악마를 보았다 | I Saw the Devil (2010)

There is a very thin line that separates exploration from exploitation in cinema. And walking on that thin ice throughout its runtime is this ultra-violent revenge flick from South Korea which, with its graphic depiction of torture might give an appearance of something that borders on tasteless gore but thanks to its greater emphasis on plot & characters, this thriller eventually succeeds as an emotionally devastating story of loss & revenge that is extremely well executed on the film canvas. Brutally intense, downright shocking, relentlessly violent & absolutely unforgiving, I Saw the Devil finds renowned filmmaker Kim Jee-woon revelling at the very top of his game and is his third consecutive masterpiece after A Bittersweet Life & The Good, the Bad, the Weird.

I Saw the Devil opens with the introduction of a merciless serial killer, Kyung-chul, preying on his latest victim named Joo-yun whose car is stranded on roadside due to a flat tire & who happens to be the daughter of the Squad Chief Jang & fiancé of Soo-hyun; a secret service agent of National Intelligence Service. After the police search uncovers her decapitated body, Soo-hyun becomes enraged & determined to track the killer down and seek vengeance. With a little help from Joo-yun’s father, Soo-hyun is able to find Kyung-chul, beats the hell out of him, plants a tracking device in his body & then reappears to torture Kyung-chul whenever he is about to kill someone. And thus begins the diminishing of the fine line between victim & aggressor among both the characters and the observation of this very element is this film’s core ingredient.

If one takes a look at director Kim Jee-woon’s filmography and the reception his films have received both critically & commercially, it’s not difficult to assess that Jee-woon is one of world cinema’s most versatile filmmakers working in the industry today and, in my opinion, I Saw the Devil is possibly the finest work of his acclaimed career. Where Jee-woon impresses the most here is in trying to push the film beyond the confines of its genre while keeping its drama, action & violence smoothly balanced & undisturbed. The screenplay is brilliantly written as well with every event carefully plotted & finely detailed. Cinematography adds a considerable amount of richness to the story & captures each frame meticulously. Editing paces the 144 minutes narrative remarkably well and every scene is somehow relevant to the plot. And last but not the least, music accompanies the drama & drives the viewers’ emotions just as brilliantly as it is composed.

Coming to the performances, I Saw the Devil features two of Asian cinema’s most revered actors in Choi Min-sik & Lee Byung-hun, and both deliver equally memorable performances here. Choi Min-sik stars as Kyung-chul, a remorseless serial killer who gets a slight taste of his own medicine when he is hunted & tortured repeatedly by one of his victims’ fiancé. And without losing any of his acting prowess, Min-sik couldn’t have asked for a better return to cinema after his self-imposed exile years ago. Lee Byung-hun plays Soo-hyun, the fiancé of one of Kyung-chul’s victims who, in the process of seeking revenge, starts becoming the very person he hates most. And this vengeful character with so much of stuffed-up emotions is fabulously illustrated by Byung-hun. Throughout its runtime, the screen is either shared by one or both of these immensely talented actors plus the clash of their screen presence is as intense as the clash of their characters, and it is at its most ruthless in the final moments.

Although Cinema of South Korea has never been afraid to show the dark side of human nature and the filmmakers have been equally uncompromising as well, I Saw the Devil still ranks as one of the most extreme mainstream features out there as far as violence in cinema is concerned. It is definitely not for the faint-hearted & it is definitely not for the easily distressed. There are moments involving rape, mutilation, disemboweling & even cannibalism in it so do make up your mind before venturing into this dark alley because it sure won’t be a pleasant cinematic experience but it certainly will be one of the most unforgettable ones. On an overall scale, Kim Jee-woon’s I Saw the Devil may not be as classic a revenge-thriller as Park Chan-wook’s Oldboy but it sure is more aggressive & relentless than that one. Undoubtedly one of the greatest films of the past decade and inarguably one of the finest examples of its genre, I Saw the Devil continues to push the boundaries of what is acceptable in mainstream movies and is one revenge flick no cinema lover should miss out. One hundred percent recommended.

올드보이 | Oldboy (2003)

One of the most shocking & disturbing tales of revenge you’ll ever see, Oldboy is not only a genre-defining cinema but arguably the finest film that South Korean film industry has offered us so far. Raising the bar to a new level & setting very high standards for revenge-thrillers to follow, Oldboy is director Park Chan-wook’s second instalment of his Vengeance Trilogy, preceded by Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance & succeeded by Sympathy for Lady Vengeance. But apart from sharing the central theme of vengeance, everything else about Oldboy is different from the other two chapters of this trilogy as it dares to & tears through the confines of its genre and also succeeds as an exhilarating work of cinematic art.

Based loosely on the Japanese manga of the same name, Oldboy tells the story of one Oh Dae-su, who is abducted on the night of his young daughter’s birthday & is held captive in an apartment prison for 15 years, without any clue of why he is there & who has imprisoned him, and is later freed in the same inexplicable manner. The rest of the film is about Oh Dae-su trying to uncover the identity & motives of his captor to exact revenge, only to discover that the entire set of events has been a masterly executed web of conspiracy from the very beginning and that his prison was indeed a safer place compared to what his kidnapper has in store for him. The movie also covers the themes of loss, pain & revenge in an uncompromising manner while depicting the way vengeance consumes the human soul.

Park Chan-wook is one of the most acclaimed & popular Asian filmmakers in cinema industry today and Oldboy remains the best work of his career, so far. Ingeniously written & directed from start to finish, Chan-wook skilfully layers the plot with clever twists & extreme violence that slowly unravels its mysteries to give the viewers a cinematic jolt they’ll have a hard time forgetting. The whole film is exquisitely & meticulously photographed with some inventiveness in the cinematography department; my favourite moment being the single long take of the corridor fight scene. Editing steadily paces the story while also adding a grim & tense mood into the film’s already mysterious plot plus its background score has a vintage feel and is simply heartwarming & heartbreaking at the same time.

Coming to the acting department, there are three staggering performances in the film. The characters are nicely developed in the script but the performances render it even more convincingly on the film canvas. Putting up a strong & show-stealing characterization of Oh Dae-su, Choi Min-sik is absolutely exuberant & merciless in his role & easily overshadows everyone else in the film. His flawless expressions in the final scene before credits alone sums up everything about his character & also adds the ambiguity to the film’s ending. Next up is Yoo Ji-tae, who plays Lee Woo-jin, the man responsible for Dae-su’s imprisonment, & does a very impressive job with his controlled execution. Finally we have Kang Haye-jung playing Mi-do, Dae-su’s love interest & her character plays a vital role in the unpredictable & unexpected outcome of this film.

In spite of being a wildly entertaining feature & brimming with fresh style, creativity & imagination, Oldboy isn’t a movie for everyone & certainly not for the squeamish. Many scenes early in the film are enough to throw off some viewers but the most damaging element is its underlying secrets, which slowly unravels itself & goes beyond vengeance in the end plus the deliberately ambiguous ending raises some moral questions of its own. On an overall scale, Oldboy is a disturbing, unsettling & violent cinema from South Korea that will traumatize most of its viewers with its harrowing & sickening depiction of revenge but then, there is also no denying that with its remarkable blend of impeccable direction, clever screenplay, arresting photography, tight editing, amazing performances & classic score, it’s also one of the greatest films ever made. A haunting masterpiece. Strongly recommended.