Directed by:
Jee-woon KimScreenplay:
Hoon-jung ParkCinematography:
Mo-gae LeeComposer:
MowgCast:
Byeong-heon Lee, Min-shik Choi, Kuk-hwan Jeon, Ho-jin Chun, Yoon-seo Kim, Moo-sung Choi, Si-woon Kim, San-ha Oh, Joon-hyeok Lee, Bo-ra Nam, Young-sun Kim (more)VOD (1)
Plots(1)
The embodiment of pure evil, Kyung-chul is a dangerous psychopath who kills for pleasure. On a freezing, snowy night, his latest victim is the beautiful Juyeon, daughter of a retired police chief and pregnant fiancée of elite special agent Soo-hyun. Obsessed with revenge, Soo-hyun is determined to track down the murderer, even if doing so means becoming a monster himself. And when he finds Kyung-chul, turning him in to the authorities is the last thing on his mind, as the lines between good and evil fall away in this diabolically twisted game of cat and mouse. (official distributor synopsis)
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Reviews (9)
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.
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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.
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An uncomfortably naturalistic spectacle that incorporates the old familiar concept of "righteous vengeance" as well as serial murder. With the exception of the first half hour, this is indeed a strong revenge movie, in which the psychology of the two main characters is pretty sparse (we learn absolutely nothing about the killer's past), which on the other hand gives more room for gore and action scenes. At its core, it's a very superficial and overexposed contribution to the serial killer genre, but it can't be denied a few strong scenes and formally a completely professional execution.
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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.
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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.
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