6. I Saw the Devil
A controversial film from Kim Jee-woon which polarized filmgoers,
I Saw the Devil is a deliberate attempt to make a streamlined and yet subversive revenge thriller. The concept, which pits a federal agent (Lee Byung-hun) on a hunt for the psychopath (Choi Min-sik) who killed his fiance, is exceedingly simple and yet turns the genre over on its head. Lee Mo-gae's cinematography is beautiful and the script by Park Hoon-jung (also behind
The Unjust) is clever, macabre and darkly humorous.
I Saw the Devil is brutal, relentless, and can come off as simplistic and just as easily be viewed as pointless, but scratch beneath the veneer and you will come away with something more. Let's hope that Kim Jee-woon still makes them like this soon to be cult classic when his first Hollywood offering, the Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle
The Last Stand, will be released early next year.
MKC Review
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