Film: I Saw The Devil
Year of production: 2010
UK Release date: 9th May 2011
Distributor: Optimum
Certificate: 18
Running time: 140 mins
Director: Kim Jee-woon
Starring: Lee Byung-hun, Choi Min-sik, Jeon Gook-hwan, Jeon Ho-jin, Oh San-ha
Genre: Crime/Drama/Horror/Thriller
Format: DVD & Blu-ray
Country of Production: South Korea
Language: Korean
Review by: Mark Player
With an increasing string of high-profile and well regarded releases under his belt – A Tale Of Two Sisters, A Bittersweet Life, The Good The Bad The Weird, etc. – Korean director Kim Jee-woon is quickly becoming one of the country's best known filmmakers; rivalling the likes of Bong Joon-ho (who helmed The Host and Mother) and Park Chan-wook (the 'Vengeance' trilogy and most recently Thirst). Kim's latest opus – I Saw The Devil – sees him pitting his regular leading man Lee Byung-hun up against the irrepressible Choi Min-sik, star of Park's infamous Oldboy.
Lee Byung-hun plays Kim Soo-hyeon, a detective who plans to marry the retired police chief's daughter Joo-yeon (Oh San-ha). One night, Joo-yeon is stranded out in the snowy countryside, whilst Soo-hyeon is busy working. Whilst waiting for a tow-truck to rescue her vehicle, Joo-yeon encounters Kyung-chul (Choi Min-sik), a school bus driver and total psychopath. He smashes his way into the car, dragging Joo-yeon through the snow and taking her to his secret workshop where he proceeds to mutilate and kill her. Remains of her body are soon discovered in a nearby river.
Soo-hyeon is devastated and is given leave from the force. However, Soo-hyeon wastes no time in finding the man responsible, quickly working his way through the police's list of suspects. Eventually, he finds Kyung-chul, arriving just in time to prevent another death; one of the school girls who regularly rides Kyung-chul's bus. Soo-hyeon overpowers Kyung-chul; however, he lets him not only live, but escape.
Kyung-chul feels he's had a lucky break, but as soon as he feels safe to resume his old tricks, Soo-hyeon appears to administer further violence. With the hunter now becoming the prey, Kyung-chul is continually at the mercy of Soo-hyeon and his plans for the perfect revenge...
It’s strange to think that I Saw The Devil is the product of the same directorial hand as the energetic, colourful and all-round fun that was The Good The Bad The Weird. This effort feels like a very different breed; it also feels like it has arrived about six or seven years too late. Had I Saw The Devil been released around the mid-2000s, its content and subject matter would've likely felt far more innovative, but, as it stands, its sadistic torturings and vicious exploits feel rote and somewhat obsolete.
The main problem is that fellow director Park Chan-wook – after his Vengeance trilogy – pretty much has the monopoly on Korean revenge melodrama and, as a result, other ruminations feel like tired retreads and appropriations of the conventions, character dynamics and narrative arcs explored in Park's Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance (2002) and Oldboy (2003). Like the latter, Soo-hyeon turns his quest for revenge into a sick game of wits. It also doesn't help that Oldboy's protagonist and I Saw The Devil's mass-murderer-turned-victim are played by the same actor, creating further stylistic parallels.
On that note, Choi Min-sik does turn in a good performance as the film's psychopath, resisting the temptation to chew scenery and, instead, offering a rounded and humane portrayal of a man that, at the same time, isn't too serious. He clearly enjoys the role; going absolutely nuts in a taxicab with a screwdriver, repeatedly stabbing the driver and a fellow passenger who, amusingly, later turn out to be murdering car-jackers themselves. Lee Byung-hun is also impressive as the detective who gets so caught up in orchestrating the perfect revenge that he is blind to the damage it causes around him, leading to further loss of life.
Director Kim Je-woon allows enough screen time for his two leads to blossom; the downside being that the film feels a little too long, with some sequences feeling loose when they should feel tight. Another disorientating factor is the overall structure and pace of the narrative. Soo-hyeon finds his man well within the first hour, preventing further murders, as well as exacting some personal and physical justice by beating Kyung-chul to a pulp. But by the point where other films would normally end, I Saw The Devil carries on for another ninety minutes. Soo-hyeon gives Kyung-chul a wad of cash and allows him to escape only to track him down and beat him again and again, prolonging the thrill of the hunt. It’s an interesting idea, but one that starts to grow weary; culminating to the point where you'd think Soo-hyeon would just kill the guy, or at the very least place him in some sort of confinement where the torture could continue without chaos spilling out onto the streets. This would then remove the need to have Kyung-chul unknowingly ingest a rather dubious GPS tracker/microphone device in order for Soo-hyeon to keep tabs on him as he roams freely within the city.
The violence, even though Kim Jee-woon is wise enough to cut away or not show the most barbaric of moments, is still not for the squeamish. Fans of fellow Asian shock-masters such as Takashi Miike will revel in the frequent and over-the-top, Ichi The Killer-esque bodily mutilation steadily dispersed throughout, but some – even those accustomed to extreme Asian cinema – may still find the tone to be overly sadistic or even unnecessary, and may dismiss the ensuing carnage as little more than button pushing (I Saw The Devil has received various cuts by many international censorship boards, but is allegedly uncut for this UK release).
But, as suggested by his past features, Kim Jee-woon is not afraid to experiment with genre conventions and limitations, creating an entertainingly savage ride (for those who can stomach it) in the process. Korean cinema's knack for having humour hidden in the most strange and the darkest of places is also present: one of Kyung-chul's friends (who is also a mass-murderer) finds himself pinned to a table via a screwdriver through the centre of his hand. He tries to yank it out of the wood, only for the plastic handle to detach and fly off, leaving the rest of the screwdriver still through his hand and the table.
Ultimately, while I Saw the Devil disappointingly fails to live up to past Korean dalliances with similarly grim, revenge-centric subject matter, it still makes for a fun yet grisly experience. Lee Byung-hun and Choi Min-sik's performances are strong enough to glaze over some of the film's weaker elements, whilst the copious violence flows freely and will undoubtedly keep gore-hounds enthused. I Saw The Devil is certainly worth a look. MP
No comments:
Post a Comment