Review of I Saw the Devil (2010) by Robin M — 30 Dec 2011

Since this film is a revenge flick, you really can't expect much when it comes to the storyline. You'll get exactly what you expect as it follows the book of how to make a revenge movie. However, what sort of differentiates this with other revenge flicks was how its presentation. I will say that there were some pretty silly moments in the film. For some reason, the film made South Korea look like a serial killer nation as you see a bunch of murderers in this film; kind of like how "Hostel" made you not wanting to go to Europe, this film kind of does the same. It's quite ridiculous at times, but if you watch this film as how it is presented, then you'll probably enjoy this movie.

What I liked best was this cat and mouse game that you see Soo-hyun, portrayed by Byung-hun Lee does to Kyung-chul, portrayed by Min-sik Choi. He plays these mind games toward Chui, popping out of nowhere and slowly taking his revenge by committing vicious acts that was quite shocking. Also, I liked the fact that no matter how devilish he may appear to his foes, Soo-hyun is still human. I watched plenty of revenge films and always see the main character become this vengeful being and lose every trace of humanity in them. This is not the case toward Soo-hyun as he did become a demon in order to commit these horrendous attacks, but he's still no different as he was before the event.

There is only one film that caused me to cringe and that is "Hostel" as it presents very gruesome and disgusting scenes that can be quite surprising. There are other films that caused me to cringe but mainly because of the bone cracking sounds or disgusting scenarios, which is rare in today's standards. This film, on the other hand, presents some pretty horrendous scenarios that just made me cringe nonstop It is definitely hard to not sit through certain parts of this film without gripping onto something based on what you saw.

There are a great amount of serial killers, but they are not the ones that commit the outrageous actions. You'll probably feel uncomfortable to see what at least two of these serial killers will do, but the actions committed by the main character were the ones that will cause you to flinch. It may look ridiculous, but you can't watch this film without having your jaw dropped at least once. Personally it stands an equal chance against the shock factor that "Hostel" presented based on its presentation. Maybe because of my lack of taste with this type of genre, but this film really made me cringe.

The main focus with the acting is Byung-hun Lee and Min-sik Choi. Byung-hun has this pretty boy face, but he's pretty good and I liked his performance as the vengeful man who lost his love. Min-sik Choi seems to be playing these crazy type of guys; he was the main character in Oldboy and was pretty crazy. Here, he plays a serial killer who was quite crazy. He's good and I also liked his performance in this film.

There is nothing new as this follows the guide of making a revenge flick. However, with cringing, gruesome scenes, good acting, and a cat and mouse scenario, this Korean is worth the watch if you don't mind reading the subtitles.