[Limelight] Wearing Costumes and Characters from Movies

Costume Director Kim Yuseon Injects Expertise with Advanced Systems
Participated in Sixty Works Including "Memories of Murder," "Honest Candidate," and "Wanee and Junha"
Character Completion Beyond Simple Verification... Awarded Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Commendation
"Glad to Be Recognized for Independent Visual Language... Hope to Evolve into a Specialized Field"

Director Bong Joon-ho's film Memories of Murder (2003) deals with a notorious serial murder case. A woman's body is found brutally killed in a drainage ditch by a rice paddy. As similar crimes continue to occur, a special investigation unit is established in the area. Local detectives Park Du-man (Song Kang-ho) and Jo Yong-gu (Kim Roe-ha), along with Seo Tae-yoon (Kim Sang-kyung), a detective who volunteered from the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, take charge of the case. Park Du-man tries to solve the case using his intuition and physical instincts. He constantly clashes with Seo Tae-yoon, who advocates scientific investigation. Innocent people suffer hardships as the investigation repeatedly stalls. Even when Park Du-man's intuition and Seo Tae-yoon's logic align, the case does not progress. Without any significant clues, they release the prime suspect Park Hyun-gyu (Park Hae-il).

The chilling backdrop of the film is the rural countryside of the 1980s. Costume director Kim Yoo-sun embroidered realism with an authentic image. She faithfully recreated the clothing characteristics of the time, such as hand-knitted knits, wide collars and belts, padded shoulders for women, midi-length skirts, retro patterns, and short pants lengths. The tendency to prefer primary colors was reflected only sparingly, as it was judged that it might spoil the film's atmosphere. Darker, mid-tone colors that would blend into the rural and small-town background were mainly used for the costumes worn by the main characters. Primary colors were revealed only slightly through supporting roles. Instead, color combinations of different hues with the same brightness or low saturation colors were used to minimize any standout elements. This is the secret behind how Memories of Murder maintains an overall dark and heavy tone while effectively drawing contrasts in brightness within a monochromatic palette.

The role of costumes in film goes beyond mere restoration through verification or atmosphere creation. Above all, they function as a visual art that completes the character and as an independent visual language. They shape the character's appearance and directly reveal or imply their inner self. Detailed design elements such as color, style, and attire complete the character as a role. Although this work requires expertise, it was not widely recognized in Korea until the 1990s. It was common for actors to prepare their own costumes or receive sponsorships.

Costume director Kim Yoo-sun introduced advanced systems and injected professionalism into the film costume field, which was almost unexplored. She entered the film industry through Out to the World (1993) and has been responsible for costumes in about sixty films. These include Now, It’s Good As It Is (2008), Handphone (2009), Pink Shoes (2005), Wanee & Junah (2001), Oh! Soo-jung (2000), Cart (2014), and Honest Candidate (2019). With designs that have clear purpose and direction, she breathed life into films and received the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Award at the Popular Culture and Arts Production Staff Awards hosted by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Creative Content Agency on the 3rd.

Director Kim expressed, "I am deeply moved that film costumes have been recognized as a specialized field." He added, "For those majoring in costume design, it is an attractive profession worth challenging. As long as the medium of film does not disappear, it will continue to exist and develop alongside it. If Korean cinema continues to advance, it will surely be recognized for the value of its independent specialized field, just like Hollywood costume directors."

Nearly 30 years in the costume world first gained overseas attention through Memories of Murder. The clear contrast between Park Du-man and Seo Tae-yoon was highly praised for expressing it through costume silhouettes, colors, and materials. Park Du-man wears a tight-fitting shirt with a dull, tacky rural jumper. This reflects the superficiality of a police officer who has not yet proven his qualifications as a detective. His personality, which tries to use intuition by questioning local people around the neighborhood, is sensed in his high-waisted typical detective suit pants and white Pro World Cup sneakers. He tries to dress stylishly with several shirts of different patterns but is not very fashionable. However, he maintains neatness because he has a girlfriend.

Seo Tae-yoon's costume is the exact opposite. It is full of a fresh feeling that can brighten the atmosphere of a rural police station. His shirt is a bright-toned dress shirt style, and his casual jacket is a safari type made of cotton. He also dresses up with cotton pants and high-quality sneakers. While not particularly sophisticated or neat, his attire is tidy. It immediately reveals his intellectual and meticulous personality. Overall, his costume becomes slightly disheveled as the investigation falls into a dead end, delicately indicating the process of his losing reason from cynicism.

Director Kim said, "If there is a director who does not allow the production team's abilities to be fully utilized, Director Bong Joon-ho is the exact opposite. He made me want to design more," adding, "He has a cunning side." He continued, "Until production, most people thought, 'What is there to care about costumes in a thriller film set in the 1980s rural countryside?' But we carefully considered the design concept and created the costumes, and as a result, the costumes of Memories of Murder became the standard for thriller detective films in Korean cinema."

In fact, in Director Na Hong-jin's The Chaser (2008), detective Eom Joong-ho (Kim Yoon-seok) wears a shirt similar to the one Park Du-man wore. It became a standard for films with generally similar tone and manner. The costume of Park Hyun-gyu, the last suspect in Memories of Murder, is no different. Director Kim styled him in an ordinary style that does not stand out but sought differentiation in details from other characters. He expressed a neat impression with a relatively bright tone, but the excessive emphasis on cleanliness gives a chilling feeling. His top is a simple turtleneck with a smooth texture that wraps the neck and a tidy dress shirt with little detail. Combined with the thick morning fog that obscures his presence, it creates a sense of unease and melancholy. It can truly be called a modern work of art crafted by a master.