Review of I Saw the Devil (2010) by Richard C — 02 Oct 2013

It's hard not to compare I Saw The Devil to Chan-wook Park's Revenge trilogy: Oldboy, Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance, and Lady Vengeance. Aside from thematic similarities (and an ability to show cringe-inducing violence), the visual aesthetic is right on par, too.

Where I Saw The Devil fails to reach Park's glorious heights is in the arena of convenience. The protagonists (a term used loosely in the Revenge genre) in Park's films have to scratch and fight for every twist and turn and drop of blood. As such they hit in a much more realistic way, even as absurd as some of the scenarios seem. This film, however, isn't so cleverly crafted as to hit in that realistic way. You can see the invisible God Hand playing with the characters in the guise of convenience. Maybe not quite up to Deus Ex Machina levels, but it lacks that gritty reality that makes Park's work so epic.

But this doesn't make I Saw The Devil a bad film. Even Tarantino can't reach Park's eye for cinema. Still, Ji-woon Kim is dabbling in a particular genre, style, and aesthetic that has already been mastered; the comparison is both inevitable and inescapable. Because for as good as I Saw The Devil is, it feels a bit tired as it reaches to distance itself from the comparison, all while reinforcing them.

Even that might keep this a solid 4.5 star film. Because even as a sub-Park work, it's strong. However, the runtime goes about a 45 minutes too long. It seems like Kim wanted to squeeze it a couple too many storylines. Unfortunately, not all of them are good enough to justify the extra film.

At the same time, that excess seems to mostly come at the expense of a relatively slow beginning, so once you get on the rollercoaster, it'll keep gripping you through the last minutes. Yes, there is some fluff padding the other areas of the film, and cuts could be made even toward the end, but by-and-large I Saw The Devil captivates.