I Saw the Devil (2010)

Lee Byung-hun is a kick ass. his face, his voice, the way he walks, the way he stares. im a fan of thriller/slasher/horror movies. and yet this one wowed me away. my blood pressure went up after watching this movie. i was in a mess, at the edge of the seat most of the times, i felt like screaming and punching someone. this movie gave me a whirlpool of emotions. it gives you an insight of what goes around in a killer's mind and the victim. audience gets to see a killer being hunted. this movie is beautiful. it's gory, yes, but it's beautiful.

If you are comfortable seeing serial murder portrayed realistically, and are able to appreciate more than just gore, put I Saw The Devil at the very top of your watchlist. The cinematography is haunting, the action is hypnotic and the murders are savage and unrelenting. The throbbing score works harmoniously through every scene. As the violence escalates, the lines become blurred on who the real devil of the piece is. While one might argue that the extremes of both violence and bloodshed both cheapen and degrade this Jee-Woon Kim film, I have to disagree. The movie deals with a dark subject matter unflinchingly with little compromise. It is never exploitative or disingenuous. It is, at times, hard to watch, but it is certainly worth the trouble. I Saw The Devil will implore you to evaluate your own moral compass.

Just when you think they've run out of new ideas, a movie lie this comes along. Brilliant

I had heard this was a film to rival Park Chan-wook's "Oldboy"-and to some it might, as I'm aware many did not enjoy Oldboy as much as I did-but in all honesty I found it wanting in substance and gruelling in pace. It's a superficial and unsubstantial horror film that mainly sticks in the mind due to disturbing content, not disturbing themes.SPOILERS WILL BE INCLUDED BEYOND THIS POINTLet's handle each aspect of film itself to break down what I feel didn't work about the film:First, our Protagonist, Agent Soo-hyeon. What can be said about him other than his occupation and relationship with the victim? Well, very little. He is given a bit of extra characterization with a more vulnerable side at the beginning phone call, but after that point he becomes singular in his goals and shows next-to-no personality besides hesitance and blood lust. This would be fine if his plan made any sense. Don't get me wrong, I understand the concept of catch-and-release torture and why he might pick it, but not only does it immediately make him into an unlikable character, subjecting multiple women to horrifying conditions because he was continuously sloppy with his surveillance of his target. But also a lot of his choices are not only medically impossible to sustain (like constant knock-outs actually leading to brain damage) but also he makes ridiculous action-movie level choices that make the movie seem like a cartoon. The final death scene for the villain also seems hilariously out of theme, with him inflicting horror on the villain's family...a family the villain doesn't even care about.Speaking of Kyung-chul, he was mostly fine. See, in the movies there's always an ongoing attempt to explain a serial killer's reasoning or to make them refined/attractive to make them more horrifying. However, reading the real cases of killers reveals the vast majority of them are brutal simpletons who commit horrible crimes for no reason besides they can. I respected the decision to make Kyung-chul more in line with this type of thinking, but he's ruined in the final scene by trying to make him care about a family he outright abandoned to become a serial killer. It's very confusing.When it comes to the plot itself, it's structured well but is bogged down by ridiculously unbelievable set pieces and repetitive actions. The only thing to keep up continuous engagement is the shock value of the gore, which doesn't affect me personally all that much. The structure is mostly good but the choices of some characters (mainly our inconsistent protagonist) are too stupid to feel justifiable. All-in-all I was thoroughly disappointed.