Memoir of a Murderer

Byung-su is a serial killer who stopped seventeen years ago. He now has Alzheimer's and lives with his daughter. New killings begin in the area. One day in traffic he sees blood in a man's car and decides that man is the killer. But his memory is erased daily, and the man starts seeing his daughter. The subject is not murder but being unable to trust your own testimony. Byung-su keeps voice recordings, uses his arm as a notebook and reads who he is again each morning; the viewer, like him, does not know what is real. The form is subjective: scenes cut, repeat, and the same event is shown two different ways. For a long time the film will not say which version holds. The source is a novel by Kim Young-ha. There are two edits: the theatrical version and a longer, darker director's cut released afterwards, and the difference between them changes the final explanation. Sul Kyung-gu lost a great deal of weight for the role. Won Shin-yun directs. Kim Nam-gil plays the suspect and Kim Seol-hyun the daughter. Who it is for: viewers who like Korean thrillers and unreliable narrator constructions. Who it is not for: anyone wanting a clean resolution; the narrative is deliberately uncertain and reaches different conclusions across its two versions.