Rating of
3.5/4
Brilliant crime drama
Matthew Brady - wrote on 06/17/15
Detective Oh: "He can't become a monster to fight the monster".
The story is about a pregnant fiance is viciously murdered by a serial killer, a detective plots an elaborate and intricate revenge plot for the man responsible.
The one thing that always bugs me when I watch some movies is some the over the top violence's. It happens in most Hollywood horror movies were they try to show how brutal and dark they can get, put it just comes off torture porn. I think it's best for movies to have a reason for the use of gore and not make it mindless. The Human Centipede movies are a perfect example of what not to do with mixing gore and story. Until I sawed the 2010 film I Saw the Devil in which it has it's gory parts but it never felt like it's over doing it, and that's what I wanted for dark movies like this.
The director of the movie Ji-woon Kim who directed such movies like: The Good, The Bad and the Weird and The Last Stand. I only seen two of he's films and that's this movie and The Last Stand, but I haven't seen The Good, The Bad and the Weird yet. But anywhere Ji-woon Kim directed this movie with that sense of cold revenge which set up the tone perfectly for a film like this. Every shot in this movie is shot excellently and it's sometimes beauty and sometimes ugly, I mean this movie dose have a serial killer killing dozen of people and of course it's going to be ugly unless your Hannibal the TV show that you can make that ugliness into art, but it can be beauty with the open shot view of Korean even if it takes place in a environment of snow falling which is beauty to see or just outside. Ji-woon Kim directed the action scenes really well and smoothly and I got to say it's much better than most action movies are filmed today and I always love fight scenes from Korean or different kind of countries, because they fight scenes are quick, well performed, it get's you glued to the screen because it's that good and it's just awesome, and Ji-woon Kim did a excellent job directing at matching the tone and the action scene together perfectly.
Byung-hun Lee who I have seen before but not in such good movies like: The G.I Joe movies and Red 2. But in this movie I actually sawed him delivered a solid and heart breaking performance that Byung-hun Lee really humanist he's character that I can feel he's pain and fury against this killer who ruined his life. But without spoiling anything Byung-hun Lee crying at the end was hard not to laugh I mean he looked like he was smile or something, if you seen the movie then you know what I mean. Everything else was good but that cry at the end which made me laugh a little. Besides that Byung-hun Lee gave a strong performance that even I forget that cry at the end.
Choi Min Sik the main serial killer of the movie delivered both treating and a uncomfortable performance that at times made me think that he wasn't acting at all he was that good. He played the devil like serial killer so well that I can picture him in real life doing all these crimes. Choi Min Sik did a excellent performance in the movie that's chilling and unforgettable.
Now this movie does have a strong hold of blood and little bit of gore that some viewers may be turned off by. This movie isn't for everyone and I understand it may not be they type of movie to watch. I would only recommend this movie to people who love a dark gritty revenge film.
Now for the problems: What really took me out of the movie is how many times the serial killer get's smashed in the head by a metal object or by anything that can knock your teeth out or kill you. I'm not kidding you this guy is evil but still human and some many times he get's tortured a little bit and get's brutally injured in the head which starts bleeding, but somehow he's okay after that. I know it's a small little problem but to me it's big enough for me to talk about it.
Overall I Saw the Devil is a gritty crime drama that it's sometimes hard to watch and hard to take in with the level of grittiness that's in the movie, and that's what made this movie both great and brilliant.
