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Is it known who is the killer after the ending scene? The former detective looked very intense, as if he finally understood who was the serial killer, but it's not very clear.

Was it the guy he let go some years ago near the railroad tunnel?

Also, is the actor who played the killer in that half-second scene listed in the credits? If so, then did he play any other characters in the movie?

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    I think the film is a fantastic one. The director manage to break the fourth wall even without us realizing it. In one part we are in the murderers perspective on a tree, and he had to choose which one to rape (the little girl or the woman Detective Park was seeing), here the audience is engaged into choosing who should be rape; which most of us the audience would pick the little girl because we didn't want the nurse to be the one (or maybe I'm the only person who chose the girl). In addition to that, Detective Park's so called 'shaman's eyes' is mentioned a few times probably because he is bo
    – user7338
    Dec 27, 2013 at 16:05
  • The electrical guy/engineer when they were torturing the pervet guy in a red skirt was... kind of spooky. I am sure he was the murderer!
    – user8810
    Mar 28, 2014 at 10:09
  • I think the ending just saying he was wrong the whole time. They were so sure it was that park guy until the evidence suggest other wise. Who is really the killer? Whose knows
    – user9183
    Apr 19, 2014 at 9:52
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    The retarded guy said it was the one who threw him in the fire. Why was this not pursued in the movie?
    – user26213
    Sep 24, 2015 at 18:14
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    They just found the real person that committed the case through DNA in 2019 for the Hwaseong serial murders! Jan 16, 2020 at 4:44

3 Answers 3

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No, it isn't known who the killer is. The film is based on a real-life event, the Hwaseong serial murders, which is an unsolved case in Korea. The film too can therefore only end on a similarly unresolved note.

From Wikipedia:

In the end, the crimes remain unsolved. Visiting the crime scene years later in 2003, Park Doo-man, now a businessman, learns from a little girl that the scene had recently been visited by another, unknown man with a 'plain' face. The little girl had asked him why that man was looking at a drain (from the scene of the second murder, which is shown at the start of the film), and he told her that he was reminiscing about something he did there a long time ago.

The final scene where Detective Park stares at the camera is open to interpretation. But, one of the interpretations is that he is convinced that this man with the plain face must have been the killer and that he could be just about any Korean. Park then looks through the camera at the audience trying to locate the murderer as the Hwaseong killer is surely watching the film himself.

Also, the factory worker who was the prime suspect could well have been the killer in the film as the DNA test results from the US do not exonerate him. They simply state that the evidence is inconclusive.

I have no idea about the OP's question on the credits for the half-second scene. But it is unlikely that such a credit has been listed.

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  • Worth updating this answer! The killer has since been identified as of 2019. Mar 30, 2020 at 0:07
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    Oh wait, this user hasn't been seen since 2014. Basically dead. Well, to future readers, IRL it's this guy, Lee Choon-Jae. He was already in prison for another murder. Interesting that the person they happened to choose in the movie looks an awful lot like him! IMO in the movie it's supposed to be clear that the guy who requests the songs is in fact the killer but they can't prove it. Mar 30, 2020 at 0:08
  • Here is the real life-killer - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Choon-jae Jan 2, 2022 at 3:10
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If you pause at 48:23, you can see the killer. See the pic attached.

enter image description here

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At around 1:24:00 the song Sad Letter is played on the radio, and this is the last time a murder is committed in conjunction with the song and rain. While this playing of the song led them to the letter and then onto the prime suspect, and was the reason the song no longer played a part in the murders, it should be noted that the radio's stations program producer quit suddenly on this last occasion.

The producer had been alerted to the police interest because they had already visited the station when the song's link to the murders was noted. So it was the radio stations program producer who committed the murders, but found that without the song it wasn't of interest any more and stopped after a few more. Although, he could have quit when he realised that he'd allowed the song to be played and that the result of this would be another murder.

I'm still going to say it was the producer, but that's the movie mind you, the real case has had officers worked for 2 million man-days on it and there are 21,280 suspects.

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