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Tomie
TOMIE is a film based on the super popular manga by the same name written by Junji Ito, and just from hearing what the awesome manga contain you'd think it would be one helluva film... well unfortunately, like so many times before, the movie does not even compare to the book. The flick came out in 1999, one year after the brilliant RINGU, and has spawned a number of sequels to date. All of you reading this and who are used to watching Asian horror knows that Asian films often have a tendency to "take their time" before delivering the goods. And that's of course fine just as long as we do get the goods at the end, and that's the major problem with TOMIE; we get nothing except for...
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Movie Review: Memories of Murder

Story
Memories of Murder is about a series of brutal rape murders that actually happened for real in South Korea between the year 1986 till 1990. We get to follow two cops who are supposed to solve the case and as more new corpses are found it leads them to frustration and the use of questionable methods to catch the killer. Also the military government uses the police to stop protests instead of focusing on the murder case which leads to even more frustration.

Comments
Memories of Murder hit bigtime in South Korea and no wonder, it's an excellent movie based on true events. It also has a lot of Korean political history in it from when South Korea was under military dictatorship so I guess it's even more interesting for Koreans who have actually experienced it in real life.

Not a horror movie per se, but as a Asian thriller I still felt that it would fit among the other reviews.

This movie is very different compared to most other thrillers out there, it has a very strong development of characters throughout the movie and this makes you get more into it so to speak. Also, the fact that it's based on a true story helps adding a lot to the movie itself and makes it of course feel more real.

Memories of Murder Memories of Murder

The ending is the biggest surprise which is totally different from what people are used to and that makes it also rise a notch or two. Although that doesn't mean that the ending will satisfy the viewer since it's very different and may as well end up disapointing as it will satisfying.

Final Comments
The movie starts out more like a comedy but becomes more and more serious as it continues on. Might be a tiny bit slow paced at some places but overall it's nothing to worry about. It definitely stands out among South Korean movies and I truly recommend it.

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Memories of Murder

ALTERNATIVE TITLE: Salinui Chueok
MOVIE YEAR: 2003
DIRECTOR: Joon-ho Bong
WRITING CREDITS: Joon-ho Bong, Kwang-rim Kim
GENRE: Thriller, Drama, Comedy
CAST: Kang-ho Song, Roe-ha Kim, Sang-kyung Kim
COUNTRY: South Korea
RUNTIME: 130 min

RATING: 9/10

Memories of Murder Website/IMDB Click here
Memories of Murder Trailer Click here

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