Bedevilled (Dir. Jang Cheol-soo, 2010)
Of all the sub-genres that litter Korean film, one of my favorites is the island-set drama/thriller. The 1970s were full of classic examples, such as Kim Ki-young’s
Iodo (1977), Kim Soo-yong’s
Splendid Outing (1978), and Im Kwon-taek’s
The Divine Bow (1979), and the trend has continued until today. These films typically take an affluent Seoulite and transpose them into an almost barren rural island. With
Bedevilled, Jang Cheol-soo distilled the genre to its core elements and brought the central class and modern/traditional frictions to the fore through the immediacy of revenge and serial killer tropes.
One of the most sensational indie debuts of recent times,
Bedevilled had the genre credentials to become a minor cult sensation around the world while also harboring a pointed and potent social agenda to endear itself to the critics. What’s more the film garnished these dueling and complementing identities with stark and dazzling island photography.
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