Review of I Saw the Devil (2010) by Tony R — 12 Jul 2011

I SAW THE DEVIL is a brutally effective and emotionally-draining South Korean serial killer revenge thriller with more than enough horrific violence to cover your eyes from. Director Jee-Woon Kim may be Korea's own Danny Boyle in how he crafts great films from completely different genres: his breakout film was an atmospheric family/haunted-house horror film called A TALE OF TWO SISTERS (which inspired 2008's lame American remake THE UNINVITED), his second was a clever and amazingly action-packed riff on THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY called THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE WEIRD, and I SAW THE DEVIL is his latest, an incredibly violent revenge thriller that pulls no punches with brutality or with remorse.

Hoon-jung Park's screenplay is dense and thoughtful in capturing the intense relationship between how the hunter and the hunted came to be. The catch of his screenplay is that the hunter ends up becoming the hunted for the majority of the film, as this able to track Choi's every action and know where he is at all times. Why is Soo this obsessive about Choi's decisions and blood-soaked lifestyle?

One wintry night, Se-yeon is driving down a narrow South Korean road in the countryside. She sees a car parked on the side of the road, darkened and mysterious. She calls her fiancée, Kim Soo (who happens to be a secret agent), to check in with him as to how she is and how far she is from him (in Seoul). A suspicious-looking fellow comes to her window from the car, asking for a lift. She refuses, and he walks away to the car. After her call, she observes the car which is still unmoving. Out of nowhere, the man throws a large rock at her windshield while screaming sharply and proceeds to pierce the driver's window with a knife. The last pulling-out shot we see of Se-yeon is of her being dragged from the window and then stabbed a number of times. Too avoid being too detailed, Se-yeon is later killed in an unimaginable way...a few days later, the search for Se-yeon ends when she is pretty much found in Seoul's main river. Kim Soo's heart aches as he realizes his love has been ripped from his life. As he ponders to what to do with his time off from his job, his heart hardens and begins to plot his revenge...and so begins Kim's no-holds barred serial killer revenge thriller.

I SAW THE DEVIL is a beautifully shot film, regardless of its genre. The chromatic, soft-focused lens filters the quietly-placed cinematography in an ironic yet stark contrast to the perverse and shocking scenes of violence and torture. And there are many of them in the 2-hour plus running time, even more than one could hope to see or to recall. Yet the acts of violence and torture are somewhat justified to the people who are acted on (on rapists, murderers and Choi), even if Kim Soo's character commits to some irredeemably cruel and cold acts that he does not recover from (since most of his actions are fueled by his hatred for Choi and for those like him).

Headlining DEVIL is some of South Korea's premier acting talent: Byung Hun Lee as Kim Soo ("The Bad" in Kim's previous film), the dedicated secret agent and Min-sik Choi (the lead from OLDBOY), the vicious serial killer who kills for his sadistic pleasure. The supporting characters keep the battle between the agent and the killer from becoming too unrealistic by grounding and clarifying the actions that the agent and the killer impulsively take part in so the viewer can inadvertently understand that killing transforms the killer into a pure monster.

If there is a flaw in Kim's I SAW THE DEVIL, it would be that Kim-Soo's character becomes a brutally vengeful torturer and eventually killer almost immediately as he begins his mind-games and violent torture sessions with Choi. It is true that Kim Soo needs to become hateful and angry soon after his fiancée died, but the change happens in the in-between between the moment when his plan is finalized and when he puts it into action.

Director Jee-Woon Kim shoots I SAW THE DEVIL with an artful touch, as the intense power of Choi and Kim Soon's ferocious hunter-and-hunted battle is taken to operatic heights. He knows how to stage a full-on face-off, to make them unique, and to provide many of them. And the story is not lost on him, as he directs his actors to feel the repercussions of their actions.

Keep in mind if you choose to see I SAW THE DEVIL that it's for those with strong stomachs and a strong will and spirit. Know that this film feels like SILENCE OF THE LAMBS maximized by 10 levels of intensity.