Memoir of a Murderer

For other uses, see Memoir of a Murderer (disambiguation).

Memoir of a Murderer
Theatrical release poster
살인자의 기억법
Directed by	Won Shin-yun
Produced by	You Jeong-hun Won Shin-yun
Screenplay by	Hwang Jo-yun Won Shin-yun
Based on	A Murderer's Guide to Memorization by Kim Young-ha
Starring	Sol Kyung-gu Kim Nam-gil Kim Seol-hyun Oh Dal-su
Distributed by	Showbox/Mediaplex
Release dates	September 6, 2017 (2017-09-06)
Running time	118 minutes 128 minutes (director's cut)
Country	South Korea
Language	Korean
Box office	US$19.5 million

Memoir of a Murderer (Hangul: 살인자의 기억법; lit: A Murderer's Guide to Memorization) is a 2017 South Korean action thriller film directed by Won Shin-yun. It is based on a bestselling fiction book by author Kim Young-ha. The film stars Sol Kyung-gu and Kim Nam-gil in the lead roles, with Kim Seol-hyun and Oh Dal-su in the supporting roles. Filming began in late 2015. The film released in South Korean theatres on 6 September 2017. It is available on Netflix streaming in Korean with English subtitles.

Plot

Walking out of an old railroad tunnel, Byeong-soo face starts twitching. The screen then fade into him being held in a police jail and interrogated by an investigator. The investigator askes Byeong-soo to tell him everything, just like how he wrote in his memoir.

After killing his abusive father as a teenager, Byeong-soo (Sol Kyung-gu) began to believe there were people who deserved to die and that by killing them he would end up saving lives. During his killing spree, he buried his victims in a bamboo grove that he bought. After killing his last victim, he got into a car accident and injured his head, resulting in Alzheimer's disease. He stopped killing and resumed his job as a veterinarian, and continued taking care of his daughter Eun-hee (Kim Seol-hyun).

Over the years, Byeong-soo's condition worsens and causes large chunks of memories to "blank out" with increasing frequencies. After multiple visits to the local police station (as he forgot where he lives), Byeong-soo strikes up an unlikely friendship with local policeman Byeong-man (Oh Dal-su). At Eun-hee's behest, Byeong-soo uses a recorder to maintain his routines. He types out everything he can remember into a memoir and saves it in his laptop. He also goes to a poetry class, where his poetic depictions of murders impresses his instructor and classmates, who believe they are metaphors. A classmate named Jo Yeon-joo (Hwang Seok-jeong) has a crush on him, much to his annoyance.

The small town is shaken by the murders of two young women. Byeong-soo himself is confused and wondered if he did the killing. On the way back from the bamboo grove, he hit another car, popping its trunk open. Noticing a bloody bag in the trunk, he surreptitiously collects some blood on his handkerchief. The car's driver tells him it is a deer's corpse, refuses to exchange contact information, despite being given one and drives away.

After ascertaining the blood sample is human's, Byeong-soo gives an anonymous tip to the police, describing the encounter and the car's make and license plate. However, the tip is regarded as a prank as the car's driver turns out to be a local police man, Min Tae-joo (Kim Nam-gil). Byeong-soo also asks Byeong-man to run the license plate separately. Instinctively realizing Tae-joo is a serial killer like himself, Byeong-soo deducts where he was taking the body to. He finds the body and tips the police, catching Tae-joo's attention.

Tae-joo goes to Byeong-soo's clinic, where he meets Eun-hee. After a short while, the two begin dating. Byeong-soo sees the pair but does not recognize Tae-joo. After Byeong-man tells him about the license plate's owner, Byeong-soo realizes Tae-joo is the killer, and is approaching his daughter to taunt and threaten him. He gives Byeong-man the handkerchief with the blood, telling him it's from Tae-joo's car.

Byeong-soo tries to tell Eun-hee about his misgivings with Tae-joo, but realizes that Tae-joo had preemptively discussed with her about Byeong-soo's suspicious activities around the bamboo grove. Byeong-man calls him back with the lab's result claiming the blood sample is from a deer.

Suppressing his self-doubts, Byeong-soo is determined to kill Tae-joo, but his failing mind and body betrays him. He starts experiencing hallucinations and a whole week's worth of memory is completely erased.

Byeong-soo wakes up finding himself tied up in his bedroom, with Tae-joo reading and liberally editing his memoir. Tae-joo admits to being the killer and having swapped the handkerchief with the blood sample. Byeong-soo tries to grab his bag for a weapon, but fails and spills its contents onto the floor. Tae-joo threatens to kill Eun-hee unless Byeong-soo takes the blame for his crimes, then tranquilizes him. Byeong-soo wakes up and only vaguely remembers what happened.

Fearing for Eun-hee's safety, Byeong-soo orders her to stay with his sister Maria (Gil Hae-yeon) in her convent. He follows Tae-joo to an abandoned house and finds footage of Yeon-joo being held hostage. When he presents this evidence to the police, they suspect Byeong-soo himself is responsible. Upon trying to call Maria to prove Eun-hee's safety, Byeong-soo recalls Maria committed suicide shortly after Byeong-soo killed their father, and the convent where he went to meet her was long abandoned. Byeong-soo flees, and the police begin digging up the bamboo grove, finding the bodies of Byeong-soo's past victims, as well as Yeon-joo.

At home, Byeong-soo recalls who his last victim was - his adulterous wife. Before killing her, he learned that Eun-hee was not his biological daughter. Arriving home with a bleeding head from the car crash, Byeong-soo almost strangled Eun-hee, but his injury caused him to forget the events surrounding his last kill. Byeong-soo comforted the terrified Eun-hee and continued caring for her. Recalling the recent incident in which he nearly strangled Eun-hee, mistaking her for his wife, Byeong-soo becomes convinced that he might have killed his daughter in a fit of insanity.

The guilt-ridden Byeong-soo prepares to kill himself as he listens to Eun-hee's voice on his recorder. However, he then hears Tae-joo confessing his crimes. As it turns out, during their confrontation, Byeong-soo accidentally hit the "Record" button. While collecting his composure, two police officers come to arrest him, although being incapacitated by him. Byeong-soo then walks outside, struggling to remember where he sent his daughter to, and realizes that he sent Eun-hee away in Tae-joo's car.

Renewed with vigor, Byeong-soo calls Byeong-man and plays the recording, convincing him that Tae-joo is the killer. Byeong-man follows Tae-joo to a cabin in the woods, calls for backup and informs Byeong-soo. After Byeong-man enters the house, Tae-joo strangles him from behind and ties up Eun-hee after she sees the body. As Byeong-soo drives to the cabin, he speaks to the recorder, reminding himself to save Eun-hee, and puts Tae-joo's picture inside his locket to remember his face. Back at the cabin, while Tae-joo is monologuing about his life, he reveals a scar that relates to his and Byeong-soo's past. Eun-hee sneaks out of the room prompting Tae-joo to go outside in his car and look for her. Arriving at the cabin Byeong-soo sees him and crashes his car into Tae-joo's car.

After entering the cabin, Byeong-soo's condition triggers again, completely banking out his memory. Tae-joo, laughing with disbelief, begins to strangle Byeong-soo. Eun-hee calls to her father, bringing back his memory, and he begins fighting back. With Eun-hee's help, he eventually overpowers and stabs Tae-joo in the chest multiple times, thus killing him. Eun-hee, having learned from Tae-joo earlier that her mother's body was found in the bamboo grove, is terrified of her father. Byeong-soo admits to his crimes, and assures Eun-hee that she is not a murderer's daughter, as they are not blood related. Byeong-soo then realizes that Tae-joo's corpse is nowhere to be found.

Byeong-soo is arrested and incarcerated. Listening to Byeong-soo's last recording, Eun-hee learns that he keeps himself alive only for her. Deciding to forgive him, Eun-hee visits Byeong-soo, whose memory has deteriorated to the point that he mistakes her for Maria.

Back in the jail, the investigator decides to let him go, since the murder cases have long expired and considered the fact that Byeong-soo is having Alzheimer.

In the final scene, Byeong-soo exits an old railroad tunnel. Suddenly his symptoms triggers once again, his face twitching and he start wearing his shoes in the wrong order. He also begin to recollect his memories in a seemingly odd sequence, such as him being the culprit of all the recent murders, Tae-joo was actually the one to hit his car, and he has been drowned under the nearby dam, while the voice of the investigator can be heard,"The memories of those who are losing it tend to protect themselves first ." He looks at Tae-joo's picture inside the locket, reminds himself "Never trust your memory. Tae-joo is still alive," and continues walking.

Cast

• Sol Kyung-gu as Kim Byeong-soo, a retired serial killer with Alzheimer's disease. He only kills those who have committed sins "equally worse," and he makes them pay the price.
  • Shin Ki-joon as Kim Byeong-soo (young)
• Kim Nam-gil as Tae-joo, a local policeman whom Kim suspects to be a serial killer.
• Kim Seol-hyun as Kim Eun-hee, Byeong-soo's daughter who takes care of him because of his disease. She becomes Tae-joo's girlfriend.
• Oh Dal-su as Byeong-man, a policeman determined on finding murderers of the town.
• Hwang Seok-jeong as Jo Yeon-joo, a woman taking poetry class with Byeong-soo's, whom she annoys, flirts with, and doesn't take seriously.
• Kim Hye-yoon as Maria, a nun and Byeong-soo's older sister.
• Kim Han-joon as detective
• Kim Dong-hee
• Kim Jung-young

Release

Memoir of a Murderer was released in South Korea on September 6, 2017. According to its distributor Showbox, the film was scheduled to open in North America on September 8, 2017, two days after its domestic release. It will also be released in Australia, New Zealand, France, Turkey, Taiwan, Japan and the Philippines.

Memoir of a Murderer was also shown in the Thrill section at the 61st edition of the BFI London Film Festival, which runs from October 4–15.

Reception

The film reached over 1 million admissions in just 5 days of its release (Sept 6-10) topping the Korean box office and grossing $8.6 million US dollars. As of 17 September, the film marked 2.06 millions admissions grossing $14.7 million US dollars nationwide, the first South Korean thriller film to reach 2 million ticket sales in 2017.

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Recipient	Result
2017	1st The Seoul Awards	Best Actor	Sol Kyung-gu	Nominated
		Best New Actress	Kim Seol-hyun	Nominated
	17th Director's Cut Awards	Best Actor	Sol Kyung-gu	Won
2018	9th Korea Film Reporters Association Film Awards (KOFRA)			Won

External links

• Memoir of a Murderer at IMDb
• Memoir of a Murderer at HanCinema
• Memoir of a Murderer at the Korean Movie Database