A Serial Killer, Whose Murders Inspired a Bong Joon-ho Film, Just Confessed

Earlier this year, movie fans rejoiced as Bong Joon-ho's Parasite won Best Picture at the Academy Awards ...

... which, in retrospect, was really the gourmet appetizer before the oversized horse manure sloppy joe that was the rest of 2020. Since cinemas are full of tumbleweeds instead of audiences, most new movies are delayed until next year. So recently, the void for new theatrical content was filled, in part, with an October re-release of a newly-remastered version of Bong's 2003 thriller Memories of Murder. 

The movie tells the disturbing story of a troubled police investigation into a series of rapes and murders in the 1980s -- think of it as a cross between Zodiac and The Andy Griffith Show, but set in South Korea. If that didn't sell you, it also stars regular Bong Joon-ho collaborator Song Kang-ho, back when he was young and not yet a meme.

The film was based on the unsolved "Hwaseong murders" and ends on an appropriately ambiguous note as a result. Now, oddly enough, just weeks after the movie hit theatres again, the real-life killer has confessed. This comes after DNA evidence implicated Lee Choon-jae in the crimes last year, and he allegedly confessed to police shortly afterward. Although Lee was already serving a life sentence in prison, and the statute of limitations on the murders is up, just this past Monday, Lee officially confessed to the murders in court. Reportedly, he was "surprised he wasn't caught earlier." And looking at the police composite sketch, um ... we're kind of surprised too.

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Top Image: CJ Entertainment