The Parasite director’s darkly comic 2003 thriller is not only a fine accomplishment in itself – it helped catch South Korea’s most notorious serial killer

Bong Joon-ho broke through to global acclaim with an Oscar for his film Parasite, and now the rerelease of his black comic thriller Memories of Murder from 2003 reminds you that, along with all his other glittering prizes and achievements, this director also helped catch the most notorious serial killer in South Korean history. His film is based on the Hwaseong serial murders of the late 1980s; they remained unsolved until this film came out, sparking a renewed upsurge of interest in the case, which led finally to the identification of the culprit last year – who was already serving a life sentence for the murder of his sister-in-law in 1994.

With the benefit of hindsight, we can see how the film challenges and subverts the serial killer...