Cinema Scope, a quarterly publication from Canada, is a magazine for film reviews, news and commentary. Last March, the magazine revealed their ‘Top Ten Films of the Decade’, of which BONG Joon-ho’s Memories of Murder took the honor of landing at ninth place. 

 

Memories of Murder (2003) is BONG Joon-ho’s signature film which also brought him to fame. Based on a true story, the film takes place in 1986 in Hwasung, a remote town in Gyeonggi Province. A young woman is found brutally raped and murdered and a couple of months later, several other rapes and murders occur under similar circumstances. A special task force is set up in the area in order to capture the serial killer. A local detective, PARK Doo-man, is joined by a detective from Seoul who requested to be assigned to the case, SEO Tae-yoon. However, finding the killer proves to be more difficult than they thought.

 

The film stars veteran actor and BONG regular, SONG Kang-ho, who also appeared in the director’s The Host (2006) and Snowpiercer (2013). Memories of Murder is the only Korean film that was selected for the list.

 

Cinema Scope’s Top Ten Films of the Decade:
1. Platform (Jia Zhangke, 2000)
2. In Vanda’s Room (Pedro Costa, 2001)
3. La libertad (Lisandro Alonso, 2001)
4. Los Angeles Plays Itself (Thom Andersen, 2003)
5. 13 Lakes (James Benning, 2004)
6. Evolution of a Filipino Family (Lav Diaz, 2004)
7. Yi Yi (Edward Yang, 2000)
8. Black Book (Paul Verhoeven, 2006)
9. Memories of Murder (Bong Joon-ho, 2003)
10. Mulholland Drive (David Lynch, 2001)