Salinui chueok (2003)
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Two detectives navigate a grueling investigation into a series of brutal murders in 1980s South Korea.
The story
In October 1986, two women are found raped and murdered on the outskirts of a small town. The local police department, inept and ill-equipped to deal with such a serious case, is quickly overwhelmed. Fabricating evidence and employing violent methods, detectives Park Doo-man and Cho Yong-koo coerce Baek Kwang-ho, a scarred and cognitively disabled young man, into a confession. Seo Tae-yoon, a detective from Seoul with more comprehensive training, determines that Baek is not capable of committing the crimes. After closely studying the reports, he discovers the decomposed remains of a third victim, and deduces that the killer struck on rainy nights and targeted women wearing red.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
In 1986, detectives Park Doo-man and Cho Yong-koo use aggressive tactics to force a confession from a disabled man, while Seo Tae-yoon, a more trained officer from Seoul, realizes the man is innocent. Seo identifies a pattern: the killer strikes on rainy nights targeting women in red. Despite various stakeouts, the killer strikes again. Seo eventually finds a traumatized survivor who reveals the killer has soft hands. This leads them to a mine worker, Hyeon-gyu. During a chaotic confrontation, the initial suspect, Baek, is killed in a train accident. As the investigation stalls due to a lack of forensic technology, the police are forced to send DNA samples to the U.S. In 2003, a now-retired Park Doo-man passes the original crime scene and is told by a child that a man who looks 'ordinary' is still out there, leaving him to face the chilling reality that the killer remains at large.
- First release year
- 2003
- Runtime (minutes)
- 131
- Production countries
- South Korea
- Original languages
- Korean
- Directors
- Bong Joon Ho
- Writers
- Bong Joon Ho · screenplay; Shim Sung-bo · screenplay
- Cast and characters
- Song Kang-ho · Park Doo-man; Kim Sang-kyung · Seo Tae-yoon; Kim Roi-ha · Cho Yong-koo; Song Jae-ho · Sergeant Shin Dong-chul; Byun Hee-bong · Sergeant Koo Hee-bong; Go Seo-hee · Officer Kwon Ki-ok; Ryu Tae-ho · Jo Byeong-Sun; Park No-shik · Baek Kwang-ho; Park Hae-il · Park Hyeon-gyu; Jeon Mi-seon · Kwok Seol-yung
- Genres
- neo-noir; crime thriller; mystery
- Themes
- cultural conservatism; political oppression
- Tone and mood
- tense; chilling
- Premise and plot tags
- true crime; police procedural
- Source material / true-story basis
- 1996 play Come to See Me by Kim Kwang-lim
- Content notes
- murder; rape; violence
- Reception
- The film received critical acclaim and is widely considered one of the greatest films of the 21st century, praised for its screenplay, direction, and performances.
- Reported review scores
- Metacritic · score: 82 · scale: 100 · review count: 18
- Awards and nominations
- Best Director · Film Festival · Win
- Production trivia
- The film was the most watched film in South Korea in 2003.; The actual murderer, Lee Choon-jae, was caught in 2019.; Quentin Tarantino named it as one of his top 20 favorite movies since 1992.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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