Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Stewart Sutherland of Podcast on Fire..
‘Korean revenge thrillers’ probably bring one name to mind – Park Chan-wook. Park’s Vengeance trilogy shook the world and for many years the genre has been his, although experimental “genre master” director Kim Jee-woon introduced the world to his take on the modern revenge thriller with I Saw The Devil, which turned out so shocking it was at risk of receiving “Restricted” rating, preventing any sort of release in theatres or on home video in its home country. So the big question is what the hell is it about?
Korean screen icon Choi Min-sik portrays the embodiment of pure evil that is Kyung-chul, the killer without a cause! On one snowy night he finds and murders his latest victim, Ju-yeon. the daughter of a retired police captain and the loving fiancé of a extremely dangerous federal agent named Soo-hyun.
Award winning actor and style icon Lee Byung-hun plays Soo-hyun, after the distressing events revolving around the murder of his fiancé he takes a leave of absence from his post and concentrates on an investigation into finding the monster. Soo-hyun finally discovers Kyung-chul in the midst of another conquest; he beats Kyung-chul within an inch of his life and leaves him! Kyung-chul awakens battered and bruised, deciding to lead his life as if it’s his last day. Although, Soo-hyun begins haunting Kyung-chul on his trails, thoughtfully tracking and beating him, becoming Kyung-chuls own devil.
I Saw the Devil takes the Murder/Revenge story and portrays it in a blood soaked rollercoaster of emotions that sickens you, but at the same time leaves you begging for more. The violence in the movie is horrific, not to be compared in the same vein as the SAW franchise. It’s not ‘over the top’ grotesque – it’s startlingly real: you can’t help but wince, shudder and you can’t jam your eyes shut enough when the variety of mindless brutality takes place on the screen in front of you.
The music you will find is as powerful as many notable Park Chan-wook films. Composer “Mowg” (yes, Mowg) sets the tone with dark, enthralling tones, but still keeps a beat to it, never letting the adrenaline simmer. His music accompanies the violence making the impact twice as powerful – the intensity in some of the final stand-offs are amazing, the variety of different instruments and it working exceptionally well with Lee Byung-huns depth of expressions. This soundtrack is truly astonishing.
Kim Jee-woon initially caught my attention with A Bittersweet Life, the movie struck up a continuing interest with the director and leading actor Lee Byung-hun. The Good, the Bad, the Weird proved that this director can produce a stunning body of work.
In 1998 Kim’s debut film The Quiet Family was released well recognized by new audience, even to the length where famous Japanese director Takashi Miike remade the film, as The Happiness of the Katakuris back in 2001. Kims second feature jumps genre into a sports comedy revolving around Wrestling; The Foul King starring Song Kang-ho attracted over two million admissions.
Kim has also worked on two notable short movies, the first being Coming Out, the story of a brother video taping his sisters “confession”, although the confession they hear is not what they expected. Luckily for the United Kingdom we can see this 40 minute short as a special feature on the 2-disc edition of The Quiet Family. His second short movie is actually Kims participation in the horror movie Three, where three different Asian film directors direct their own horror segment. Hong Kong director Peter Chan directed ‘Going Home’ based on a story by fellow director Teddy Chen starring Eric Tsang and Leon Lai. Thai director Nonzee Nimibutr contributed with ‘The Wheel’. Kim Jee-woon’s short (written and directed) was called ‘Memories’ and starred Kim Hye-su and Jeong Bo-seok
Each film Kim Jee-woon directs always seems vastly different compared to the last, so one of the big questions is does he get it right in the first go?
Director Kevin Smith once quoted a conversation with Quentin Tarantino after he had finished filming Kill Bill - Tarantino said he had finally understood how to make the perfect Kung Fu movie. Smith said the same thing after directing his first horror movie; Red State. Kim Jee-woon doesn’t seem to need this “trial run” from the recognition he has received from films such The Good, the Bad, the Weird and A Tale of Two Sisters. I Saw the Devil is his stab (pun intended, yes) at that well recognized genre in Korea, the Revenge movie. With films such as Bong Joon-ho’s Memories of Murder, Na Hong-jin’s The Chaser and Park Chan-wook set the bench mark with the Revenge movies in the Vengeance trilogy, Oldboy being the staple of the series.
The performances from both leading actors in I Saw The Devil are stellar. Choi Min-sik manages to make this the performance of his career after returning from a four absence from film. His portrayal of cold remorseless killer is chilling, stunningly convincing and award worthy – this man needs to be showered with recognition! Choi’s characters’ appearance eerily channels Robert De Niro’s character Max Cady from 1991s Cape Fear: the crazed persona, the subtle dress sense. When interviewed Kim stated that they gathered research through a book that Francois Truffaut and Alfred Hitchcock talked about films from the horror and thriller genres, and how they portrayed devilish characters.
The first time Choi Min-sik caught my attention was through the insane response to his starring role in 2003′s OldBoy from director Park Chan-wook. Choi started his career acting in theatre and he appeared in a few lesser known films such as Our Twisted Hero and Kuro Arirang. It wasn’t until 1998 when début director Kim Jee-woon cast Choi Min-sik as the leading characters brother in The Quiet Family starring alongside Park In-hwan and Song Kang-ho that Choi’s popularity sky rocketed leading him into starring roles such as the villain in Shiri – Korea’s first attempt at a Hollywood-style action blockbuster which broke Korean Box Office records.
My personal recommendations would have to be his roles in both OldBoy as the great Oh Dae-su and his role as the English teacher Mr. Baek in the beautiful Sympathy for Lady Vengeance. One of Choi’s most notable starring roles outside of revenge thrillers is his role as Gang Tae-shik a silver medallist boxer who has turned into a human punch bag after dealing with debt collectors and a failed marriage in Ryu Seung-wan’s Crying Fist.
In I Saw The Devil Lee Byung-hun almost channels his persona from the great A Bittersweet Life and the incredible physical strength and skill of his character Storm Shadow in G.I. Joe! Yes, I’ve referenced G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. Lee shows incredible acting depth in the simplest distance stares, this actor can change a mood of a scene just by moving his eyes, it’s incredible.
Lee Byung-hun started his career by starring in Korean television dramas, but it wasn’t until his starring role in Park Chan-wooks incredible achievement Joint Security Area starring alongside Lee Young-ae and Song Kang-ho. One of Lee’s strongest dramas is Addicted from 2002 and directed by Park Young-hoon. Addicted follows the story of two brothers who end up in two separate car accidents leaving the older brother in a coma, while the younger brother (Lee Byung-hun) is left to comfort his elders wife. It’s a powerful drama which even earned an American remake titled, Possession, which was released in 2009 starring Sarah Michelle Gellar and Lee Pace.
Lee’s first movie with Kim Jee-woon is the stunning noir mobster film A Bittersweet Life which gained both men world recognition from the 2005 Cannes Film Festival and led Lee onto winning three Best Actor awards from different award ceremonies across South Korea. In A Bittersweet Life bitter Gangland boss, Mr. Kang (played by Kim Yeoung-cheol in his first film for fourteen years) has suspicions that his girlfriend is cheating on him. He sends his right hand man Sun-woo (Lee) to “sort out” this problem. But when he finds the girl with another man Sun-woo doesn’t kill them. This ticks off the gang boss and now Sun-woo finds out the he now has to fight against the mob as well as Mr. Kang!
As you could expect A Bittersweet Life was my favourite film starring Lee also on par with G.I. Joe. Okay, no I’m sorry, just kidding – Lee’s A Bittersweet Life performance is on par with his role as deadly outlaw / hitman “The Bad” Park Chang-yi, in The Good, the Bad, the Weird. Co-starring with Jung Woo-sung as sharp shooting bounty hunter “The Good” Park Do-won and of course the lovable Song Kang-ho takes upon the role of oddball thief Yoon Tae-goo alias; “The Weird”.
Lee Byung-Hun then appeared on screen across the world in the most unlikely movie franchise: G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra . Lee took the role of the villain Storm Shadow across from Channing Tatum, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Marlon Wayans. The movie looked cringe-worthy, but must have struck a cord with its audience as a sequel is currently in development. The Hollywood Reporter confirmed that Lee will return reprising his role starring alongside addition cast members; Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Bruce Willis.
I have to admit that Lee’s role in I Saw the Devil has become a strong favourite, that is until G.I. Joe 2 comes out next year! Okay, no more Joe jokes! I promise.
Other supporting actors in A Saw The Devil include Soo-hyuns fiancé Je-yeon, played by Oh San-ha. Devil is Oh’s first film, but she has worked with the biggest of four major Korean television networks; KBS on TV Dramas such as Magic Fighter Mir & Gaon and Salmon Dream. Oh’s on screen father is played by Jeon Gook-haun – who will most recently be known for his role as Shadow in 2010s Secret Reunion starring Song Kang-ho and directed by Jang Hun. Jeon’s character Jang is a retired captain of the violent crimes section who uses his connections to provide files on suspects to help Soo-hyun. Jang also has a younger on-screen daughter played by Kim Yoon-seo – another actress who started Korean Dramas such as Tamara, the Island and this year in SBS’s Korean drama Poseidon. Killer Kyung-chul even has a friend in this film, “an old hunting buddy” by the name of Tae-ju and played by Choi Moo-seong, a bit part actor who has appeared in various films such The Servant and Missing Person back in 2008.
I Saw The Devil has taken everything and everyone to a higher level; Choi Min-sik’s performance shows that he has broken away from his OldBoy persona and Lee Byung-hun has surpassed his terrific performance in A Bittersweet Life. Kim Jee-woon, who seems to only make one movie in each genre, I would love to see how you could expect to out-do yourself in the Revenge thriller.
The most notable piece of controversy surrounding the film was the producers originally releasing the film with an 18+ Rating, the highest rating to films approved for public release in Korea, here based on “humanitarian grounds”. Minor edits were made and they sent it back for another rating and on the second verdict the film was rated for a Limited Screening only in Adult Theatres showing “Adult Films” however at this time there was no ‘Adult’ Theatres in South Korea! Essentially this meant that the movie was banned from a cinema and video release in its home country. The film eventually saw its initial release after final edit removing 80-90 seconds.
To confirm what scenes have been cut out between versions is very difficult to tell – according to several different Festival reviews certain scenes were cut out and restored in different countries. The version of the film played in Korean Cinemas apparently had scenes of body parts being eaten by a dog and humans, as well as more scenes of a human body being mutilated. The US release had violent scenes reinstated, but a rape scene was removed. Whilst certain sources (online message boards) claim (again, message boards) that the films screening at the 2010 Toronto International Film was uncut, yet Kim Jee-woon was quoted in an interview saying that the film was rated ’14′ in Canada! At this point who can really tell anymore!?
Ever since Kim released A Bittersweet Life, he has become one of those festival film makers: you know when ever he releases a movies as you’ll see at Sundance, Cannes, Glasgow, Edinburgh, London, Toronto, festivals the world over. I Saw the Devil followed in this same path.
In the United Kingdom, the British premiere of I Saw the Devil was on November 6th at the 2010 London Korean International Film Festival. Played alongside The Man from Nowhere, both films were shown at the prestigious Odeon Cinema in London’s West end. Kim Jee-woon attended the premiere in person and after the showing he took part in a Q & A session with the sold-out audience. When asked in an interview Kim revealed that the version of the film playing at this Festival was partially restored at parts that were missing from the South Korean release, but also revealed that he made some minor edits in order to improve the films pacing.
Following the London Korean film Festival screening, I Saw The Devil was shown at the Glasgow Film Festival as part of their Film4 Fright Fest line-up on Friday 25th February alongside Little Deaths – a three part horror film from three different British horror directors (possibly similar to Three / Three Extreme films?) and Mark Hartley’s documentary Machete Maidens Unleashed!
Outside the Festival scene, I Saw the Devil had a selected cinema in the US handled by Magnet / Magnolia Pictures who released it over 20 different cinemas back in early March 2011. Magnolia Pictures previously released Bong Joon-ho’s crime thriller Mother and John Woo’s period epic Red Cliff. Magnet released a DVD and Blu-Ray set in May and special features on both formats include; “Deleted Scenes” and a Making Of Doc titled; Raw and Rough: Behind the Scenes of I Saw The Devil. I do have to admit that the DVD / Blu-ray artwork for the US Release is awesome: it has Lee Byung-Hun staring with a silhouette of a large kitchen knife covering the right side of his face, in the silhouette though is the right-hand side Choi Min-Siks face in a demonic red light.
Online two different movie posters were released – the first is our leads staring through a shower of blood with the title frantically scratched across. Effective, yes. The second poster shows Choi Min-sik standing in the snow with the bloody axe beside his yellow van, although the from the waist up he is hidden by the snowy darkness. The text on this particular poster resembles The Social Network’s “You don’t get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies”, replaced with the slim-lined text conveying the films title as well as it’s leading cast and the eerie tagline “EVIL LIVES INSIDE”.
The United Kingdom had a limited cinema run of I Saw The Devil on April 29th by Optimum Releasing and was released on DVD and Blu-Ray on May 9th 2011. Both DVD and Blu-Ray come with Directors Commentary, ‘Making Of’ (roughly 18 minutes), an Interview Gallery w/ the director and the two leads (clocks in at 20 minutes) and a trailer gallery. The UK-based distributor (now renamed StudioCanal Ltd) previously released Bong Joon-ho’s mutant thrill ride The Host and has recently distributed the creature feature Chaw.
Now isn’t it about time you See the Devil? Or at least Rent him?
Stewart Sutherland
Council Slave, Trainee Projectionist, Fulltime Lover and I guess I’m also considered the founder of the Podcast on Fire Network. Follow me on , where I don’t tweet anything noteworthy. I also have 2 cats. I wish I had a dog.
