Director: Kim Jee-woon
Amid snowfall in Korea, a man breaks into a car and brutally murders a young lady while her fiancée helplessly listens on the phone. Unfortunately for the killer, that man, (played stoically by Byung-hun Lee) just happens to be a secret agent with a complicated understanding of revenge.
Kim quickly tracks down the killer, an unassuming bus driver, Kyung, (Min-Sik Choi) who is perhaps the devil himself (a detail that gains momentum throughout). From here, it’s quickly revealed that his fiancée was only one of many such victims. Kim and Kyung battle and the villain is taken down. It’s epic. It’s satisfying and there is a lot more of it. That’s because instead of capturing Kyung, our hero plants a tracking device on him and releases him. You see, for our hero, revenge will take place only when the villain feels what our hero has. This film, "Akmareul boatda" aka I Saw the Devil, quickly becomes torture porn in reverse. That is, this is a film about a hero constantly torturing the villain and honestly, it’s a lot of fun to watch.
At nearly two and a half hours, you may think this concept of “catch and release” would get tiring and it certainly would, but the plot continues to thicken. One anothers’ back-stories accumulate and ultimately play into a visceral cascade where, one might believe, our hero can truly not recover. However, this is a film that doesn’t stop being inventive. That’s right, this is actually a film that starts out strong and only gets stronger.
I Saw the Devil might lag for some and while there is limited dialogue there’s also subtitles. That said, the photography of this film is alone breathtaking, as each composition is a conscious and artistic choice, and while a horror film, director, Kim Jee-woon knows just how much gore to show in order to get one to be able to empathize with our hero. The score is appropriate. The acting is flawless, and the philosophical overtones all compliment this baroque masterpiece, which emphasizes what’s missing in so many horror films on the mass market today. If you still haven’t seen this film, and you prefer substance over pulp, then I would suggest planning on watching this without interruption and savoring every moment. It’s really that good.
- Nick Bain