There is no worse itch to scratch than ambiguity. In his breakout second feature, director Bong Joon-ho refused to give a salve to his home nation of South Korea with this fictional crime drama based on the real-life and then-unsolved Hwaseong Murders, in which 15 women were murdered and an unknown number assaulted. Adapting Kim Kwang-lim’s 1996 play, Come to See Me, it’s a relentless exploration of a failed police investigation, with two detectives (Kim Sang-kyung and future Bong regular Song Kang-ho) losing their souls in dead end after dead end. – Richard Whittaker
