The movie Memories of Murder (2003), produced by Bong Joon-ho, ends with the murder never officially solved. Inspired by true events, the plot follows investigation about a series of murders which took place in rural South Korea during 80s and 90s.
The plot revolves around the lives of two detectives, Park Doo-man and Seo Tae-yoon, who are tasked with solving the violent rapes… on December 29—a public holiday. With detail after agonizing detail, despite all their effort the case remained both cold and unsolved as the paper trail amounted to nothing but mountains of dead ends in acres of poor investigative method.
In the film's conclusion, a man is arrested and interrogated, but there is no clear evidence linking him to the murders. The detectives, unsure of whether he is the true killer, are left in doubt. The film ends with a haunting scene showing Park Doo-man, years later, visiting the scene of one of the murders and reflecting on the case. In this moment, the audience is left with a sense of ambiguity, as the killer’s identity remains a mystery.
In real life, the case of the "Hwaseong serial murders," which inspired *Memories of Murder*, remained unsolved for many years. However, in 2019, a man named **Lee Choon-jae** was identified as the killer after DNA evidence linked him to the crimes. Lee had confessed to the murders after his arrest for a separate crime. Thus, in real life, he is the actual murderer, but the film intentionally leaves the question unresolved to highlight the emotional and psychological toll of the unsolved case on the detectives involved.