Stats

Year Released: 2017

Genre: Thriller

Main Cast: Sol Kyung-Gu, Kim Nam-Gil & Kim Seol-Hyun

A serial killer with Alzheimer’s disease. I think if I hadn’t been so interested in watching Memoir of A Murderer, I would have choked on my laughter. Now having gotten that bit of silliness out of the way, let’s get into this.

Well Go USA Entertainment produced A Memoir of  A Murderer and let me check it out before it’s official release on December 19. Here’s the plot, according to AsianWiki:

In his past, Byeong-Soo was a serial killer. He now suffers from Alzheimer’s. He lives with his adult daughter Eun-Hee. One day, he remembers that a man he got into a car accident with is also a killer. That man is Min Tae-Joo. Meanwhile, Min Tae-Joo begins to woo Byeong-Soo’s daughter. To protect his daughter, Byeong-Soo struggles to retain his memory and to kill Tae-Joo.

Review

Okay, Memoir of A Murderer’s plot had me intrigued so I was excited to watch it. You should know me by now. I’m a sucker for a good mystery/thriller. The main lead had me feeling sorry for him. He’s older, forgetful and just wants to care for his daughter even though he can’t care for himself.

We knew right off the bat that he was a serial killer. He spends lots of the movie talking about days gone by, where he was able to squeeze the life out of a person with his bare hands.  Bare hands are best, he says often in the movie.  The beginning of the movie is spent building the story of Byeong Soo and why he lives the way he does with his daughter, Eun-Hee (AOA!). Enter Min Tae-Joo.

Before starting with his character, can I say that Kim Nam Gil seems to be aging backward? Every time I see him, he looks younger and younger. I’ve been a fan of his since Bad Guy (2010) and it looks like he hasn’t aged a damn day! Okay, getting back to the story. Byeong Soo somehow gets distracted while driving home from the bamboo groves and hits Tae Joo’s car. It was just sitting in the middle of the road, in some thick ass fog. He gets out to check the cars for damage and realizes that he sees blood dripping from the back of the car.

Tae-Joo gets out and tries to convince Byeong Soo to just let it go and not to report anything but Byeong Soo is persistent. He knows human blood when he sees it and he knows that Tae-Joo is a serial killer. Tae-Joo knows what Byeong Soo is as well and takes his information card even though he doesn’t supply his own.

Now here enters the problem I have with the movie. Byeong Soo has freaking Alzheimer’s. Like an advanced case of it. He tries to remember things by carrying a tape recorder around and using it to remind himself of important details. BUT my question is if you can’t remember these things on your own, how in the world are you going to remember to push play on the damn thing to listen to what you’ve forgotten. Maybe this is the level of frustration the director wanted us to feel when watching the movie.

It must be horrible for a person to forget things to this level. And to be a murderer? Good grief? I would be so shook! What if you tell on yourself? Byeong Soo’s friend is the chief of police in their town so to know that and know that my mind is going…I’m getting heart palpitations just thinking about it.

Tae – Joo begins this cat and mouse game with Byeong Soo. He starts dating his daughter, which drives Byeong Soo up

the wall because he knows there something wrong with Tae-Joo but can’t remember what it is.  They meet many times and each encounter triggers something in Byeong Soo. He starts working out because he knows that there will be a day where he has to fight Tae-Joo, to death.

Again, I have a problem with this. I know for a fact a frail older man wouldn’t be able to fight someone who is not only a sociopath and is 20 years younger. I suppose this is just movie magic.

The day finally comes and by the grace of producer magic, Byeong Soo is the hero. There are so many loose ends though. He mentions that Eun-Hee isn’t his daughter but there isn’t any clear reasoning as to why he would think that. Yes, there are scenes that would definitely make you think that but my goodness, what a way to throw everything together.

Also, Byeong Soo does end up getting caught over the bodies he had. He ends up in jail but by this point he’s mind is so far gone, he really isn’t a predator to anyone. At the end of the movie, he has a thought to end his life so he isn’t a burden to his daughter but then remembers Tae-Joo. Did he kill him? Is HE Tae-Joo? Did he really escape jail or is this his warped sense of reality? All these questions go unanswered as the last scene ends.

I sat there for 5 minutes as the credits rolled, waiting for something else to happen. My husband reminded me I wasn’t watching a Marvel movie and that there wasn’t going to be anything after the credits. He was right. *sigh*

Final Thoughts

Overall I enjoyed the cat and mouse game Tae-Joo and Byeong Soo played but I felt Memoir of A Murderer was…unfinished.  Have you watched it yet? Check Memoir of A Murderer out and let me know if you agree with me or if I was way off on this review. It’s been known to happen, lol.