Memories of Murder - Characters & Cast

Initially, his motivation is simply to close the case by any means necessary, including fabricating evidence and forcing confessions, to maintain his authority and sense of control. As the case deepens, his motivation shifts to a genuine, all-consuming obsession with catching the killer who has so thoroughly outsmarted him.

Park begins as a confident, corrupt, and incompetent local detective who relies on his supposed "shaman's eyes" and brutal interrogation tactics. He is a satirical representation of the old-guard police force. His journey is one of disillusionment. The relentless, unsolvable case strips away his arrogance, forcing him to confront his own limitations and the failure of his methods. He ultimately abandons his intuition-based approach for a desperate faith in forensics, only for that to fail him as well. By the end, he has left the police force, a man haunted by his failure to bring justice.

His primary motivation is to solve the crime through proper, scientific police work. He is driven by a strong sense of justice and a belief in the power of facts and evidence to uncover the truth. He wants to prove that his modern methods are superior to the provincial brutality he witnesses.

Seo arrives from Seoul as the rational, methodical, and modern detective, a stark contrast to Park. He believes firmly in evidence and logic, proclaiming that "documents never lie." However, the case's perpetual ambiguity and the killer's cruelty slowly erode his idealism. His faith in procedure and evidence crumbles when the DNA results come back inconclusive. He ultimately succumbs to the same violent rage as the other detectives, nearly executing a suspect in a dark tunnel, completing his transformation from a man of logic to one of desperate fury.

Cho is motivated by a simplistic and thuggish desire to assert dominance and force confessions. He believes that violence is the most effective tool for solving crimes and deals with his frustration by lashing out physically. His motivation is less about justice and more about violent enforcement.

Cho is Park's partner and the physical embodiment of the police force's brutality. His defining characteristic is his penchant for violence, particularly his flying drop-kicks. He has little to no character arc; he remains a violent and short-tempered man throughout. However, his actions escalate, culminating in a fight with civilians that leads to his leg being amputated after being hit by a train—a grimly ironic fate for a man defined by his kicking.

His motivation is entirely unclear, which is central to his character's function in the story. If he is the killer, his motivation is the unfathomable psychopathy driving the murders. If he is innocent, his motivation is simply to survive the brutal police investigation. The film deliberately leaves his true motives a mystery.

As the primary suspect in the latter half of the film, Hyeon-gyu's arc is defined by ambiguity. He is soft-spoken and physically delicate, yet he is the most plausible suspect the detectives find. He endures interrogation and brutality with a calm demeanor that could be interpreted as either innocence or the cold confidence of a killer. He is arrested and nearly killed but is ultimately released when the DNA evidence proves inconclusive, leaving his guilt or innocence an open question that haunts the detectives and the audience.