I Saw the Devil


I Saw the Devil is a 2010 South Korean action thriller film directed by Kim Jee-woon and written by Park Hoon-jung. Starring Lee Byung-hun and Choi Min-sik, the film follows NIS agent Kim Soo-hyun, who embarks on a quest of revenge when his fiancée is brutally murdered by the psychopathic serial killer Jang Kyung-chul. I Saw the Devil made its premiere in the United States at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival and had a limited U.S theatrical release.
I Saw the Devil was Choi Min-sik's first major role since the changes to the Korean screen quota system.

Plot

One snowy night, school-bus driver Jang Kyung-chul runs into a pregnant Jang Joo-yun and offers to fix her flat tire. After beating Joo-yun unconscious, Kyung-chul kills her with a makeshift guillotine at his home and scatters her body parts into a local stream. When a boy discovers one of Joo-yun's ears, the police are called in under the command of Section Chief Oh and Squad Chief Jang. Heartbroken, Kim Soo-hyun, a secret service agent of the National Intelligence Service and Joo-yun's fiancé, vows to track down and take vengeance on Joo-yun's murderer.
Jang supplies Soo-hyun with a list of suspects, including Kyung-chul. Searching Kyung-chul's home, Soo-hyun finds jewelry and underwear taken from numerous victims. The discovery of Joo-yun's engagement ring proves that Kyung-chul is the killer. Soo-hyun places a tracking device on the school bus, following and then attacking Kyung-chul while he is sexually assaulting his latest victim, one of the schoolgirls he was transporting home. Beating him unconscious, Soo-hyun places a NIS transmitter inside Kyung-chul, allowing him to track him on radar and listen to his conversations. Waking up, Kyung-chul finds that he has been given money by Soo-hyun, and flags down a taxi. During the ride, he realizes that the two men in the cab are thugs looking to rob and possibly kill him. He stabs both men to death. After finding the real taxi driver in the trunk, Kyung-chul disposes of all three bodies before going to a medical center, where he sexually assaults a nurse. Soo-hyun intervenes and slashes Kyung-chul's Achilles tendon before letting him go again.
Kyung-chul goes to the home of his friend Tae-joo, a cannibalistic murderer. After explaining his situation, Tae-joo remarks that whoever is after him must have some relation to one of his victims, and that the man is purposely torturing him rather than killing him in one go. Soo-hyun arrives, incapacitating both murderers along with Tae-joo's girlfriend Se-jung. The next day, Tae-joo and Se-jung are found by police and sent to a hospital. Soo-hyun's trusted subordinate ensures he and Kyung-chul are sent to a private medical area away from the police. The barely-conscious Kyung-chul hears them talk about the transmitter inside him.
Soo-hyun dumps Kyung-chul, intending to continue tormenting him. Kyung-chul taunts him over the transmitter, now knowing who he is. Though Soo-hyun locates Kyung-chul and attempts to give chase, Kyung-chul brutally assaults a pharmacist while searching for laxatives, forcing Soo-hyun to rush to the aid of the victim. Kyung-chul uses this time to defecate out the transmitter and place it inside a taxi driver he assaults. Soo-hyun interrogates Tae-joo and learns that Kyung-chul is going after Joo-yun's father Jang and sister Jang Se-yun, and that he plans to turn himself in before Soo-hyun can reach him.
Soo-hyun is too late to stop Kyung-chul, who brutally beats Jang with a dumbbell and mutilates Se-yun. He narrowly abducts Kyung-chul before he can give up himself to the police. Soo-hyun tortures him before setting Kyung-chul's guillotine above his head and leaving, stating this will complete his revenge. The guillotine is triggered when Kyung-chul's parents and son arrive and open the door. Soo-hyun hears the death of Kyung-chul and his family's reaction to his decapitated corpse from the transmitter he placed nearby. With Kyung-chul finally dead, Soo-hyun begins crying uncontrollably and breaks down.

Cast

The Korea Media Rating Board forced Kim to recut the film for its theatrical release, objecting to its violent content. The film received a "Restricted" rating twice, preventing any sort of release in theatres or on home video and promotions as well. Seven cuts were made with the total runtime of removed material between eighty and ninety seconds.

Release

I Saw the Devil was released in South Korea on August 12, 2010. The film premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival on 21 January 2011. It also received screenings at several other international film festivals, including the Fantasporto Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, Sitges Film Festival, San Sebastian Film Festival and the London Korean Film Festival.
North American distribution rights were acquired by Magnet Releasing which released it on a limited basis on March 4, 2011. Optimum Releasing distributed the film in the United Kingdom.

Critical reception

The review-aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 81%, with a weighted average of 7.13 out of 10, based on 83 reviews from critics. The website's "Critics Consensus" says the film is "Never flinching during its descent into depravity, a pulverizing thriller that will give bloody satisfaction to audiences who like their revenge served with fiery rage". On Metacritic the film received "Generally favorable reviews", with a weighted average of 67 out of 100, based on 19 reviews.
Jeannette Catsoulis of The New York Times wrote, "From an unexpectedly moving first act to a hilariously disgusting sojourn with Kyung-chul’s cannibal pal, Mr. Kim and his cinematographer, Lee Mogae, retain complete control of the film’s fluctuating tones and impressive set pieces." Mark Olson of the Los Angeles Times wrote, "There is all the violent mayhem, for certain, but the thing that sets I Saw the Devil apart is its undercurrent of real emotion and how unrelentingly sad it can be." Rob Nelson from Variety magazine stated, "Repugnant content, grislier than the ugliest torture porn, ought to have made the film unwatchable, but it doesn't, simply because Kim's picture is so beautifully filmed, carefully structured and viscerally engaging." Horror website Bloody Disgusting gave it a 4.5/5 rating and stated, "I could talk for hours about I Saw the Devil, but nothing I can say will ever do it justice. The film is an experience; it’s something that will have you emotionally invested in the characters, while also covering your eyes at the extreme violence", whereas Empire awarded the film with a 4/5 score, stating, "This gleefully black horror-thriller is a very classy follow-up to The Good, the Bad, the Weird for Kim Jee-Woon". Phelim O'Neil from The Guardian wrote, "There's no shortage of Korean revenge-thrillers, but this, along with the recent The Man from Nowhere, proves there is plenty of life left in the genre" and gave it a four star rating out five.
Not all critics were favorable towards the film's brutality; Mark Jenkins of The Washington Post wrote, "Director Kim Jee-woon is a born filmmaker, even if this script is unworthy of his efforts" and rated it 2 out of 5 stars. The Hollywood Reporter wrote, "On any number of levels, Devil is troublesome at best, offensive at worst".
Rolling Stone magazine put I Saw the Devil in the top 20 of "the scariest movies you've never seen".

Awards and nominations

AwardCategoryNomineeResult
Asian Film AwardsBest EditorNam Na-yeong
Asian Film AwardsBest CinematographerLee Mo-gae
Austin Film Critics AssociationBest Foreign Language FilmI Saw the Devil
Austin Film Critics AssociationBest FilmI Saw the Devil
Blue Dragon Film AwardsBest ActorLee Byung-hun
Blue Dragon Film AwardsBest CinematographyLee Mo-gae
Blue Dragon Film AwardsBest Art DirectionCho Hwa-sung
Blue Dragon Film AwardsBest MusicMowg
Blue Dragon Film AwardsTechnical AwardJeong Do-an, Lee Hee-kyung
2011 Baeksang Arts AwardsGrand Prize Lee Byung-hun
2011 Baeksang Arts AwardsBest ActorLee Byung-hun
Brussels International Festival of Fantasy FilmGolden RavenI Saw the Devil
Central Ohio Film Critics AssociationBest Foreign Language FilmI Saw the Devil
Fangoria Chainsaw AwardsBest Foreign Language FilmI Saw the Devil
Fangoria Chainsaw AwardsBest ActorChoi Min-sik
Fantasporto Film FestivalBest FilmI Saw the Devil
Fantasporto Film FestivalBest DirectorKim Jee-woon
Fright Meter AwardsBest Horror MovieI Saw the Devil
Fright Meter AwardsBest DirectorKim Jee-woon
Grand Bell AwardsBest FilmI Saw the Devil
Grand Bell AwardsBest ActorLee Byung-hun
Grand Bell AwardsBest ActorChoi Min-sik
Grand Bell AwardsBest CinematographyLee Mo-gae
Grand Bell AwardsBest LightingOh Seung-chul
Grand Bell AwardsBest Costume DesignKwon Yu-jin
Gérardmer Film FestivalAudience AwardI Saw the Devil
Gérardmer Film FestivalCritics AwardKim Jee-woon
Gérardmer Film FestivalSpecial Jury PrizeKim Jee-woon
Gérardmer Film FestivalYouth Jury Grand PrizeI Saw the Devil
Houston Film Critics Society AwardsBest Foreign Language FilmI Saw the Devil
Scream AwardsBest Horror MovieI Saw the Devil
Scream AwardsBest VillainChoi Min-sik
Scream AwardsBest Independent MovieKim Jee-woon
St. Louis Film Critics Association AwardsBest Foreign Language FilmI Saw the Devil
Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association AwardsBest Foreign Language FilmI Saw the Devil

Home media

The film was released on DVD as a three-disc set, which contains both the Korean theatrical version and international version, in South Korea on 29 March 2011. The DVD and Blu-ray for the US and Canadian markets were released on May 10, 2011.