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I Saw The Devil (2010)

Director: Kim Jee-Woon

Time Out rating

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4 reviews

Movie review

From Time Out London

Korean revenge movies reached their apotheosis with Park Chan-wook’s violent but sophisticated trilogy – ‘Sympathy for Mr Vengeance’, ‘Old Boy’ and ‘Sympathy for Lady Vengeance’ – the last two of which starred Choi Min-sik. In director Kim Jee-woon’s monotonously brutal cat-and-mouse movie, Choi plays Kyung-chul, an amoral serial killer who abducts and butchers the pregnant wife of special agent Soo-hyeon (Lee Byung-hyun). Consumed by revenge, Soo-hyeon initiates an interminable game of catch-and-release, repeatedly capturing and maiming his prey, but refusing to kill him until the ‘most painful moment’.

A remorseless catalogue of calculated violence, casual cannibalism and sexual sadism, this inflicts over two hours of suffering on the audience – a cruelty compounded by the fact that its banal point is made early: per Nietzsche’s dictum, ‘He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster.’ Choi’s ferociously deranged performance eclipses that of handsome Lee, as does Choi Moo-seong’s, as Tae-ju, the seedy hotel owner with a taste for human flesh.

Author: Nigel Floyd

Time Out London Issue 2123: 28 – 4 May, 2011

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User reviews of this film

rachael said...

Posted on May 06 2012 16:43 Awful review. I hope this doesn't put off people from watching it. I suggest you look up Roger Ebert for some tips!

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Uh said...

Posted on Mar 09 2012 11:35 This review is a joke, right? Kind of hard to take it seriously when it's so poorly written; no surprise the reviewer didn't get the movie.

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paul said...

Posted on May 16 2011 00:49 very unfair review yes its brutal its a refreshing black humorous twist on the revenge movie genre, sounds like a typical attack on non hollywood movie if its subtitle it must be bad, which is an absurd thing because if you look at the some of the hollywood movies alot are remakes of world cinema movies, oh movies with subtitles unfair review

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JayVee said...

Posted on Apr 26 2011 20:27 Harsh review, Nigel.
It's Korean and it's not Oldboy'. Okay. Well done. And what about the rest of the world. Compared with the US thrillers playing at your local multiplex, however, 'I Saw The Devil' is without doubt worth more than two stars.

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