I Saw The Devil (2010) Dir: Jee Woon Kim

“ Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster….” – Friedrich Nietzsche.

I’ve never started a review with a quote before but whilst watching this film, the above quote by everyone’s favorite nihilist Mr. Nietzsche kept repeating in my head so it seemed appropriate to include it here. Cinema today is in a transitional period, when historians look back on the beginning of this decade I have no doubt that it will be remembered as a period of massive upheaval not just in cinema but in media in general. I don’t know about you but I still prefer to have an experience in a darkened room in front of a big screen, the fact is there will probably be a generation soon who saw their favorite movie for the first time on a small handheld screen. Arguably cinema remains the most powerful medium in the world and very few directors seem to understand that. Gaspar Noe gets it and with Enter the Void he pushed the limits of the medium to create something that was technically stunning but didn’t work as a narrative feature, it was an experience nonetheless. It seems that the whole of the South Korean film industry gets it as well, whilst the British film industry struggles and releases movies that constantly riff on past successes, South Korea’s output over the last ten years has been the best cinema in the world, constantly defying expectations and pushing the limits of what is acceptable on screen. Recent examples of this are Chan Wook Park’s movies, Bedevilled, Mother, The Man From Nowhere and The Good, The Bad, The Weird director Jee Woon Kim’s latest film I Saw The Devil. Due to the transitional phase we now live in, which seems to be less of a format war (ala DVD vs. Blu-Ray) and more about accessibility this has been denied a UK cinema release despite having a penciled in release date of 29th April. The rise in on demand entertainment has meant that in the USA many smaller films get a limited cinema release at the same time as appearing on demand via iTunes or cable. In the UK we have not adopted this model yet because we are a smaller country and much of the stuff that ten years ago would have packed the arthouse circuit now goes straight to DVD. I Saw The Devil is a film that was crying out for a cinema release, its challenging in a way that all great films are and truthfully and without hyperbole, it really is the best serial killer movie since Seven.

The film begins with a young pregnant lady having broken down in her car on the outskirts of Seoul. The snow is coming down and she is understandably nervous about being stuck out alone in the countryside. Kyung-chul (Choi Min Sik) turns up in his school bus offering to help but his help is politely declined, the only problem is Kyung Chul is a remorseless serial murderer and the woman is his latest victim. Her dismembered corpse shows up some days later and her fiancé Kim Soo-Hyeon (Lee Byung-Hun) a secret service agent, vows revenge on the killer and uses all the intelligence and skills at his disposal to track down Kyung-chul. Kim eventually catches up with Kyung-Chul but instead of just killing him decides to drag out the revenge process to make his suffering unbearable. The cat and mouse game escalates and escalates, dragging other innocent victims into Kim’s anger and quest for vengeance.

First thing you should know about this is what you have heard is true, I Saw the Devil is brutal. Even in this version that was trimmed by the Korean censors by ninety seconds to get a release, the film is almost relentless in its portrayal of violence. the film mercifully cuts away during many of the scenes where limbs are severed but like the aforementioned Seven or Reservoir Dogs this is a film that has violence seeping from its pores. At some point in the second hour I just wanted it to stop and felt queasy, unsure if another bashed in skull on screen was going to make me throw up my chicken korma. The excess is kind of the point though and the film is darkly funny as Kim Soo-Hyeon catches up with Kyung Chul every time he is about to take another victim and denies him his fix by beating him senseless and then making sure he is is given medical attention to get better so that the process can begin again. Make no mistake though this is no comedy, what you are watching on screen is the erosion of a man soul as he becomes that what he hunts and lets revenge take over his life. The final few frames will stay with you for weeks afterwards and leave you shaken.

Choi Min Sik has not been in a film since Lady Vengeance back in 2005 due to some kind of political protest over screens in South Korea, which is odd because after the success of Oldboy he surely was set for international stardom. Here he plays a character more damaged than anyone I have ever seen on screen, Kyung-Chul is one of the all time great monsters, he is evil incarnate and Choi plays him as such; never giving him a moment of humanity until the very end. Lee Byung-Hun is an actor who has been in a few great movies now and is probably the better known actor at this point, he played Storm Shadow in the GI Joe movie and ‘The Bad’ in The Good, The Bad, The Weird. In I Saw The Devil he plays the silent heroic type, never really emoting and just driven to accomplish his mission. Only in the final few minutes of the film does he allow emotion to creep up with the toll of the brutality finally overwhelming him. Jee Woon Kim is a master at creating tension and excitement as he proved with The Good, The Bad, The Weird which in my opinion is the best action movie of the last ten years. With I Saw The Devil he proves again he is great at creating a set piece and working from a brilliant script by Hoon-Jung Park he structures the film like every frame matters despite its two hour and a bit running time.

I Saw The Devil is as challenging a piece of cinema as you are ever likely to see. Sadly the fact that its subtitled as well as the period in time it finds itself with regards to release patterns means its likely to remain unseen by most of the world. If you like great storytelling, horror and unconventional approaches to story then you should check out this film.

by Chris Holt

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