Based on the true story of a string of murders that took place in rural South Korea in the 1980s, the stunning second feature by Bong Joon-ho (Parasite, Snowpiercer, Okja) slyly subverts genres to unspool a haunting story about a failed murder investigation.
Park Doo-man (Sang Kang-ho, best known as the family patriarch in Parasite) is a young detective investigating the case of two young women found raped and murdered in Gyunngi Province in 1986. Overwhelmed by his first serious case, the occurrence of similar crimes committed some months raises the possibility that this might be South Korea’s first documented serial killer case. Joining forces with a fellow detective, what follows is a dark tale of obsession, failure, and the abyss, as they struggle to put away the man is responsible for the crimes.
Loosely based on the story of the Hwaseong murders that took place in South Korea in the early 1980s, Bong Joon-ho deftly weaves together dark comedy, satire, and the police procedural to craft an increasingly haunting existential epic, one whose influence can be seen in a litany of other films, not least David Fincher’s Zodiac. It’s one the great modern detective films.