Bong Joon-Ho‘s 2003 film Memories of Murder is getting a high-profile re-release from Neon, the company that distributed his award-winning Parasite. The mystery-thriller has been digitally remastered and will head to theaters for two nights in October. After that, the film is set to head to Blu-ray as part of the Criterion Collection. A Memories of Murder re-release trailer can be seen below.
At the start of the year, Bong Joon-Ho and Parasite won a bunch of Oscars, and we all celebrated, gleefully thinking it was a good omen for 2020. Of course, everything quickly went to hell after that. But hey, at least we have more Bong to look forward to! The filmmaker’s 2003 thriller Memories of Murder has been remastered and will be heading to theaters nationwide on October 19 and October 20 for a two-night limited theatrical engagement in partnership with Fathom Events. The special presentation of the film will also include “exclusive content” plus a post-screening conversation with Bong Joon-Ho and Edgar Wright.
The film focuses on the harrowing true story of the hunt for a sadistic serial rapist and murderer terrorizing a small province in 1980s South Korea. Marking the first of many successful collaborations between four-time Oscar winner Bong Joon Ho and leading man Song Kang Ho, the film follows “the paths of three increasingly desperate detectives as they attempt to decipher the violent mind of a killer in a futile effort to solve the case. Now, seventeen years after its initial release, and a year after the real culprit was identified, this cult classic takes its place as a modern masterpiece.”
I caught Memories of Murder when it was streaming on the Criterion Channel (it’s not there anymore), and loved it. And speaking of Criterion, it was announced earlier this year that Memories would be getting the Criterion Collection Blu-ray treatment along with Parasite. The Parasite Criterion is due out in October. The Memories Criterion date hasn’t been announced yet, but I imagine it’ll be sometime soon.
Regarding the re-release, Bong Joon-Ho said: “[This] case is an intertwined web of tragedy and black comedy—the eerie comedy that blooms within the air during the most absurd of times. The film is an uncanny, yet natural, mixture of horror and comedy because we were truly living in such times… I once threw my entire body and soul to create this film, and now my eyes are on how this film will plow through the long tunnel of time as it greets a new chapter in the fall of 2020 in the US.”
