I Saw the Devil

johnny_ultimate

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkwEFKdTckk

Just finished watching this and it is fantastic cinema. The latest from Kim Ji-Woon, the director of such wonderful genre pics as Tale of Two Sisters and The Good, the Bad and the Weird. This is a revenge film - and one that may even show up those 'other' famous South Korean revenge films.

Speaking of elderly boys, the antagonist here is Choi Min-sik - the Oldboy himself - in a spectacularly menacing performance. He's a villain for the ages. He is being pursued by Lee Byung-hun. The film reaches the spot most revenge films end at around forty minutes in - and then goes on for another hour and a half :pac: I won't spoil what happens, but it twists the typical revenge thriller on its head. Sort of like the Chaser meets Oldboy, and it's as good as that sounds.

Directed with great intensity, hyper violence and an eye for the occasional moment of pitch black comedy, the two and a half hours fly by. It keeps up the tension throughout, coming to a head with some ridiculous terse setpieces. The two lead performances are great. And it has something to say too - the complex morality of the situation is most certainly not ignored. The title is never explained in any great depth, but is vital to the overall theme.

Anyway, I can just recommend to watch it in the haste - yet another example of South Korea being considerably ahead of the pack when it comes to subversive genre cinema.

Otis Driftwood

Have it in mah to watch pile,cheers for the reminder.Have heard good things about it alright.

fish fingers

Watched it there about two months ago. Great film and dosent let up with the violence the whole way through the film.

Mickeroo

Going to watch it tonight, loved the Good The Bad and the Weird, not expecting this to be too similar to that though

cursai

Another good one is The Chaser

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkqczsLZd1I

johnny_ultimate

Mickeroo wrote: »

Going to watch it tonight, loved the Good The Bad and the Weird, not expecting this to be too similar to that though

They share a playful disregard for genre norms, which I like They both also have a very weird sense of humour - here, obviously, it's much darker though. There are a surprising number of laughs in I Saw the Devil, amongst the hyperviolence!

cursai wrote: »

Another good one is The Chaser

ISTD is similar to the Chaser in a number of ways I thought - kind of does for the revenge thriller what the Chaser did for the murder mystery film! Both also have a fondness for particularly disturbed serial killers.

Watched it a few months back and loved it, some of the scenes were very hard to watch especially for those of us who find the

slicing of the Achilles tendon

to be nasty as it comes. I ordered the Blu Ray in HMV ages ago but it hasn't come in yet and it could be awhile given that they are unable to order in any stock till July or thereabouts.

I'm curious to see the alternate cut, different territories got different versions of the film and I believe that the version released over here is the more violent one. Hopefully the even more brilliant Outrage will get a Blu Ray release over here soon enough.

Mickeroo

Just watched it. Really good stuff, wouldn't rate it as highly as Oldboy. Some real nasty scenes

achilles tendon was the worst bit,ugh

and found myself laughing once or twice too. I find it unsettling

the amount of homicidal maniacs that seem to be roaming around the outskirts of seoul though I have to say.

Well worth the watch.

adox

Watched this the night before last and while I enjoyed it, it was a patch on Oldboy.

I've currently got a que of foreign films to watch. I wonder if it's worthwhile having a foreign/subtitled film thread to discuss the different films or is there any need?

Mickeroo

adox wrote: »

Watched this the night before last and while I enjoyed it, it was a patch on Oldboy.

I've currently got a que of foreign films to watch. I wonder if it's worthwhile having a foreign/subtitled film thread to discuss the different films or is there any need?

no need I would have thought? sure ithis is no different to having a single thread for each english language film

e_e

Yeah I would have thought that the amount of English language films pales in comparison to films released in the rest of the world.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

I was really looking forward to this for ages, and i saw it last week.. was not impressed at all to be honest. It seemed to be the korean version of a hollywood brainless action flick, but with added gore and blood to shock the audience, where hollywood seems to go more for explosions and bullets. The acting was quite good from the two main men and I did make a point of ignoring the doorbell ringing for 5 minutes when there was 25 minutes left in the movie because I didn't want it to be interrupted so it certainly didn't bore me but I just didn't feel any love for the movie in the same way I did for a bittersweet life, or the good, the bad, the weird.
I wouldn't call it a bad film by any stretch of the imagination, but like I said I just wasn't impressed and wouldn't be in any rush to watch it again.

johnny_ultimate

adox wrote: »

I've currently got a que of foreign films to watch. I wonder if it's worthwhile having a foreign/subtitled film thread to discuss the different films or is there any need?

Nope, if I Am Number Four is deemed worthy of its own thread then I Saw the Devil most certainly is :pac:

Sure, foreign cinema won't attract the same level of passionate discourse of your typical Christopher Nolan film, but I for one actively encourage people to post threads about all sorts of cinema. Not all deserve their own thread for various reasons - but there's the likes of the What have you watched recently thread for passing references.

Foreign cinema shouldn't be deemed 'special' or 'different' in a perfect world. If anything, it's bland Hollywood blockbusters that we should relegate to a megathread :P

Tallon

This film is so good, I actually thoroughly enjoyed it.

Very well acted and intense throughout.

Ally Dick

I thought I Saw The Devil was incredible. Might be too violent for some. It was such a powerful movie !