The year is 1986, and a young woman has just been found brutally raped and murdered in the small Korean province of Gyunggi. Two months later, the bodies of more women are found, causing locals to fear that a serial murderer is on the loose. In response, a special task force led by two local detectives - Park Doo-Man and Jo Young-Goo. A masterful and gripping thriller by director Bong Joon Ho.
It's an altogether remarkable piece of work, deepening the genre while whipping its skin off, satirizing an entire nation's nearsighted apathy as it wonders, almost aloud, about the nature of truth, evidence, and social belonging.
It takes enormous skill to pull off such a high-wire act without diminishing the gravity of the situation, but Bong and his first-rate cast are up to the task.
The script is as sloppy as Song's unkempt cop, sprinkled with intriguing ideas and imaginative details that, like the investigation, simply get lost in blind alleys.
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