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Released by: Magnolia Films
Released on: 5/10/2011
Director: Jee-Woon Kim
Cast: Choi Min-Sik, Lee Byung-hun
Year: 2010
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The Movie:
Directed by Kim Jee-Woon, 2010's I Saw The Devil begins when a pretty pregnant woman on her way to help out at an orphanage breaks down at the side of the road. She calls her fiance, a government agent named Kim Soo-hyeon (Lee Byung-hun), who tells her to stay in her car and wait for the tow truck. She agrees but soon a kindly looking stranger, Kyung-chul (Choi Min-Sik), arrives offering to help. She resists, and is soon knocked over the head, dragged through the snow, and taken back to his home where she's chopped into pieces. A day or two later some kids playing in a field find her ear, which leads to an investigation where her head is found.
Kim Soo-hyeon is understandably upset and decides that rather than let the cops deal with this, he'll take it upon himself to avenge his fiancés death. With some help he narrows things down to four suspects and sets out to singlehandedly take them down, tying up the first one he comes across and beating his testicles with a blunt object and in turn causing him to confess to a completely different crime. Eventually, through tracking down his parents, he finds Kyung-chul who, at the time of Kim's arrival, is in the midst of raping a schoolgirl in a greenhouse. Kim has the chance to kill Kyung-chul but instead beats him within an inch of his life, not delivering the final blow. When Kyung-chul goes to the doctor's to get treatment and winds up forcing himself on the nurse, Kim shows up again, this time severing his Achilles tendon but again, leaving him alive though this time telling him that 'it's just begun.' It soon becomes obvious that Kim is going to draw this out as long as he can and make it as painful for Kyung-chul as possible - but where will he draw the line and how far will he go?
Reuniting leading man Lee Byung-hun with director Jee-Woon Kim (they previously had a hit with the excellent crime drama A Bittersweet Life) and throwing Oldboy's Choi Min-Sik into the mix, I Saw The Devil seems brings together some remarkable talents from South Korea's film industry and the results are as impressive as you could hope for. While many will understandably criticize the film for its ultraviolent set pieces and plentiful scenes of sexualized violence against women, the picture never glamorizes it, instead, Jee-Woon Kim uses these grisly scenes to paint his characters in as deplorable a light as possible - and it works. The film hits like a brick to the head and doesn't pull any punches and as such, it depicts its unsettling subject manner in rather graphic detail. There are scenes here that will make you flinch and make you squirm and the movie is all the more effective for it.
Performance wise, Choi Min-Sik and Lee Byung-hun do all of the heavy lifting here. While the supporting cast members are all fine in their respective roles, it's these two who you'll walk away from remembering and both actors are excellent in their respective parts. Interestingly enough, it's Lee Byung-hun's 'good guy' who is the ice cold one here, while Choi Min-Sik's psychopathic rapist is actually a bit more emotional and seemingly more in touch with his humanity than his opponent. This is obviously a calculated move on the part of the performers who make the most of the clever script they've been given to work with here. Jee-Woon Kim keeps the pacing strong so that the two hour plus film never feels dull and is consistently engaging, while the film benefits from some stylish cinematography and excellent sound design. There's a whole lot of polish here, and this is just a really well made and well acted film all around.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Magnolia's AVC encoded 1080p high definition 1.85.1 widescreen transfer is strong and colorful. Eagle eyed viewers will note some mild edge enhancement in a few spots but aside from that this is a clean, detailed image that shows good contrast and strong black levels. There aren't any serious aliasing issues nor are there any issues with compression artifacts or banding. Print damage is pretty much non-existent and detail and depth are both strong from start to finish. You'll note the pock marks on Choi Min-Sik's face and the texture of the cloth on his flannel shirt in one scene, while you'll get a feel for the porous blood soaked stone floor in another.
As far as the audio options go, Magnolia offers up DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio mixes in the film's native Korean and dubbed in English with optional subtitles provided in English, English SDH and Spanish. As to the quality of the track? Pretty damn good. There's plenty of rear channel activity but not to the point of distraction, while left to right shifts in the front of the mix are frequent and effective (you'll notice this in an early scene involving some chains). The score is well handled, spread out through all five channels in the mix and using the subwoofer well, while the low end is strong and powerful without muddying things up or covering the dialogue. Really, the movie sounds excellent and you'll be hard pressed to find anything worth complaining about here.
There aren't a ton of extras but Magnolia has provided a twenty-seven featurette entitled Rough And Raw: Behind The Scenes Of I Saw The Devil. Here we're treated to some on set and behind the scenes footage as well as a few interviews, in Korean with English subtitles, with the cast and crew.
A batch of minor deleted scenes (24:50 worth) are also found on the disc (likely cut for pacing, though there are some fairly depraved bits in here that make Choi Min-Sik's character even more of a bastard), as are trailers for a few other Magnolia releases, animated menus, chapter stops, and an HD Net promo spot.
The Final Word:
Gripping and intense from the very start, I Saw The Devil turns out to be pretty intense stuff. Violent but smart, it's a disturbing film but a very well made one featuring some great performances and a few grisly set pieces you won't soon forget. Stylish and unsettling, consider this one essential viewing and Magnolia's Blu-ray release, though light on extras, is a great way to see it offering up a very strong transfer and excellent audio.
Click on the images below for full size Blu-ray screen caps!
