Review: I Saw The Devil (Delightful Revenge)

A little bit of spoilers*

I Saw The Devil directed by Ji-Woon Kim (The Good, The Bad, The Weird) is a Korean revenge tale much like the Revenge Trilogy by Chan Wook-Park. In fact one of the leads is Oldboy's very own Choi Min-Sik. He plays Kyung-Chul. Who is a sadistic serial killer who thrives on preying upon helpless young women who usually are stuck somewhere with no-one around. It essentially starts with Kyung-Chul taking and killing a woman named Ju-Yeon. Well it just so happens that she is the daughter of a retired police chief and the pregnant fiancee of elite special agent Soo-Hyun (played by The Good, The Bad, The Weird's LEE Byung-hyun).  So expectedly  Soo-Hyun tracks down Kyung-Chul for revenge. 


The movie does a really good job of bringing the suspense up and down. But it never really quite hit me emotionally til the very end. It was a nice escape from the plot of normal revenge movies. because this one was especially violent but not too twisted. Soo-Hyun finds Kyung-Chul with the intention of killing him but instead decides to leave him alive to continue finding him, beating him, and torturing him. He makes his intentions clear when the first time meet. He tells Kyung-Chul after he has already beaten him close to death that "his nightmare has only just begun". That sure was an epic line to me. The cat and mouse game continues to ensue until the climax at the end which left me very satisfied. It was untraditional but very well done.


Overall I enjoyed the movie very much. The violence was well... violent. The cinematography was well done but not miraculous (unlike Oldboy. The acting was very well done and I need to find more movies that Choi Min-Sik is in because I really enjoy his acting. Like I said it never really hit me deep down emotionally but still left me wanting more and excited to see the outcome of the tale.


7.5 out of 10