In the film, detectives Park Doo-man (Song) and Seo Tae-yoon (Kim) lead an investigation into a string of rapes and murders taking place in Hwaseong in the late 1980s.

The film received critical acclaim, with praise for its screenplay, Bong's direction, the performances of its cast (particularly Song's), tone, and editing.

After closely studying the crime reports, he discovers the decomposed remains of a third victim who'd been killed earlier and finds that the killer struck on rainy nights and targeted women wearing red.

Inspector Kwon, the police force's diligent but unrecognized female officer, observed that the same obscure song was requested on the local radio station on the night of each crime.

Seo notes that Hyeon-gyu's hands are soft like the survivor's description and that he moved to the town around the time of the first murder but has no concrete evidence.

On September 9, 2002, Bong announced the start of filming in a press conference held at the Kumho Museum of Art.

[5] In an interview with South Korean newspaper Hankook Ilbo in August 2002, regarding the motivation for making the film, he replied that as a fan of detective fiction he "aimed to depict the horror that has not yet been revealed through the emotions evoked through the clash of unmatching concepts of scenic landscapes and grotesque corpses" along with the limitation of the times.

[9] The production team initially contacted many famous Japanese composers such as Joe Hisaishi, and yet tried to find the right music that would not "overwhelm the film", and later found about Taro Iwashiro.

[10] To reflect the blank spaces that are intentionally laid on the screens in the frames of the film as well as the missing information in time, the music was composed in "almost connected, yet almost disconnected rhythms".

The website's consensus reads: "Memories of Murder blends the familiar crime genre with social satire and comedy, capturing the all-too human desperation of its key characters.

"[11] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 82 out of 100, based on 18 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".

[12] Manohla Dargis of The New York Times wrote, "Memories of Murder is such a taut, effective thriller it's a shame you have to read subtitles to gauge just how good a movie it is.

"[13] Desson Thomson of The Washington Post called the film "involving and skillfully mounted" and opined that it "is as exciting for its narrative twists and turns as for its Korean textures and rhythms.

"[14] Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian gave it four out of five stars and stated, "Memories of Murder is a great satire of official laxity and arrogance, and its final scene is very chilling.

[citation needed] The commercial success of the film has been credited as saving one of its production companies, Sidus Pictures, from bankruptcy.

After the ninth murder, DNA evidence was sent to Japan (unlike the film, where it was sent to America) for analysis, but the results did not match any suspects.

As the case was growing close to reaching the statute of limitations, South Korea's leading Uri Party sought to amend the law to give the prosecutors more time to find the murderer.

[36][37] After Lee's identification, Bong Joon-ho commented, "When I made the film, I was very curious, and I also thought a lot about this murderer.

And I think I need more time to really explain my emotions from that, but right now I'd just like to applaud the police force for their endless effort to find the culprit.

Moreover, Bong eschews the conventional Western detective genre movie by placing it in a Korean context, particularly that of the 1980s: a dark time symbolized by political oppression and cultural conservatism.

In interviews, he has said that he has continually sought to deconstruct western cinema genres created during the second half of the 20th century by showing how they fail to account for specific lived Korean experiences.

[39] Professor of Korean Studies and cultural critic David Tizzard has pointed to Bong's use of the abyss in his movies, seeing it evident in Memories of Murder (2003), Mother (2009), and Parasite (2019).

"[40] Screenwriter Kim Eun-hee (Sign, Phantom) was attached to a television adaptation with the working title Signal, which aired on tvN in 2016.