Review of I Saw the Devil (2010) by Michelle S — 08 Apr 2014

Okay. So this movie is basically about a man who is playing a Cat and mouse torture game with the man who brutally murdered his pregnant wife. The man who is avenging his wife becomes obsessed with torturing the psycho murderer, but he can't bring himself to kill the murderer and end his suffering, because that would be too merciful. So basically, this movie is over 2 hours of a (pretty attractive) Korean man exacting his revenge on the psycho a lot at a time, and in some gruesome ways, before letting him go, catching him again, and torturing him some more.

Yeah, so........ I think I kind of loved this movie. The acting was amazing, the violence was extreme, the story was actually really good. THIS is what a revenge flick should be. The man going after revenge knew that it wouldn't make him feel better about loosing his pregnant wife, and he knew that he was turning into a monster, and that innocent people were getting hurt because he kept letting the psycho killer go, but that didn't matter! All that mattered was that the killer feel as much agony and pain that he was feeling before fulfilling his revenge. This movie is actually pretty interesting from a psychological and metaphorical stand point. Who was the devil? Was it the psycho killer? Or was it the man who is portrayed as being good in the beginning but is just as unsympathetic about commuting numerous atrocities as the main antagonist? It really just depends on how you look at it.

All in all, I really liked this movie. Might even have loved. That being said, It's DEFINITELY not for anyone! For example, if you HATE gory movies with realistic violence and violence against women, STAY AWAY FROM THIS MOVIE! However, I don't know if people who like movies like Saw or Hostel would like this movie either, because it's pretty dramatic also. It's also a Korean movie with subtitles, so that drops the number of people who would enjoy this movie even more. Basically, if you love all kinds of movies, you're not afraid of gore and subtitles, and you're willing to try and watch something different (violent/morally ambiguous plot); definitely give this movie a go.