I Saw the Devil

Oct 1, 2022

Yesterday I saw the movie "I Saw the Devil" from 2010. The director is the acclaimed Kim Ji-Woon, who is a Korean film director and screenwriter. He has tackled a wide variety of film genres, thus becoming a reference director for fans of Asian cinema. Surely you have heard of some of his films, but this is undoubtedly one of the best.

The synopsis of "I Saw the Devil" is as follows: A dangerous psychopath who kills for pleasure and who has committed several murders with diabolical methods that are difficult to imagine. His victims are young girls. The police have been trying to capture him for some time. One day, the daughter of a retired police chief is found murdered. The girl's boyfriend, a secret agent, swears revenge.

The movie is Suspense/Action and has a duration of 2h 24m.

Rating

• 7.8/10 IMDb

• 7.2/10 FilmAffinity

• 81% Rotten Tomatoes

• And according to a Google survey, 91% liked this movie.

The movie is a delight from start to finish. The script is excellently structured so that together with the rhythm that is triggered in the film, the 2 hours do not seem tedious at all. The idea is clear: A ruthless killer kills the fiancée of a police officer and he decides to take revenge.

From this point the article contains spoilers...

The killer was linked to the cannibalism business. He dismembered his victims and sold them to people who paid for human flesh to eat. This is not the main theme, but a part is dedicated to it where the objective of the massacres is seen and why they dismembered their victims. Agent's Revenge is where the movie wins in excellence. He does not make quick revenge and capture to hand him over to the police, rather the opposite. The first time he finds the murderer, already knowing that he was the one who murdered his fiancée, he makes him swallow without realizing it (he was half unconscious) a pill that contained a GPS for his location, and the pill could even transmit the audio. This way he would always know the location of the killer. Then a series of encounters begins and in each one of them, revenge was carried out.

Revenge was painful and intended to make the murderer suffer as much as possible. The time comes when you don't know who the devil is, whether the agent himself or the murderer himself because what the agent did to him in each encounter was almost inhuman.

We are facing the story of atypical and implacable revenge, narrated in an impressive way, without concessions to the gallery.

The pace of the film, not always fast, firmly resists one hundred and forty minutes and manages to trap the viewer in a spiral of blood, perversion, and settling scores that also leaves room for reflection. The reflection on how anger gradually destroys those who exercise it, their person, their environment, and their life.

"I Saw the Devil" present the features of the best current Korean cinema, such as great visual power and an outstanding soundtrack that fits perfectly into the narrative. As its own director recognized in Zinemaldia, the film drinks from contemporary classics such as Zodiac (influenced by Memories of murder), Seven, and Saw.

The memorable interpretive duel of the leading couple offers us a wild, raw, macabre film, with a visceral point, at times repulsive, that recreates self-destructive characters who, for different reasons and channels, end up offering us a film recital worth remembering as one of the best thrillers of 2010.

"I Saw the Devil", don't beat around the bush. It is a film that goes to the direct, to the brutal, to the crazy, and to excessive revenge. It doesn't bore, it doesn't disappoint. Rather the complete opposite. It is a work of art in all its splendor.

Dedicate a time of your life to seeing this work of art if you have not done it yet. It is highly recommended, I can assure you. If you are afraid or you are not a fan of horror, gore, and action with excessive violence, this movie is not for you. But if you are one of those who does not mind seeing something else, something different, then you have everything to gain by watching the movie.

Watch the movie, thank me later.

See you tomorrow.