Director, best Screenplay, best Actor, best Supporting Actor, best Cinematography and Best Editing. This was a similar case at the Korean Film Awards, where the movie won Best Film, best Director for Bong Joon-ho, best Actor for Song Kang-ho, best Screenplay for Bong and Shim Sung-bo, along with the awards for Best Cinematography and Best Editing. A loosely based Bollywood remake titled Foot Fairy was released in 2020, and yes, it is a musical. So here is a brief clip of Andhira by Shivi, which is one of only three songs in the film.

Ashley:

Oh, I do like the song, but one what an awful title. And two can you even call it a musical if there's only three songs? That is not enough.

Remi:

If it is based on the true story of a serial killer. Yes, I will call it a musical if it has three songs in it. There shouldn't be any songs in films about real-life serial killers, in my opinion, but I have not seen this one, so it could be a masterpiece, who knows. But it is unusual that there is a musical Indian remake of a Korean serial killer film based on true life events. After Memories of Murder was released, director Bong Joon-ho said that he was confident that the real killer would eventually watch the film, and it is because of this that the final shot features Detective Park staring directly into the camera breaking the fourth wall, according to the director Park isn't just looking at the audience in that moment, but staring straight into the camera breaking the fourth wall.

Remi:

According to the director Park isn't just looking at the audience in that moment, but staring straight into the eyes of the real killer, should he be watching?

Ashley:

Oh wow, that is really really cool.

Remi:

I know right Years later, in 2019, Lee Chun-ja, the man responsible for the crimes that inspired the film, admitted to having seen Memories of Murder commenting I just watched it as a movie. I had no feeling or emotion towards it. Chilling words, to end on, completely emotionless, by the real-life killer. But I'm very eager to know if this killer was the man in the film or how much of the film was embellished, because I'm guessing there's a lot of liberties that were taken. I know the song thing is not accurate.

Ashley:

Yeah, I gave you a weird look when you were like vaguely asking me about that and I was so confused.

Remi:

Well, I can't wait any longer, ashley, are you ready to tell us the true story?

Ashley:

All right, here we go. Wasong, south Korea, is a rural city near Seoul. In the late 1980s and early 1990s it was home to about 226,000 residents living in small villages tucked between forested hills and rice fields. Between September 19, 1986 and April 3, 1991, the area was encompassed by fear. A serial rapist and murderer preyed on women walking home at night, a common occurrence in the region. Due to limited bus routes, 14 victims between the ages of 8 and 71 were killed.

Remi:

I do want to point out that in the film, the women are all around the same age and they are all described as being very beautiful.

Ashley:

Most were discovered days after disappearing. All had been raped and strangled with their own clothing. Some were stabbed after their death and in several disturbing cases half-shaped pieces of peach were found inside them. The first known victim, 71-year-old Lee Won-im, was found on September 19, 1986. Only three officers were initially assigned to the investigation. Local officials requested assistance from larger agencies, but at the time most police resources in the country were diverted to security for the 1986 Asian Games, a precursor to the 1988 Summer Olympics. This was done amid heightened tensions from North Korea. After the discovery of the third victim, 23-year-old Lee Kai-sook, on December 21, 1986, more investigators were brought in from outside agencies. Still, police were hesitant to draw attention to the case to avoid any suggestion a potential serial killer was at large.

Remi:

They didn't want people to panic. I'm assuming.

Ashley:

The scale of the investigation escalated drastically after the body of 19-year-old Hong Jun-young was discovered on January 11, 1987. Because all the murders occurred within a four-mile radius, police stationed pairs of officers every 100 meters. Female officers even began wearing red, hoping to lure out the killer after rumors spread about him targeting women in red on rainy days.

Remi:

This is brought up in the film as well.

Ashley:

Despite these efforts, the Hwasong murderer continued to slip through their grasp. The case ultimately became the largest criminal investigation in South Korean history. More than two million man-days were devoted to it, 4,000 people were fingerprinted and over 21,000 suspects were investigated. The police department was under mounting pressure from both the media and public to solve the case, with many calling for resignations if the killer wasn't caught quickly. In response, investigators cast a wide net, questioning anyone they believed could possibly be connected to the crimes, but their methods were often far from ethical. In the 1980s, it was common for South Korean police to keep suspects awake for days in an attempt to force a confession. In later years, multiple men accused investigators of using torture, including being waterboarded with spicy seafood soup.

Remi:

That sounds awful, oh my god. Torture, including being waterboarded with spicy seafood soup.

Ashley:

That sounds awful, oh my god. One notable example came in December 1990, when a 19-year-old confessed to committing one of the murders, only to retract his statement during a crime reenactment. He later revealed his confession was coerced through threats, torture and electrocution.

Remi:

They did not show electrocution in the film. These police went a lot further than the ones on screen did.

Ashley:

After his release he struggled to return to normal life and died of cancer at the age of 27. At least four other men took their own lives in the 1990s after being interrogated and abused while in police custody. One man accused of two of the murders, after a medium from the United States claimed she saw his face in a dream, successfully sued the government for damages in 1995. Sadly, he died by suicide two years later.

Remi:

That is probably what the shaman scene in the film is referencing.

Ashley:

As the investigation dragged on, the villages of Wasong grew quiet and eerie. Women avoided wearing red and going out after dark. Men fearful of being questioned by the police kept a low profile, though. Some formed nighttime patrol squads roaming the streets after dark with sticks. Some locals even erected a scarecrow as a talisman to ward off the killer. At its base they scrawled a chilling warning If you do not hand yourself in, you will be torn limb from limb. I think this scarecrow is depicted in the poster for this movie.

Remi:

You are correct in that.

Ashley:

Over the years, police produced three composite sketches of the suspect. The first came from a woman who narrowly escaped after being sexually assaulted at knife point in November 1986, slipping away while her attacker searched through her purse.

Remi:

So that's how she escaped. Was she not tied up or did she free herself?

Ashley:

I don't think she was tied up.

Remi:

Okay, so was this one of his earlier victims.

Ashley:

Yeah, the first body was found in September 1986 and this was November. A second sketch was from a man who, in mid-1987, was briefly mistaken as a woman because of his long hair while using a public restroom. The third came from two bus drivers who claimed they saw a man board their bus shortly after the murder of 54-year-old Ahn Gun Soon on September 7, 1987. In each case, the Hwasong murderer was described as a thin man in his mid-20s, standing between 5'5 to 5'7, with a short, sporty haircut, sharp nose and eyes, soft hands and a low voice. Police also had what they believed to be their most valuable clue semen samples from multiple victims. But in the late 1980s DNA analysis was still in its infancy. While it was beginning to be used in some western countries, south Korea lacked the equipment and technology to process the evidence. Even fingerprint comparisons were done by eyesight alone.

Remi:

That cannot possibly be accurate.

Ashley:

The killer broke from his usual pattern on September 16th 1988, when he slipped into the home of 14-year-old Park Sang-hee and raped and killed her while her parents slept in the next room.

Ashley:

At the scene, police recovered eight strands of hair containing traces of heavy metal that didn't belong to anyone from the household. Investigators started looking into local men who worked with heavy machinery and had type B blood. Given the results of previously conducted blood typing analyses, in May 1989, they set their sights on 22-year-old Yoon Sung Yip, a welder at a farming tool center. In July 25, 1989, police summoned him to the station after visiting his home while he was eating dinner. Yoon's life up to and beyond that point was shaped by hardship. At age three he contracted polio, which left him with a lifelong limp so severe that he was exempt from South Korea's mandatory military service, believing his disability made him undesirable. He never had a romantic relationship or even attempted to speak to women in that way, and investigators used this romantic relationship or even attempted to speak to women in that way, and investigators used this against him, speculating that he killed women out of hatred.

Remi:

They do this in the film as well, when they are trying to coerce a confession from him.

Ashley:

When Yoon was in the third grade, his mother was killed in a car accident. His father, consumed by a gambling addiction, stopped supporting the family altogether. Left to fend for himself, yoon quit school and moved to Wusong where he spent nearly a year begging for work and food outside a fried chicken restaurant. By age 11, he found steady employment at a farming tool center, the same place he worked at when he was arrested 11 years later. Though not articulate or expressive, he was known for his reliability and strong work ethic.

Ashley:

Yoon was taken to a small, dark interrogation room where he was handcuffed and relentlessly questioned for three days about the rape and murder of Park Sang-hee. He was given almost no food, allowed to leave only to use the bathroom, and jolted awake whenever he tried to sleep. After three days of this, yoon broke, exhausted, disoriented and desperate to go home. He told police he went for a walk on the night of September 16, 1988, and because of his limp he had to stop to rest several times. Around midnight he claimed he saw a house with a light on and suddenly felt a quote urge for rape. According to his statement, he climbed into the house, attacked the young girl and burned his clothes on the way home.

Remi:

Would he have even been able to do this with his limp? Would he be able to climb into somebody's house like this?

Ashley:

Hold that thought. I get to that very soon. Despite confessing to this later, yoon would say he didn't even remember what he wrote down. That day, on July 28th 1989, police called a press conference and made him repeat the statement for the cameras. In this footage he looks dirty and dazed, with his head bowed and speaking in a low voice.

Ashley:

he said the police didn't demand anything of me. It was not an accident. I finished work that day with my friends and they had bully pain, so I wandered off alone and that house caught my eye. At first, I didn't intend to murder anyone. As I climbed over the wall, I saw a door and inside the house there was a woman, without realizing what I was doing, because I was so emotional about being bullied. I just did it.

Ashley:

The evidence against Yoon was shaky at best. The village he lived in was small, so while he knew some of Park Sang-hee's friends, he never met her directly. As a welder he had traces of titanium in his hair, but a forensic report showed the hair recovered from the crime scene was only a 40% match. Even with his confession, police ignored a glaring issue. Yoon's disability made it nearly impossible for him to scale the wall to approach the house, let alone undress and restrain the girl if she resisted. On August 10, 1989, police brought him to the crime scene to test whether he could climb that wall. He failed, but the official report was falsified to say he succeeded. Yoon also didn't match the behavioral profile of a sadistic, sex-driven killer.

Remi:

Because he isn't this poor man.

Ashley:

He had no history of sexual violence, deviant interests or abnormal behavior, but still investigators were convinced they had their man.

Remi:

Why were they convinced? Just because of the stuff found in his hair. That's literally all that they have at this point.

Ashley:

They just wanted to close this case. It was a media and public spectacle and they just wanted it to be done, so they pinned it on this guy. He does only end up being charged for this murder, but for a year or so they believed that they caught the man responsible.

Remi:

That is insane and very tragic for this man.

Ashley:

There's a documentary that I have linked in the show notes that's about this case, and he was heavily involved in it and despite everything he went through, he maintains just such a remarkable sense of positivity and outlook on his life. It's truly impressive.

Remi:

Well, that is good to hear, at least.

Ashley:

Yoon's trial for the murder of Park Sang-hee began in Seoul in February 1990. His public defender failed to appear, forcing Yoon to represent himself.

Remi:

He just no-showed.

Ashley:

Yeah, just no one showed up and they were like, well, we're gonna go through, you can talk for yourself, right?

Remi:

I cannot imagine the panic this man must have felt.

Ashley:

Despite the complete absence of reliable forensic evidence, he was convicted and sentenced to life in prison.

Remi:

What the fuck is going on here? This guy is being convicted based on nothing, based on forced confessions and the slimmest evidence I've heard in a long time.

Ashley:

Believing the killer was behind bars, hwasong breathed a sigh of relief. The killer was behind bars. Hwasong breathed a sigh of relief until the body of 14-year-old King Mi-jung was discovered on November 16, 1990. So it was only nine months after the trial that another murder happened.

Remi:

Well, that does tend to happen. When you falsely imprison someone for a crime they didn't do, the person that really did the crime may keep doing it.

Ashley:

This was followed by the murder of 69-year-old Kwon Soon-Sang on April 4th 1991. Yoon was relieved when police came to question him three years after his conviction. He hoped they would realize his innocence. Instead, they dismissed him as a copycat killer. Prison life was brutal for Yoon. At one point, he was sent to solitary confinement and forced to eat dog food with his hands tied behind his back. Inmates were forbidden from looking at clocks, which is why he hung several of them in his room after his release. Throughout his incarceration, he maintained his innocence and tried to appeal. The only person who believed him was a nun named Ho Gyun Na, who led a support group and continued to visit him monthly. Yoon was paroled in 2009 after spending 20 years behind bars. He never returned to his hometown and stayed at a supportive housing facility run by Ho Gyun Na for three years.

Remi:

This did not go how I was hoping for this guy. I was really hoping that they would realize they had the wrong man and release him, but he'd spent 20 years of his life paying for something he never did.

Ashley:

That's just horrifying for something he never did. That's just horrifying. I know when we started out doing this episode for our seasonal serial killer episode, I was not expecting it to also be a wrongful conviction. So treat to all of you two wrongful conviction cases in a row. While in prison, Yoon befriended an officer named Jong-Doo Park. The two kept in touch. After his release, Park regularly checked up on him, knowing how hard life would be so difficult, in fact, that at one time Yoon said he would rather return to prison. He longed to prove his innocence because he couldn't face his mother in heaven as a convicted murderer and wanted her to be proud of him.

Remi:

This is just heartbreaking. This poor guy.

Ashley:

Over time, the Hwasong case faded from South Korea's public consciousness. The release of memories of murder in 2003, combined with the killing of a female college student in 2004, reignited fear that the serial killer had returned. The case hit headlines again as the statute of limitations for the last victim was set to expire on April 2nd 2006.

Remi:

There's a statute of limitations on murder in South Korea. At the time there was and it was only 15 years- the audience can't see me, but my eyes are bulging out of my head.

Ashley:

It was increased to 25 years in 2007 and abolished altogether, thanks in large part to this case, in 2015,. But those changes didn't apply retroactively, meaning even if the true killer was caught, he could never be prosecuted for the murders. And this could have been the end of our story, but remarkably it's not. Despite the statute of limitations expiration, the government chose not to destroy the DNA evidence because of the high-profile nature of the case. Using a newly developed DNA restoration technique, samples from five of the victims were compared against a national database of inmates created in 2010. On September 18, 2019, authorities publicly named a suspect, lee Chung-jae. But who was he and how did he manage to evade detection for over 30 years? Lee was born on January 1, 1963, in Wasong. Little is known about his childhood, but his family was wealthy and, according to his mother, he excelled in school, got along with his peers and was deeply affected by the drowning death of a younger sibling. Lee graduated from high school in February 1983 and joined the Korean Army, serving as a tank driver until his discharge in January 1986. Just nine months later, the first Hwasong murder occurred. Lee quickly found a job at an electrical equipment manufacturing company. In September 1989, he was caught inside a private residence by its homeowner and arrested. In February 1990, he was convicted of robbery and sentenced to one year and six months in prison. He swiftly appealed, claiming he had been beaten by an unknown man, and entered the house while fleeing his attacker. The story had obvious holes. It didn't explain why he was wearing gloves indoors or why, if he truly feared for his life, he hadn't used the weapons he had on him. Still, he was granted a second trial and given a suspended sentence with two years of probation. He was released in April 1990 and began working as a crane operator, a job he kept for three years before quitting operator, a job he kept for three years before quitting.

Ashley:

In April 1992, lee married a bookkeeper and had a son. Looking back at the timeline of the Wasong murders, his crime spree started with sexual assaults just one month after his military discharge and abruptly stopped when he got married In December 1993, lee's wife left him, citing his abusive behavior and alcoholism. Just one month later, on January 13, 1994, he lured his 18-year-old sister-in-law to his home where he drugged, raped and killed her out of revenge. When she failed to return home that night, he even helped his father-in-law search for her and accompanied him to the police station to report her missing. The following day her body was found wrapped in a tarp inside the garage of a hardware store.

Ashley:

Lee quickly became the primary suspect. During the search of his home they found her DNA in the bathroom under the washing machine. He was arrested on January 18, 1994. During questioning he asked the investigators how many years do you serve in prison for rape and murder? Despite this, he denied any involvement and gave conflicting statements over the next two days. In May 1994, he was convicted and sentenced to death. The following year his sentence was commuted to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 20 years. He does not get paroled. By the way, he was a model inmate throughout his incarceration at the Busan Penitentiary. So was Lee one of the 21,000 suspects during the investigation of the Wasong murders? As a matter of fact, he was Briefly. He was questioned at the time of the killings after police approached him and discovered he didn't have his ID card. At the time he was even wearing a watch belonging to one of his victims. Due to flawed DNA testing methods, investigators believe the killer had type B blood and since Lee had type O, he was cleared as a suspect.

Remi:

Wow. So the police's fuck up actually ended up getting this guy off and costing more people their lives.

Ashley:

During a later court hearing, which I'll get into in a moment, lee expressed his surprise that he wasn't investigated more thoroughly, stating Crimes happened around me and I didn't try to hide things, so I thought I would get caught easily. There were hundreds of police forces. I bumped into detectives all the time, but they always asked me about people around me all the time, but they always ask me about people around me.

Remi:

This almost reminds me of the end of American Psycho, where no one seems to be noticing that a serial killer has been walking amongst them the entire time, despite it being blatantly obvious.

Ashley:

Lee initially denied any involvement when questioned about the murders in September 2019. Over the course of two weeks, he was interrogated nine times before finally confessing, something he said he decided to do after developing rapport with the lead female investigator.

Remi:

So they weren't putting this guy through torture like they did the other guys. They were being nice to him.

Ashley:

I mean this is 2019, so very different from the late 1980s. I assume reform had happened at this point.

Remi:

Yes, that's a very good point.

Ashley:

His admission came after being confronted with irrefutable DNA evidence. At that point, he reportedly stated so now you've finally found me. Lee went on to confess to 14 murders, including the one Yoon had been convicted of and three others not previously linked to the case. He also admitted to more than 30 attempted and completed rapes. Unlike Yoon's coerced confession, lee's was filled with specifics only the real killer could have known. He provided detailed descriptions of the killings, the layout of the 14-year-old victim's house and how the women were undressed. He even still had the victim's watch which he was wearing when he was questioned. Decades earlier, after 33 years, the case was finally solved.

Ashley:

Yoon began having nightmares after news of Lee's confession broke in October 2019. With the help of former Officer Park, he filed for a retrial on November 13, 2019. At that time, the district attorney publicly admitted that officers mistreated him during his interrogation and falsified the forensic report of his hair sample. In December 2019, eight of the original investigators were charged with abuse of power, illegal detention, coercion and falsifying investigative documents. The chief of police formally acknowledged the validity of these allegations in July 2020. Yoon's petition for a retrial was granted in January 2020. On November 2nd, 57-year-old Lee appeared as a witness and gave his first and only public statement about the killings. He showed little remorse. Instead, using much of his testimony to criticize police incompetence. He claimed the murders were impulsive and committed without any quote, plan or forethought. I committed the crimes just as a moth chases a flame. It was a natural process. If I stopped myself, it would be rape, but when I continued, then it would be murder. Any feelings of regret were fleeting.

Remi:

This guy is just soulless. He has no feeling or emotion at all.

Ashley:

He is a psychopath for sure. He did offer a formal apology to Yoon and the victim's families by stating I heard that many people had been investigated and wrongfully suffered too. I'd like to apologize to all those people. I came in and testified and described the crimes in hopes for the victims and their families to find some comfort. When the truth is revealed, I'll live my life with repent. He insisted he had no plan to seek parole because he didn't want to face public condemnation. Yoon's conviction was finally overturned on December 17, 2020. He was 53 years old and working at a leather processing factory. He sued the government police department and National Forensic Service to hold them accountable for their wrongdoings. He was awarded 2.87 million US dollars in compensation from the South Korean government, and that is the true story of Bong Joon-ho's memories of murder. What do you think, Remy? Was it everything you were expecting, and more?

Remi:

This was a very unique case. I'm a bit speechless by it. I just can't believe that, beyond the people whose lives he took, including the women he raped, he also took several other people's lives who were accused of the crimes that he committed. And just the tragedy and devastation that was left in this guy's wake, with him just floating through seemingly not feeling a thing about any of his actions, it was a really chilling story. This is one of the most evil people we've discussed on this podcast by far.

Ashley:

What do you think about the director's choice to pretty much leave out everything about Yoon entirely? By the time this movie came out, he was still in prison. He wasn't released until 2009. He was far from being formally exonerated at that point.

Remi:

I'm a little conflicted about it. I feel like the character of Guanghou was probably partially based on them, since they both had a physical handicap that would have prevented them from carrying out the murders. And in the film that character dies. He isn't sent to jail. So I feel like that was done because Bong Joon-ho probably did not think that that was the guy, so did not want to have that included in the film, and instead he had the character killed unceremoniously. But that's just my interpretation of it is he most likely did not think that they had their man and that's why he made the film most likely did not think that they had their man and that's why he made the film.

Ashley:

That's what I thought too. I assume that in his research he came across a lot of details about Yoon's conviction and the absolute lack of evidence they had against him, and possibly even the fact that he had maintained his innocence for years, and he probably realized that this guy didn't do it and couldn't have done it. So I'm assuming that's why it was left out entirely.

Remi:

And a gigantic focus of the film, almost more so than the crimes itself, is the corruption and lack of ethics that were occurring in this police department and just how they were accusing basically anyone police department and just how they were accusing basically anyone. If they had one lead. They would bring them in and basically torture them until they confessed, even when the facts didn't add up, and I feel like Bong Joon-ho really did want to highlight that aspect of it and because of that I think he also did not end the film with they got their man, like they were trying to say they did in reality well, with that, let's get into our objection of the week your honor I object.

Remi:

And why is that, mr reed?

Remi:

because it's devastating to my case, overruled good call I will start things off this week and just a quick reminder. Our objection of the week is the most unnecessary, superfluous change made in the adaptation from real life to silver screen. Mine this week is the fact that in the film all of the women murdered were young women. None of the victims are portrayed as being over 50 or older than that in some of the real-life victims' cases, and I'm not really sure what that added to it, because many of the victims we don't even see their faces. They're just a body laying there. So they could have very easily had the real ages of the real victims in those scenes, but for whatever reason they chose to have all of the victims be younger, attractive women. So that is my objection of the week.

Ashley:

This one was really challenging for me because the focus of the movie was so much in the investigation, and that was the one I had thought of after you had mentioned that earlier. The only other one I can think of is that in the movie the detectives go to a shaman when in reality it was like a medium that they had brought in from the United States that they consulted with.

Remi:

I feel like that was done because they wanted to keep the back and forth with America in the film to a minimum. I think the only time America's even brought up is when they send the DNA sample over there.

Ashley:

And they didn't even do that in real life.

Remi:

So in a way, I guess that's the movie's way of giving a nod to the fact that they got something from America in this investigation.

Ashley:

Still a weird change, but I'm going to go with the ages, because that's one we were both going to go with.

Remi:

Well, that brings us to the main part of our podcast. Now our verdict.

Verdict :

At the conclusion of each episode, our hosts will deliver a verdict based on the film's accuracy. If the film is an honest portrayal of the events, then it will earn a not guilty verdict. If the adaptation is mostly factual but creative liberties were taken for the sake of entertainment, the film will be declared a mistrial. But if the film ultimately strays too far from the truth, then it will be condemned as guilty and sentenced to a life behind bars.

Ashley:

Alright, I'll kick us off with this one, Reflecting on the similarities. There are several, and primarily those involve how the murders were carried out and what happened to the victims. There's also clear similarities between the unethical police practices, but in my mind, that's where the similarities end. I don't think this movie did a good job of really highlighting the scope of this investigation. 200 million man days, 40,000 people fingerprinted and 21,000 people investigated is absolutely bonkers. Obviously, I know the movie couldn't have anywhere near that many people in this that would be insane but I think there could have been other ways to hint at that.

Remi:

I will point out that Detective Park did have a binder full of suspects, the people he was interviewing at the beginning of the film. So that was kind of a way of hinting at it, I guess, because it was a binder full of a ton of different pictures of people. But yeah, it's nowhere near as many as you referenced.

Ashley:

Also, I kept a little running tally here of the victims and there were six when in reality there were 10. Again, I'm assuming that was just done for streamlined purposes, but I really think it's kind of a disservice that Yoon's likeness was left out of this. I think it would have been a more compelling commentary that would have fit in line with what the director was trying to get across here. If they would have had this man end up being arrested at the end and then maybe even have it end with Detective Park still having that scene where he's looking into the camera, but it more being like him reflecting on like did we get the right guy?

Remi:

That would actually be really chilling in the end if they had locked him up and they thought everything was done and then another murder happened, like what happened in real life, like what happened in real life and if that even minor change would have been made, that would have moved me from guilty which is what I'm going with to mistrial.

Ashley:

But because it's not, I just think that there's just too few similarities here to bump me from anywhere else other than a guilty verdict.

Remi:

And I must say, my fondness for the film initially was swaying me a bit in the back of my head. I was thinking, yeah, this could have been a not guilty verdict. But no, this film could have never been a not guilty verdict, but I'm still going to give it a mistrial. The broad strokes of the true story are there and there seems to be subtle hints and references to the real events and the real people. But, like it says in the verdict voiceover, if liberties were taken for the sake of entertainment and I do feel like that was done in this film, there is comedic aspects, there is strange, quirky additions to the story that are unusual, and these changes were made to make it more interesting, make the film adaptation more interesting or, aka, for entertainment. So that is why I am giving this film a mistrial, but barely a mistrial. I feel like the story's there, but, man, they did change a lot. So mistrial barely. I would have given it a guilty, but I'm squeaking this one by with a mistrial this week.

Ashley:

A mistrial, unlike the two primary perpetrators quote unquote perpetrators in the real life story. So bravo, memories of murder. You have a split, which I like. When we disagree, it makes for more interesting conversation.

Remi:

It doesn't happen often. I think the last time this happened was Death of Dick Long, which you guys can listen to. That episode I'm not going to tell you anything about it in this one, because it is completely different subject matter.

Ashley:

And speaking of completely different subject matter. We have a new groundbreaking type of episode we're doing next week. Remy inform the audience.

Remi:

Two weeks from now, we will be tackling Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, a film that, believe it or not, I have never seen before, and my first interaction with it was watching the trailer which we will be playing at the end of this episode, and it is not at all what I was expecting. I'm just going to say that right off the bat.

Ashley:

It is our first Western and after we played the trailer you were sold. You're like we are doing this 100%. I can't wait. And it is starring Robert Redford, and who's the other?

Remi:

Paul Newman.

Ashley:

Paul Newman. Paul Newman as Butch Cassidy and Robert Redford as a Sundance Kid. I don't know his real name yet.

Remi:

Well, we will find out in two weeks, but until then, everybody, thank you so much for joining us, and court is adjourned. Paul Newman is Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is Robert Redford. Catherine Ross is Etta.

Bong Joon Ho:

Place. Most of this is true, and all of it blazes with action.

Remi:

You've never met a pair like Butch and Sundance.

Guillermo del Toro:

Well, we're back in business, boys and girls Outlaws with style in a class all their own. You know, when I was a kid, I always thought I was going to grow up to be a hero.

Verdict :

Don't tell me how to rob a bank. I know how to rob a bank.

Bong Joon Ho:

And anything you ask of me I'll do, Except one thing I won't watch you die. And one girl shared their love and larceny.

People on this episode

Contributor

Ashley

Host
Contributor

Remi

Host