Joon-Ho Bong is, for me, the most consistently awesome director of Korean cinema. While Chan-Wook Park's films have sometimes gone a little too bizarre and while I've been really unimpressed with some of Kim-Ji Woon's output, Joon-Ho Bong has always impressed me.
Memories of Murder (2003)
I'd meant to review this quite a while back. It's the movie Joon-Ho released before his movie "The Host" which was much more widely recognised. I was just really unsure how I felt about it.
Apparently "Memories of Murder" has some political allegory involved. I don't have any idea how characters might represent politicians. However, I can see how there's a clear distinction between the old fashioned rural methods (which include torture) and the more modern and scientific methods developed in cities.
What really helped me to appreciate this film however, was rewatching Joon-Ho's other film "Mother". There are so many parallels.
In "Memories of Murder" a mentally disabled (discriminated) suspect is tortured and intimidated to get a confession. In "Mother" our protagonist is concerned that her mentally disabled son may be facing poor treatment and may have been persuaded to confess because this is the sort of behaviour seen from the Korean police in the past.
In both films the mentally disabled suspect is guided through an entirely unconvincing reconstruction of the crime.
I had never realised how closely connected.these two films were until recently.
I have always liked how Joon-Ho balances the darker elements of his films with more comedic elements without it appearing goofy or mismatched. Here I don't think that is quite so successful. The pure silliness of the scene where the mentally disabled suspect is mistreated feels inappropriate.
Still, in the second half, with the expert from the city trying to convince the rural police of his more scientific methods, the tone of the film becomes rather more exciting.
I liked the unexpected resolution to the case, but I found the very final scene puzzling. There's clearly an intentional ambiguity involved but I do not understand the purpose of it (beyond perhaps just a sense of despair).
I don't feel like "Memories of Murder" matches the quality of Joon-Ho's later work, but even so, it's still a very impressive crime thriller.
A-
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The Host (2006) (aka "Gwoemul")
Originally reviewed here
This was the first film I ever reviewed on livejournal. Pneumonia first watch I was rather confused by the quirky ending and the way the man-eating monster isn't the main villain.
Also, while I'd been following Park-Chan Wook's films, the overt comedy in "The Host" didn't put me off like it did in, say, "I'm A Cyborg". Both directors follow that distinctly Korean trend of combining humour with ultra-dark storytelling. (I actually made a comparison to "Battle Royale" in my original review.) But while watching the clash of these two moods was jarring, I've since come to realise what an expert Joon-Ho Bong is when it comes to black comedy.
As a result, my issues with the way the plot flows turn out to be entirely solved on a second watch. On a second time around, I am completely caught up in the craziness from beginning to end.
I remember at the time the effects were mind-blowing (and I came to the film 3 years after its original release). Those effects are somewhat dated now, but still look pretty awesome all the same.
This is a classic monster movie and a must-see for fans of Korean cinema.
A+
Mother (2009)
Originally reviewed here
I loved this movie the first time around and it still holds up on a second watch. But what impressed me (as I said before) was the way my viewing experience was impacted by having seen "Memories of Murder". Once again, Joon-Ho Bong perfectly balances dark storylines with hilarious comedy and characters who seem ridiculous at first turn out to have a great deal more depth as the film progresses. As I recognised in my original review, this is not an easy movie to predict and the ending ties up the story nicely.
A+