#48 We just watched this on Netflix streaming: I Saw the Devil

The Film: I Saw the Devil

Here we have it folks, another masterpiece from South Korea. South Korea just seems to come out with fucking classics. I mean, I talk about the Mexican New Wave to a fault, but maybe I should be talking anout the Korean New Wave…I might like them more. Movies like Oldboy, The Chaser, The Good, the Bad, and the Weird, Spring Summer Autumn Winter…and Spring, Thirst, Lady Vengeance, Joint Security Area, and the list goes fucking on.

Creavity has no boundries in South Korean cinema. I’ve read that the influx of masterpieces is due to the S.Korean government backing the movie industry with tons of money. Regardless of the reason, the movies are fantastic.

I Saw The Devil is a great movie. It is a typical “cat and mouse” mystery, but with emotional considerations and violence that will shake you to the core.

The plot is that a secret agent finds out his wife has been murdered and he goes after the killer, but doesn’t murder him. Instead, he leaves him alive for reasons that only being to reveal themselves.

Why to watch it: Well, I hate to this, the effective use of gore and violence.

Let’s talk about gore and violence for a second — violence and gore is a good thing. But take Human Centipede, a movie thats entire premise is based around three people ass-to-mouthing it. Great!

But there was no story there. No plot or execution. Just ass-to-mouth. It is an important lesson: Ass-to-mouth + no plot = Bad Movie. Fine.

What sets the violence and gore of I Saw The Devil apart from movies like that is it has uncompromising thematic implications, fantastic performances, and beautiful photography. Or, to put it another way: It is a great fucking movie. It is well made.

No movie shouldn’t be made because of excessive gore or violence, but movies like I Saw The Devil prove that gore and violence can be used for more than just shock value.

Pay attention to this:  The murky waters between good and evil.

We all wonder what we’d do if someone killed one of our loved ones (or maybe that is just me). Soo-hyun is put to the test when his wife is brutally murdered by a sadistic serial killer. He goes on a hunt and tortures possible suspects. When he finds the killer he doesn’t murder him, he only prolongs the killer’s pain before he eventually murders him. By the end we’re meant to wonder where revenge stops being justified and if we do evil against evil whether we might become evil ourselves.

This movie might be a masterpiece. I’m not sure…time will tell.

-Collin