I Saw the Devil

I don’t know of a single Korean movie that isn’t interesting in some way, even though I believe that there are such pieces. Anyhow, in comparison to some other Asian countries, I feel like that one is the closest to us, Europeans. I Saw the Devil was filmed by a very interesting director and I was very curious to see how he handles such an interesting premise. In about half of the movie, it completely shifted. At that point I thought that if some plot twist doesn’t come, it could be the end of it. And I was right. One character who was neutral-good up until that point has done such a 180 turn that it left me speechless. At that moment, the movie became a monster hunt. It’s just a shame that it was too long and stretched out too thin. In any case, the ending in itself was definitely worth it and it changed my original three-star rating to a solid four-star one. I watched this for the Challenge Tour 2015. (02/04/2015)

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)

Formally excellent but otherwise a dud of a revenge film. In bullet points: 1) Jee-woon Kim does a good job of pacing the scenes, but not the film. That's because revenge, by design, has to work as a gradually accelerating carousel, with scenes escalating and reining in or, as in Lady Vengeance, maintaining the same mood line. I Saw the Devil jumps back and forth between them the whole time, which achieves at most the effect of knowing from the start how it's all going to turn out, and the director makes it clear that he's not concerned with the film as a whole, but just the (in the words of Rob Roy) attractions. These are successful (in particular the stabbing of two guys in a taxi and the murder of a policeman with a baseball bat are perfect shots), but many times unfinished (which, as I later learned, is the result of the film being edited down film to a more tolerable level, phew). 2) As a Korean director, someone must have explained to Jee-woon Kim the necessity of using that visual brashness that characterizes that cinematic nation, which here in turn gets in the way. With such a spare plot, I think such overblown visuals take away from the concept. In particular, the constant perpendicular shots from above make it clear that the director is rather trying to meet the stipulated criteria. What’s more, it is with this visual that the film mystifies and the entire time convinces the audience that they are looking at something higher than it really is. 3) The characters are geometric points, not people. They have no background, no history, and none of the audience’s trust. The character of the killer, while unprecedented, is without charisma because he doesn't work on mythicization (like Anton Chigurh in No Country for Old Men) or as a twisted parody of humanity because he doesn't come into contact with any humanity he could be parodying. The protagonist operates on the same motivations as Marv from Sin City; unfortunately, I Saw the Devil provides a minimum of perspective, making him pretty hard to relate to. It's just the violence that works best on this film, and not in its brutality, but in its aggressiveness. It's got an awful lot of pace, but also a lot of twisted ankles. (27/03/2012)

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)

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)