I Saw the Devil

I'm all cool with blood and guts on screen; severed body parts and organs don't make me nauseous, and bleeding only annoys me if it is my own and it doesn't seem to be stopping. Despite being okay with all that, this movie didn't sit right with me. I guess I'm just not a fan of watching some mentally messed-up sadist getting off on torturing women. Funny thing, torturing guys doesn't bother me the same way; seems more fair for some reason. While a good chunk of the violence turned my stomach, I was into the other part. I got the main message of the movie and agreed with it, but I couldn't help rooting for the main avenger. Feels like there's a surge in psychologists worldwide, but the number of executioners is going down. Anyway, I didn't get bored for a second despite the somewhat excessive length. Props to the South Korean creators for pulling off a solid effort.  / Lesson learned: If you embark on a journey of revenge, always keep wet wipes handy. (19/07/2023)

I Saw the Devil follows the ordinary thriller template of “lawful avenger versus serial killer”, but it’s so naturalistically brutal that we’d never see anything like it in its Hollywood counterparts. This cruel and cynically funny film will captivate you and won’t let go. There are some lapses but they don’t spoil the overall impression. The formal aspect and acting performances are brilliant, and had the screenplay been more sophisticated, I’d give it five stars. It’s not for the faint of heart. (02/01/2011)

In a way, it's a work of genius. On the other hand, I'm a little ashamed to be so positive about so much evil. But I've been taught that "such is life". I have huge sympathy for Byeong-heon Lee and I understood all his inhumane actions the whole time. He simply had a lot to avenge. Again, no one could have been better chosen for the role of the devil than Min-sik Choi. I often thought it was too open-ended, but otherwise the viewer probably wouldn't have properly felt the desire for revenge. My 5 stars are for the fantastic script and great acting and direction. (02/10/2011)

Too lengthy, too inconsistent. Ji-un Kim knows how to make a film, I won’t argue against that, but I don’t know whether I was supposed to get something out of this one, or only be entertained (or something else), it didn’t succeed at either anyway. I just watched it without much interest and forgot about it. There are a couple of suggestive scenes, the violence is unpleasant, but as a whole it’s from a different realm than I like visiting. (08/12/2010)

I was ready for everything, from pure brutal carnage to an experimental revenge-thriller, where all the murders would be served exclusively to the accompaniment of classical music or sped-up editing, but in the end I got, how to say it politely.... nothing. Not that I'm questioning a certain formal level, the impressive sets, the believable actors or a few rather suggestive shots, but in short, I've learned to expect a bit more from these foreign film than just shocking content completely devoid of common sense or a sense of proper hyperbole. I Saw the Devil has such a bad script that every twist and turn dissipates the tension that has been painstakingly built up, and even, which is unheard of, all the main characters leave with the label "dumbass" on their foreheads. Moreover, the brutality is nowhere near the level needed to move the story into a more friendly experiential league, and so the only truly positive things remain a few nice references to other genre works and a poignant sexual undertone that, at least at times, brings to mind the atmosphere of twisted human souls so familiar from The Silence of the Lambs or Se7en. 45% (17/08/2015)