A serial killer murders the beautiful fiancée
of a secret agent then said secret agent tracks
down the serial killer. A simple formulaic premise there no different from a huge
number of Hollywood outings into crime thriller land. However, Korean film Ji-woon Kim’s ‘I Saw the Devil’ takes this
overdone routine idea and turns it into a unique portrayal of an obsessive
pursuit for revenge.
Bloody, brutal, stark and uncompromising in its scenes of torture if this extreme violence was handled by a lesser director it could have easily been lumped in with the media labelled so called horror sub-genre of “torture porn” but Kim also manages to make a beautifully filmed, emotionally rewarding, narratively well-structured movie that depicts the sadness caused by such violence. It features great turns from the leads with Lee Byung-hun as secret agent Soo-hyun and especially Choi Min-sik as Kyung-chul delivering one of the most memorably edgy screen villain performances ever as a serial killer who just does not give a fuck. What with some truly astonishing stand out action set-pieces as well the director completely has our undivided attention in a totally engaging film.
The hunter becomes the hunted as a deadly
game of cat and mouse ensues as Soo-hyun (Byung-hun) makes a promise to his
departed true love of returning the pain to her killer 1000 times more. Taking
two weeks off work and disconnecting himself emotionally not allowing himself
to grieve for his loss until the job done he begins a manhunt for the murderer narrowing
it down to four suspects. After beating the first two senseless he investigates
Kyung-chul (Min-sik) who we actually see commit the callous and savage crime in
the opening scene. Discovering his lover’s engagement ring in Kyung-chi’s
filthy den of murder Soo-hyun exacts his cold and calculated revenge becoming
every bit the monster himself as he beats, tortures and releases Kyung
repeatedly after making him swallow a transmitter (some kind of special GPS microphone
capsule) while unconscious from the first attack so he can trace his every move.
What price will Soo-hyun pay for the dangerous games he plays with Kyung-chul?
The first act is bursting with emotion. We
see the happiness of Soo-hyun and his fiancée Joo-yun (Oh San-ha) as two people
very much in love only for it to be taken away in the most inhumanely evil way
possible straight after. Joo-yun pleads for her life (and somebody else’s) only
for it to fall on the deaf ears of Kyung- chul giving a disturbingly abrupt
non-verbal answer. The aftermath of her death shows us the sadness of the loved
ones left behind by such a violent act with the discovery of her body witnessed
by Soo-hyun and her father Jang (Jeon Kuk-hwan) a retired police detective. The
scenes after between the two and Joo-yun’s sister Se-yun (Kim Yun-seo) handled with immense pathos towards the
characters with strong performances of the grieving enhancing the melancholy makes
for very moving viewing.
Going into the revenge part of the movie a line
begins to blur between our protagonist and the antagonist. It becomes hard to
determine who is more insane as the violence of Soo-hyun’s revenge escalates. He
is an unstoppable force of vengeance inflicting incredible physical pain upon
the sub-human Kyung-chul an unmovable object of evil with a total lack of
humanity who laughs in the face of Soo-hyun and taunts him as he takes his
punishments. We also come to question Soo-hyun’s carelessness of his consumed
rage of revenge by letting go Kyung-chul over and over again and putting other
innocent people in danger of this maniac. In the film’s title, ‘I Saw the
Devil’ lays an ambiguous question.
The material is treated very seriously but
amongst the grimness of its horrifying subject matter there is a darker than
dark humour to the proceedings. Emphasis on this is brought forth with Choi
Min-sik’s hilarious reactions to Lee Byung-hun’s character’s constant turning
up and beating him to a pulp as he is about to dish out some evil doings upon
his victims. The tone even shifts quite significantly during the comedic scenes
between Kyung-chul and his cannibal friend Tae-joo and his girlfriend, which
offers much needed comic relief until the tone swings right back around into
disturbing darkness again when Kyung-chul wises up to Soo-hyun’s game. Park
Hoon-jung’s tight script, Ji-woon Kim’s inspired direction and Lee Mo-gae’s
lush cinematography keep
a consistent complete control over the overall look and feel and the movie
never once feels uneven. This film is also so
intriguing in that it does not play out like a traditional law enforcement officer
hunts serial killer story as here they meet very early on and throughout the
course of the running time it is played out like a grudge match with two
powerhouse performances making it all irresistibly engrossing.
I stated in the conclusion of Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986) and the Genesis and Execution of Evil that
“Along with ‘Manhunter’ (1986), ‘The Silence of the Lambs’ (1991),
‘Seven’ (1995) and ‘American Psycho’ (2000) ‘Henry: Portrait of a Serial
Killer’ is one of the definitive serial killer masterpieces.” Well Ji-woon
Kim’s ‘I Saw the Devil’ (2010) can now stand strongly alongside all of these very
fine pieces of filmmaking. As well as being now one of the quintessential
serial killer epics it also falls into the revenge category as being one of the
very best of this kind as well. It stands up straight and proud with such greats
as ‘Get Carter’ (1971), ‘High Plains Drifter’ (1973), ‘Death Wish’ (1974), 'Thriller: A Cruel Picture' (1974), ‘Rolling Thunder’ (1977), ‘Mad Max (1979), ‘The Crow’ (1994), ‘Kill Bill’ (2003
& 2004), ‘Dead Man’s Shoes’ (2004), Park Chan-wook’s ‘The Vengeance Trilogy’:
‘Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance’ (2002), ‘Oldboy’ (2003) and ‘Sympathy for Lady
Vengeance’ (2005) etc.
Unquestionably, one of the best movies of 2010 this is highly
recommended viewing. ‘I Saw the Devil’ is testament to how celluloid can
achieve high art in the right creative hands.
**** out of ****
Dave J. Wilson
©2012
Cinematic Shocks, Dave J. Wilson - All work is the property of the credited
author and may not be reprinted or reproduced elsewhere without permission.
It's no "Oldboy" but "I Saw the Devil" is one of the best Korean revenge-themed films. Great review.
ReplyDeleteThanks very much, mate. I actually have 'I Saw the Devil' on a par with 'Oldboy'. Some people would even have ISTD over it. I'm not so sure about that but they are at least equally fantastic films.
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