What is the best Korean movie in your mind?
Many people think that it is Bong Joon-ho's classic suspense movie "Memories of Killing". Anyone who has seen this movie will certainly not forget the last scene of the film: the policeman played by Song Kanghao, a pair of red bloodshot eyes staring straight at the camera, seems to be able to penetrate the screen and tell the murderer: "I will definitely find you, never die."
And today, the prototype of the murderer in "Memories of Killing" has been arrested! What a lifetime!
South Korea's SBS TV reported on the evening of September 18 that South Korean police identified the suspect in the sensational Hwaseong serial murder case through DNA.
The 50-year-old prototype of the killer in "Memories of Killing" is currently sentenced to life imprisonment for raping his wife's sister in 1994 and abandoning the body, and is now in prison, and the cruelty and abandonment of the body are similar to the Hwaseong serial murder case, which also attracted much attention that year. South Korean media also released photos of the suspects in prison.
It is reported that the police used technical means to completely restore the killer's DNA, and after comparison, it was found that it was completely consistent with the real murderer DNA in the prison.
Regrettably, however, prisoners are not punished by law because of the end of the prosecution period. South Korean police said that although the public prosecution period has passed and the suspect cannot be punished, considering that the case is of great concern to the people, they are studying the specific identity of the suspect.
△ SBS reports
A rare serial murder case in South Korean history: the "Hwaseong Serial Murder Case" is very similar to the "Silver Case" in China, which is a serial murder case that targets female victims.
In the five years from 1986 to 1991, 10 women were victimized within a 2-kilometer radius of Taean-eup, Hwaseong-gun, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea, and only one survived. The victims, ranging in age from 71 to 14, were brutally ravaged and killed without exception.
The case caused a sensation in South Korea at the time, the police mobilized about 2.05 million police forces and troops, searched about 21,000 suspects, identified 570 groups of DNA, 180 hairs, 40,116 fingerprints, but still found nothing, the whole case was terminated on April 2, 2006 because it exceeded the legal prosecution period.
△ Information picture of Korean media
For 33 years, the Hwaseong serial murder case has become one of the most famous "unsolved cases" in South Korea.
△ The portrait and description of the murderer by the South Korean police that year
Viewers who have watched Korean dramas such as "The Signal" may know that the prosecution period for Homicides in South Korea is generally 15 years, that is, even if a criminal is caught beyond this time, he cannot be prosecuted and punished.
But after the release of the South Korean movie "The Melting Pot" in 2011, many people were angry and petitioned the Blue House, which has caused the government to change the national law and cancel the "15-year public prosecution period". However, the Hwaseong chain murder case occurred while the prosecution period still existed and must still be carried out in accordance with the regulations of that year.
△ Stills from "Memories of Killing"
Today, the police also said that the suspects currently arrested are consistent with the DNA of two of the 10 female murders, while 7 of the 10 cases are imitation crimes committed by others, and whether the remaining 7 cases are related to the murderer still needs further investigation.
Audiences familiar with Korean film and television dramas may not be unfamiliar with the "Hwaseong Serial Murder Case", which has not been solved for 33 years and has been repeatedly put on the screen by Korean film and television dramas, in addition to the film "Memories of Killing" directed by Bong Joon-ho and starring Song Kanghao, which was released in 2003, there are also shadows of this case in "Signal", "Tunnel" and "Cape Tongyi".
Among them, the 2014 TV series "Cape Tongyi" was based on the nickname of the suspect in the Hwaseong case, "Cape Tongyi".
The first person to put the Hwaseong case on the stage was in 1996: director Jin Guanglin made the case into a stage play.
The second is Bong Joon-ho – in 2003, based on Kim Kwang-lam's stage play, he adapted it based on actual investigation materials and interview records to make this "memories of killing" that fans called a "god-level movie".
"Memories of Killing" has a high score of 8.8 in Douban, played by 330,000 people, starring Song Kanghao and Jin Sangqing.
In 2003, "Memories of Killing" swept the two major film awards in South Korea, the Blue Dragon Award and the Daejong Award, and Bong Joon-ho and Song Kang-ho won the "Best Director" and "Best Actor" respectively, and won the "Best-Grossing Korean Film Award" at the 24th Blue Dragon Awards with 5.4 million viewers.
"Memories of Killing" also won the "Silver Shell Award for Best Director", "Best New Director" and "Fabizi Film Critic Award" at the 51st San Sebastian International Film Festival for Bong Joon-ho.
The artistic brilliance of "Memories of Killing" is beyond doubt, and what is even more touching is Bong Joon-ho's deeper intentions - when the film was released in 2003, there were still 3 years left before the expiration date of the prosecution, and the name "Memories of Killing" was his interrogation of the real murderer:
"I don't know who the real killer is, but this film has been viewed by 5.4 million people, and I believe that the murderer is one of them." "I thought that if the murderer was alive, he would definitely watch this movie, so I arranged for Song Kanghao to look directly at the camera, in fact, he was looking at the murderer."
Song Kang-ho's gaze of "breaking the fourth wall" and looking directly at the audience through the screen has also become one of the most classic gazes in the history of Korean cinema.
Douban netizens said: "As soon as I thought that the real murderer might sit idly by in the movie theater, opposite Song Kanghao's four eyes, I felt that my scalp was numb." ”
Memories of a Killing doesn't give an answer to "who is the real murderer," but every year many viewers revisit the film in an attempt to deduce who the real culprit is.
David Finch's Zodiac, like Memories of a Killing, does not give an answer to the real culprit, but Bong Joon-ho apparently does it out of observation of Korean society.
"Helplessness" is the most powerful keyword of this film with a heavy atmosphere: it is not only the helplessness of human beings in the pursuit of the truth, but also the helplessness of the inability of small individuals to struggle in the big era.
Bong Joon-ho said: "From 1986 to 1991, for Korean society and all of us, this was an unfinished job. There have been several cases that korean society and the police cannot solve, and finally led to the death of the 14-year-old little sister, which can be said to be the incompetence of the 80s and the defect of the whole society, which is what I want to explain in this movie. People's indignation and sadness about this matter are all condensed in this film. ”
"The repressive environment also incubates violence, and it's all around you and me," he said. ”
In his view, the murderer is not only the person who holds the knife, but the person who delivers the knife to the murderer is also the murderer.
△ Bong Joon-ho and Song Kang-ho are on the shooting scene of "Memories of Killing"
Let's take a look at the 9.2 high-scoring Korean drama "Signal", its second case, about the Hwaseong serial murder case.
But the screenwriter gave a different ending from "Memories of Killing": Lee Jae-han, assisted by Park Hae-young's time-space dialogue, caught the real culprit: but accidentally made his first love become a victim!
The Signal line says, "Even if the past changes, there are things that won't change; that is, the world is unfair." ”
I think this sentence is most appropriate to describe the news that the real culprit in the "Hwaseong case" in South Korea was arrested today, but the statute of limitations for prosecution has passed.
△ Stills of "The Signal"
Finally, the police officer in charge of the Hwaseong serial murder case sent an open letter to the murderer before retiring, writing: "Did you watch that movie "Memories of Killing"? As a policeman who couldn't even catch a prisoner, I couldn't go into the bustling cinema anyway. ”
"I have never been able to arrest you, and I am a sinner for the younger generation and the survivors of the victims."
"I swear that if I catch you, I won't let you stand in the courtroom, and I'll personally solve you."
"Please don't die before me, we'll meet."
I don't know, is this old policeman still alive in the human world? Hopefully he'll see it for himself today.
Today's main writer: A knife.
@ Knife Knife Nagging Literature and Art Original article, unauthorized reproduction is prohibited.