Review of I Saw the Devil (2010) by Poe L — 26 Aug 2011

This was an incredible movie experience. At first I was kinda apprehensive, since I had never seen a corean/asian movie before. Turns out 'I Saw The Devil' is an amazing thriller (can I call it a thriller?) that has it all: it's realistic, mindfucking, insane and violent, and also it has a pretty cool soundtrack. Oh, and actilng is also freakin' amazing.

So, when I went to see this movie, I really didn't know what to expect. I always thought asian cinema had this reputation of creating some violent movies, that included a lot of sex and nudity, but I never thought I would see such a great movie. The story is something quite frequent in cinema, it's basically a revenge story: a special agent swears revenge over his wife's dead body (and yes, she was murdered by a crazy psychopath who apparently likes to play 'hide and seek' .

As the movie rolls, the agent catches the killer a few times, there is a lot of ass-kicking scenes (quite violent and bloody) and a bit of torture, but the agent always lets the killer go away - swearing he will get him again soon. Moving forward in the story, I sorta started to get really annoyed because the story was getting to repetitive (catch, torture, let go), but then came the finale, and it was epic (obviously the good triumphs over evil - and honestly I didn't really expect this to happen with 'I Saw the Devil').

Special effects in this movie are amazing, and the story has a lot of realism, especially due to the absence of music in a couple of scenes - this makes it all seem more real and one can easily get stuck in the story for that. Especially in the final dialogue between the special agent and the psychopath killer, there is no background tune, and I almost felt like they were talking to me. Of course, camera work helps build this atmosphere, since there are a lot of face close-ups, and some rough shooting in the beginning. Acting was amazing - not that I know much about corean cinema and actors, but I really think everybody did a great job in this movie.

Overall, this isn't a movie I would recommend if you are easily touched or impressed with gore and violence. But if you are strong-hearted and need a new thrill, I definitely recommend it. It's not a family movie, folks ! Yet, give it a try.