Masterful 'I Saw the Devil' isn't quite the best revenge
South Korea's latest ultraviolent revenge flick turns a flimsy script into a masterpiece of suspenseful set pieces.
- Showbox/Magnet Releasing
- IS THAT ALL YOU'VE GOT? Lee Byung-hun and Choi Min-sik
Korean director Park Chan-Wook became a genre filmmaker of international repute with his delirously violent but impeccably-framed Vengeance Trilogy: Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Oldboy and Lady Vengeance. Now playing at Landmark Midtown Art Cinema, I Saw the Devil, a new import from director Kim Ji-woon, could be described as Korean Vengeance Lite — which still makes it more bloody and disturbing than 99 percent of the movies out there.
Where Oldboy starred Choi Min-sik as "Oh Daesu," a bumbling salaryman turned implacable, hammer-wielding avenger, I Saw the Devil casts the same actor as a monstrous serial killer called Kyung-chul. Few screen villains prove as monumentally loathsome as Kyung-chul, a bullying sexual predator and psycho killer with the relentlessness of Javier Bardem in No Country for Old Men. The film opens with Kyung-chul prowling along a dark, snowy highway and accosting a beautiful young pregnant woman stranded by the road side.