I Saw the Devil (2010)

As I have no doubt previously expunged upon in great detail I am a big fan of the current crop of films coming from South Korea, which is fast establishing itself as the most exciting and interesting source of cinema of any kind at the moment. Director Jee-woon Kim is at the forefront of this movement coming off the back of the hugely entertaining The Good, The Bad, The Weird and A Bittersweet Life. His latest film, I Saw the Devil is arguably his best film yet, a black hearted thriller that proudly subverts convention to provide a memorably and twisted experience that is hard to shake.

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When Kim Soo-hyeon’s (the excellent Byung-hun Lee) pregnant fiancée is abducted and killed by a serial killer roaming the streets of Seoul, he sets himself the task of hunting the man down and getting justice. Being a highly trained secret agent makes this task well suited to his skills, interestingly the film is not so interested in the chase, indeed Kim locates the killer (Oldboy’s Min-sik Choi in another stunning performance) within the first hour of the film, the point at which most conventional narratives would end. Instead Kim plants a tracker on the killer, breaks his hand and lets him go, starting a dangerous game of cat and mouse where he seeks to torment, and slowly bring down the killer in his own time. It’s a wonderful conceit and one chillingly realised, Min-ski Choi’s killer is a brilliantly hateful character, a truly depraved and unsettling individual who fills every second of his screen time with menace. It is a wonderful performance and goes a long way to encouraging the viewer to cheer on Kim’s quest for vengeance, as he repeatedly pulls the leash and disrupts his plans, never dealing the final blow.

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But the film doesn’t shy away from the dangers of Kim’s revenge trip either, the people he places in danger by letting the man go, or the damage to his own soul he risks by sinking to Choi’s level. The murky moral waters are largely left below the surface but their subtext underpins the rest of the film, elevating it beyond a standard revenge thriller. However the film also delivers on this regard, it is full of memorable set pieces and tense exchanges, and not afraid to face up to the darkness it depicts. This is a rough film at times, those with experience of Korean cinema would expect no less, but it never feels overly gratuitous.

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If you can get past the dark subject matter, there is a fascinating and engaging thriller here, with a shocking and blackly comic finale. It is not subtle, and maybe not ultimately all that deep, but while it lasts it is a riveting and exhilarating experience that I would highly recommend. This is another brilliant South Korean revenge film, and proof that there is plenty of mileage in that particular tank left.