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Beginning in the fall of 1986 and continuing for the next four years South Korea was haunted by the nation's first recorded serial killer. Preying upon women in a remote rural community the killer was both vicious and meticulous, strangling his victims with their own undergarments and leaving nothing of any use to the police investigating the crimes. The killer was never caught.

I do not envy any director trying to make a true crime film, particularly not one so high profile and so recent that the crimes still live on in the public consciousness. Stray too far in one direction and you devolve into saccharine sentimentality, go the other direction and you risk crass exploitation. Director Bong Joon-Ho avoided both of these traps by charting an altogether different route: he has made a film that is not about the killer or the crimes or the victims but one that is purely about the police officers charged with the case and the devastating emotional toll it took on their lives. In charting his unusual route Bong has created a bleak masterpiece, one that took home a stack of film awards in its native land but which has been largely neglected on these shores until now.

The film begins with the first body discovered, a woman strangled with her own stockings, raped, tightly bound, and hidden in a drainage culvert. The detective in charge of the case is Park Du-Man (Song Kang-Ho) and it is immediately clear that he is out of his depth, that the entire local police force, in fact, are out of their depth. The crime scene is chaos, crowded by reporters and locals trampling over potentially vital evidence. Park himself is not what you'd call a systematic investigator, scoffing at the scientific approach and trusting in his supposedly unerring eye at picking out criminals just by looking at them. He relies on swagger and bravado and the brute force of his uneducated assisting officer Jo Yong-Gu.

Serving as a foil to Park and Jo is Seo Tae-Yun (Kim Sang-Kyung) a detective from Seoul who has volunteered to assist with the investigation. Seo is the polar opposite of Park - methodical and rational - and it takes mere moments for the two to clash, clashes that lead to the two of them overlooking some key pieces of evidence.

As the film progresses and the body count continues to rise you can feel a sense of desperation slowly settle over the department. Under educated, under manned and woefully under equipped the local force is simply not up to the task. As the realisation that they will not find the evidence they so badly need begins to set in Park and Jo resort to planting evidence to bring in suspects Park picks out with his 'keen eye', suspects they then set out to extract coached confessions from. The process inevitably leads to public humiliation. Soon even Seo begins to lose his faith in reason and just as things bottom out they finally catch a break and settle on a prime suspect, one who truly appears likely to be their man. But can they make it stick? What sets Memories of Murder apart from the crowd are the rich performances from its leads and the sure hand of Bong Joon-Ho. Bong knows exactly what he wants to do with this film and he steers the ship with a firm hand. He has a keen eye for imagery but he consistently avoids the cheap resolve, the quick hit, in favour of a slowly building mood and the film is all the stronger because of it. Song and Kim are both stellar in their roles, giving their characters much needed depth. You can feel their frustration and helplessness continually growing and when the final crushing blow is delivered you can feel their utter despair at being abandoned by a system that they have given their lives to. Bong isn't just asking how this could happen, how someone could be as evil as this killer, but how could a government allow this to happen? How could the police not be given the tools and manpower they so obviously needed to protect the people? The DVD release has been given the standard Palm treatment. The transfer is strong and presented in anamorphic widescreen. The film is presented with both the original Korean language track in 2.0 stereo and an English dub in both 2.0 and 5.1. The English subtitles are solid, clearly translated and easy to read. The disc also includes a reel of cast and crew interviews discussing their characters and the creation of the film as well as an extensive reel of deleted scenes.

Memories of Murder is a minor masterpiece, a film that moved Bong immediately onto Korea's A-list of directing talent. It is richly detailed, beautifully performed and disturbing in precisely the way that people need to be disturbed in from time to time. Don't miss it.

The Host is a film that people have been talking about a lot during its production and the teasers and posters I'd seen to date had gotten me pretty interested. So when it was announced for the Edinburgh International Film Festival this year I had to go and see it.

I have to say I was more than impressed with what I saw. The Host is a film that provides something of everything from suspense to terror, from drama to a little touch of comedy, this film has it all. What's more surprising is that it delivers all of them very well and provides great entertainment on the way.

The opening of the film is perhaps one of the strongest I've seen. Starting with introductions to some of the main characters we instantly get a feel for who they are and what they are about, all the time with a healthy amount of humour. The first appearance of the creature is viewed quite satirically, or rather the peoples attitude and "car crash" mentality is.

Then when it races through a busy park attacking people, it's probably the best portrayal of group blind panic I've seen, and coupled with some excellent edge of your seat and distressing scenes. The shot of the girl standing in shock is one of the most disturbing scenes you'll witness, it's not something you'd expect to happen in a typical film and it's indicative of scenes to come.

Throughout the film you'll be toyed with, there are the usual straightforward scares, and one so effective I leapt out of my seat. There are also moments like the opening one at the park, where the unexpected happens and you really do get a surprise at the direction the story has just taken.

There are other similar incredibly strong moments that will hit you with a shock, and they seem out of place and going against what you believe should be happening. I felt myself looking at the screen in surprise thinking "That's not fair!", and that's a great response to illicit.

The frequent humour is an aspect of the story that is really well handled, it never detracts from other areas of the story, and often helps to relax a tense or distressing moment in order for the filmmakers to return to the situation and build it up again. Sneaky devils.

One of the oddest moments is when the family are mourning wildly in the school hall, this begins sadly and slowly, building in your uncomfortableness and sadness. Then something strange happens, they just manage to tip the performance into humour, just enough to lighten the situation and raise a few sniggers. Then photographers and film crews descend and we're presented with an interesting social commentary, yet you're still feeling the humour of the moment and just coming out from the sadness of the family. It's all wonderfully woven together.

The leads are good, particularly the young girl, Park Hyun-seo played by Ah-sung Ko, who is very convincing and strong in character. At times the emotions she shows are so natural and believable, you'll find yourself caught up in her scenes.

The other characters continually walk that fine line between comedic and serious performances. Each of them have their flaws which are shown throughout the film, but in the end each get their chance to redeem themselves and sometimes they get multiple chances, often they need them too.

That raises another interesting aspect, instead of following a standard route with the characters, their development follows the unusual turns of the film itself and we're treated to surprises and failures when we don't really expect them. Indeed you could almost say that these characters are more human than many fully focused dramatic character based films.

The creature effects in this film are quite superb. It has weight and a natural, organic movement. So often CGI creatures will appear to run over the ground or not properly interact and collide with real life objects, here though every effort has been made to address this, and it works superbly.

I don't believe I'm spoiling anything about the movie when I say that the ending seems slightly flat against the amount of entertainment that the rest of the film has managed to deliver. It wraps everything up incredibly neatly, with each character having had their shot at redemption. Yet it was a little too neatly tied up for me, although it didn't detract from anything else the film gave.

I'd recommend this film even for those not interested in Asian Horror, for this can't be classed alongside what you would expect from a typical Asian Horror, indeed there's not even a lot of horror. This is a suspenseful, thriller, drama, comedy, you're getting the idea. It's great entertainment with some brilliant moments of shock and terror. Well worth watching.