SusannahI SAW THE DEVIL
March 25th 2012 04:02
I Saw the Devil (2010)
Starring: Byung-hun Lee, Min-sik Choi.
Directed by: Jee-woon Kim
I Saw the Devil is a violent South Korean revenge thriller from director Jee-woon Kim. Rated R18 in New Zealand, this film is difficult to stomach as evidenced by a walkout at the screening I attended, after a particularly violent opening sequence. However, the subject matter should give anyone curious about this film an indication that it won't be an easy or pleasant watch. It is about a man's continual revenge on the serial killer who murdered his wife. The murder of his wife occurs in the reasonably gruesome opening sequence as a seemingly kindly man (Min-sik Choi from Chan-wook Park’s Old Boy) offers to help a young woman stranded in her broken down car in the snow. We feel uneasy at his persistence in trying to help her, and wisely, she refuses help from a stranger. But he bashes his way into her car by smashing the widescreen and belting her on the head. Then we cut to her back at his serial killer den, naked, and lying on a concrete floor. She begs him to spare her life, telling him that she is pregnant. He proceeds to kill her anyway, dismembering the body and (with gruesome sound effects) disembowelling her as well. The cave-like den has a ledge with a convenient outlet to water, allowing the blood to be easily washed away. Her body parts then show up in the river, and a police hunt is launched to recover all the parts. There is a blackly comic sequence involving the discovery of the head. All of this is only the first twenty minutes of the film!
Her husband Kim Soo-hyeon (Byung-hun Lee) is devastated, as is her father, a police officer of some twenty years. Who, despite being a cop, despairs that he could not even keep his own daughter safe. Her husband does not know how to deal with her loss. He blames himself for not being there - his job takes him away a lot - and when he is given the details of the chief suspects in her death by his father-in-law, resolves upon revenge, telling his workplace that he will only need two weeks bereavement leave. Systemically, he finds and interrogates the suspects, until he locates (mid sexual assault no less) the guilty one, Kyung-chul (Min-sik Choi). But he does not just want revenge once. No. He wants it over and over and over again.
Thus begins the plot of a revenge film which features a load of violence and unpleasantries. Nearly every female in the film is victimised or attacked in some way. Never has so much violence again women been graphically committed to celluloid since The Killer Inside Me by Michael Winterbottom. But there is violence against men too. The serial killer, Kyung-chul despatches, very violently, two men in a car, who, the film implies, are killers and robbers themselves. He is repeatedly beaten up by the husband, including one wince-inducing scene where his Achilles heel tendon is cut. The serial killer himself, once relieved of his day job (driving a high school van!) goes on a violence and sexual assault rampage; intimidating and attacking nearly everyone he meets, including the doctor and nurse who give him medical treatment. His odyssey includes visiting an old serial killer friend, and his female companion, who have taken over a boarding house. His friend has become a cannibal, and has a freezer full of body parts (Like I said, not an easy watch). When discussing who his pursuer might be, serial killer two says to one that the husband has become one of them because he has been overtaken by violence. But the interesting thing is that the husband never loses his humanity, nor does he suffer the fate of purgation that anti-heroes of film noir often succumb to: their lives being forfeit once they have taken one themselves. He punishes, but he is never seen to kill. He never stoops to the level of Kyung-chul. He is himself plagued by the question of why someone would ever commit the crimes that Kyung-chul has. The motivations of the killer are something he will never understand.
As the villain, Min-sik Choi delivers a performance of equal standard to that of his victim role in Chan-wook Park’s Old Boy, only this time playing the perpetrator. He delivers rough, craggy-looking charm, which easily morphs into empty-eyed, pitiless malice that sees his victims as nothing more than things to kill. He is positively chilling in his cold-bloodedness, and once the gloves come off when he has been fired from his job, there is not even the comfort of the pretence of charm and humanity towards his victims. The audience is uncomfortably aware of exactly what lies in wait for his many victims and there is nothing to do but wait and see if Kyung-chul will be stopped in time by his tormentor.
Byung-hun Lee is also excellent as the bereaved husband Kim Soo-hyeon. Despite what he does to Kyung-chul, and to the other killers in the film, he never loses his humanity by becoming the very thing he is trying to stop. It turns out that his job is actually that of a special agent, not incredible when you know South Korea is neighbours with North Korea, and his training and access to technology allows him to easily track and subdue this vicious killer. It is like a very dark chapter of Tom Cruise's Mission Impossible. Despite the horrificness of Kyung-chul’s actions the film never offers judgement on the characters in the way Hollywood revenge films often do. Although you root for Kim Soo-hyeon's revenge at points, the film does show it coming at a very high price. Many people die along the way, or get injured, including his wife's own family, who could have been spared had the agent stopped him outright, or allowed the police to catch him: police who, throughout the film, seem to be very incompetent. But Kim Soo-hyeon's motivation for continuing this revenge is that it gives him a focus, a way of delaying the intense grief that he must confront over his wife's senseless death. By distracting himself with a self assigned mission, he can delay the inevitable fact that he will have to face that his wife is never coming back.
Jee-woon Kim directs with a cool, impartial eye, depicting events but never pushing the audience to judge the characters one way or another. Whether or not you approve of Kim Soo-hyeon's revenge is up to you. At times his visual styling is reminiscent of David Lynch. Especially the highway lines at the start. The ending is in keeping with the film, but the final scene where Kim Soo-hyeon unleashes all of his heartbreak and agony shows that revenge, no matter how satisfying, cannot take pain away. “Does revenge ever solve anything?” is the lingering question.
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Starring: Byung-hun Lee, Min-sik Choi.
Directed by: Jee-woon Kim
I Saw the Devil is a violent South Korean revenge thriller from director Jee-woon Kim. Rated R18 in New Zealand, this film is difficult to stomach as evidenced by a walkout at the screening I attended, after a particularly violent opening sequence. However, the subject matter should give anyone curious about this film an indication that it won't be an easy or pleasant watch. It is about a man's continual revenge on the serial killer who murdered his wife. The murder of his wife occurs in the reasonably gruesome opening sequence as a seemingly kindly man (Min-sik Choi from Chan-wook Park’s Old Boy) offers to help a young woman stranded in her broken down car in the snow. We feel uneasy at his persistence in trying to help her, and wisely, she refuses help from a stranger. But he bashes his way into her car by smashing the widescreen and belting her on the head. Then we cut to her back at his serial killer den, naked, and lying on a concrete floor. She begs him to spare her life, telling him that she is pregnant. He proceeds to kill her anyway, dismembering the body and (with gruesome sound effects) disembowelling her as well. The cave-like den has a ledge with a convenient outlet to water, allowing the blood to be easily washed away. Her body parts then show up in the river, and a police hunt is launched to recover all the parts. There is a blackly comic sequence involving the discovery of the head. All of this is only the first twenty minutes of the film!
I Saw the Devil poster
Her husband Kim Soo-hyeon (Byung-hun Lee) is devastated, as is her father, a police officer of some twenty years. Who, despite being a cop, despairs that he could not even keep his own daughter safe. Her husband does not know how to deal with her loss. He blames himself for not being there - his job takes him away a lot - and when he is given the details of the chief suspects in her death by his father-in-law, resolves upon revenge, telling his workplace that he will only need two weeks bereavement leave. Systemically, he finds and interrogates the suspects, until he locates (mid sexual assault no less) the guilty one, Kyung-chul (Min-sik Choi). But he does not just want revenge once. No. He wants it over and over and over again.
Contemplating revenge
Thus begins the plot of a revenge film which features a load of violence and unpleasantries. Nearly every female in the film is victimised or attacked in some way. Never has so much violence again women been graphically committed to celluloid since The Killer Inside Me by Michael Winterbottom. But there is violence against men too. The serial killer, Kyung-chul despatches, very violently, two men in a car, who, the film implies, are killers and robbers themselves. He is repeatedly beaten up by the husband, including one wince-inducing scene where his Achilles heel tendon is cut. The serial killer himself, once relieved of his day job (driving a high school van!) goes on a violence and sexual assault rampage; intimidating and attacking nearly everyone he meets, including the doctor and nurse who give him medical treatment. His odyssey includes visiting an old serial killer friend, and his female companion, who have taken over a boarding house. His friend has become a cannibal, and has a freezer full of body parts (Like I said, not an easy watch). When discussing who his pursuer might be, serial killer two says to one that the husband has become one of them because he has been overtaken by violence. But the interesting thing is that the husband never loses his humanity, nor does he suffer the fate of purgation that anti-heroes of film noir often succumb to: their lives being forfeit once they have taken one themselves. He punishes, but he is never seen to kill. He never stoops to the level of Kyung-chul. He is himself plagued by the question of why someone would ever commit the crimes that Kyung-chul has. The motivations of the killer are something he will never understand.
Min-sik Choi as Kyung-chul
As the villain, Min-sik Choi delivers a performance of equal standard to that of his victim role in Chan-wook Park’s Old Boy, only this time playing the perpetrator. He delivers rough, craggy-looking charm, which easily morphs into empty-eyed, pitiless malice that sees his victims as nothing more than things to kill. He is positively chilling in his cold-bloodedness, and once the gloves come off when he has been fired from his job, there is not even the comfort of the pretence of charm and humanity towards his victims. The audience is uncomfortably aware of exactly what lies in wait for his many victims and there is nothing to do but wait and see if Kyung-chul will be stopped in time by his tormentor.
Min-sik Choi as Kyung-chul
Byung-hun Lee is also excellent as the bereaved husband Kim Soo-hyeon. Despite what he does to Kyung-chul, and to the other killers in the film, he never loses his humanity by becoming the very thing he is trying to stop. It turns out that his job is actually that of a special agent, not incredible when you know South Korea is neighbours with North Korea, and his training and access to technology allows him to easily track and subdue this vicious killer. It is like a very dark chapter of Tom Cruise's Mission Impossible. Despite the horrificness of Kyung-chul’s actions the film never offers judgement on the characters in the way Hollywood revenge films often do. Although you root for Kim Soo-hyeon's revenge at points, the film does show it coming at a very high price. Many people die along the way, or get injured, including his wife's own family, who could have been spared had the agent stopped him outright, or allowed the police to catch him: police who, throughout the film, seem to be very incompetent. But Kim Soo-hyeon's motivation for continuing this revenge is that it gives him a focus, a way of delaying the intense grief that he must confront over his wife's senseless death. By distracting himself with a self assigned mission, he can delay the inevitable fact that he will have to face that his wife is never coming back.
Byung-hun Lee as Kim Soo-hyeon
Jee-woon Kim directs with a cool, impartial eye, depicting events but never pushing the audience to judge the characters one way or another. Whether or not you approve of Kim Soo-hyeon's revenge is up to you. At times his visual styling is reminiscent of David Lynch. Especially the highway lines at the start. The ending is in keeping with the film, but the final scene where Kim Soo-hyeon unleashes all of his heartbreak and agony shows that revenge, no matter how satisfying, cannot take pain away. “Does revenge ever solve anything?” is the lingering question.
Byung-hun Lee as Kim Soo-hyeon
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