Review of I Saw the Devil (2010) by Tim B — 18 Sep 2011

Jee-woon Kim is a director I'm already a huge fan of after seeing only two of his movies before this one (A Bitterwseet Life and A Tale of Two Sisters). The latter fil being one of my favorite flicks ever.

So it was with much anticipation that I see his latest feature I Saw the Devil. The movie was a perfect look two men's lives and how far both would go in upper-handing the other one. It opened with one intense and BRUTAL set-up, paving the way for the rest of the movie to flesh out both main characters as well as it did.

As always, Kim's directing choices were out there, but worked so well for the story he was trying to get across. I don't know if he uses the same cinematographer for every movie but they are always freakin' gorgeous and this one was amazing.

I loved his usual clashes between perfectly serene settings and the carnage that goes in it. His camera moves are also pretty insane with a lot of over-head shots and one CRAZY 360 turning shot inside of a car while a certain action sequence took place.

I also loved it when he would suddenly use silence to get a point across. Scenes would hit me a lot more in certain parts.Wow, Mr. Kim, you have out-shined yourself again. Bravo! Not only being a fanboy for the directing here, yes, the screenplay was very well-written.

I would compare it to The Matrix meets Seven but with a lot more brutality and hand-to-hand and Asian. Make sense? That's the best I could do... This is not quite a vigilante action flick and not quite a horror flick but somewhere in between the two.

Mind you, there's plenty of dark/repulsive themes here so if that's not your thing I suggest you stay away; rape, torture, cannibalism, vigilantism and graphic violence are all in this flick and taken as far as it could.

This is my type of flick so if it's not yours, git. Now. Furthermore, the actors that portrayed the two leads were outstanding in their own right. It's probably a good thing that Jee-woon Kim has worked with Byung-hun Lee and was comfortable working with him because the man had to go through and do a lot (some of it maybe out of line?).

Thankfully, Lee was up to it and pulled off an incredible performance. He held a lot back when he could've easily went all out with his performance. I loved him. Min-sik Choi (of Oldboy fame) played a sick, ruthless man yet somehow made him endearing and very human.

This guy should be an international superstar by now, especially after this film. When both men were in a scene, I would go to the edge of my seat. Furthermore, there is a soundtrack that fit the movie perfectly, fight scenes that blew a lot of action flicks I had previously watched out of my head and you get one of my new favorites.

There could be times when one would think that the film maybe goes a little over logic in the name of entertainment (I admit I even had to suspend disbelief in parts ) but this movie's heart was in the right place and for what I got, I'm giving it a perfect rating.

See the Devil and get ready for an intense ride.