2010 South Korean action thriller film
I Saw the Devil
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Theatrical release poster
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Hangul
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Hanja
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Literal meaning
| Saw an angma (evil spirit, demon)
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Revised Romanization
| Angmareul boatda
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McCune?Reischauer
| Akmar?l poatta
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Directed by
| Kim Jee-woon
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Written by
| Park Hoon-jung
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Produced by
| Kim Hyun-woo
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Starring
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Cinematography
| Lee Mo-gae
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Edited by
| Nam Na-yeong
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Music by
| Mowg
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Production
companies
| - Peppermint & Company
- SoftBank Ventures Korea
- Finecut
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Distributed by
| Showbox
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Release date
|
- 12 August 2010
(
2010-08-12
)
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Running time
| 144 minutes
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Country
| South Korea
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Language
| Korean
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Budget
| US$6 million
[1]
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Box office
| US$12.9 million
[2]
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I Saw the Devil
(
Korean
:
惡魔를 보았다
) 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 (Lee), who embarks on a quest for revenge when his wife is brutally murdered by the psychopathic serial killer Jang Kyung-chul (Choi).
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
.
[3]
The film received generally favourable reviews from the critics.
[4]
I Saw the Devil
was Choi Min-sik's first major role since the changes to the
Korean screen quota system
.
[5]
Plot
[
edit
]
A school-bus driver named Jang Kyung-chul encounters a woman named Jang Joo-yun and offers to fix her flat tire. After beating her unconscious and bringing her to his home, Kyung-chul methodically dismembers her, unaware of her ring dropping and getting stuck in the drain. Kyung-chul scatters the body parts into a local stream, where it is discovered, prompting the police to conduct a search led by Squad Chief Jang, Joo-yun's father. Her fiance, Kim Soo-hyun, an
NIS
officer, vows to take revenge against the murderer.
After learning of the four suspects from Jang, Soo-hyun privately interrogates two of them. Upon searching the home of Kyung-chul, the third suspect, Soo-hyun finds Joo-yun's ring. A short time later, Kyung-chul brings a schoolgirl home and assaults her. Soo-hyun beats him unconscious. Instead of killing Kyung-chul, Soo-hyun forces him to swallow a
tracker
, allowing him to track Kyung-chul's movements and listen to his conversations.
Waking up, Kyung-chul is offered a ride by a
taxi
already containing one passenger. Noticing their ill intent, Kyung-chul attacks first. After murdering them, he throws out the bodies onto the side of the road. He drives to a clinic to have his wounds looked at. After being treated, he proceeds to sexually assault a nurse. Soo-hyun arrives, subdues him and slashes his
Achilles tendon
before leaving. At this point, Soo-hyun's intention became clear: he wants to torture Kyung-chul for as long as possible.
Kyung-chul visits the home of his friend Tae-joo, a murderer and
cannibal
. After learning of the situation, Tae-joo remarks that his tormentor must be related to one of his victims. Kyung-chul deduces Soo-hyun's identity. Soo-hyun arrives and incapacitates both murderers along with Tae-joo's girlfriend Se-jung. The next day, Tae-joo and Se-jung, still unconscious, are arrested by the police and sent to the hospital.
Elsewhere, Soo-hyun and Kyung-chul receive treatment for their wounds, aided by Soo-hyun's trusted subordinate to evade the police. Kyung-chul wakes up and overhears Soo-hyun and the subordinate talking about the transmitter. After being released, Kyung-chul steals and uses laxatives to excrete the transmitter, then plants it on a driver at a truck stop. Soo-hyun enters Tae-joo's hospital room to question him, and learns that Kyung-chul is going after Squad Chief Jang and his other daughter Jang Se-yun. Enraged, Soo-hyun breaks Tae-joo's jaw.
Kyung-chul arrives at the house of Jang, brutally assaults him, then kills Jang Se-yun. He then attempts to avoid Soo-hyun's revenge by surrendering to the police. However, Soo-hyun kidnaps Kyung-chul right in front of the police's eyes. At Kyung-chul's house, Soo-hyun tortures him, places him under a
makeshift guillotine
, and leaves him holding a rope between his teeth to keep the blade from falling.
Though he mocks Soo-hyun, Kyung-chul begins to panic when he learns that his son and elderly parents, whom he had abandoned some time ago, have arrived and are trying to visit him. As his family opens the door, it triggers another mechanism that drops the blade and beheads Kyung-chul in front of his family. Soo-hyun breaks down in tears as he walks away.
Cast
[
edit
]
Alternate versions
[
edit
]
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.
[7]
Seven cuts were made with the total runtime of removed material between eighty and ninety seconds.
[8]
Release
[
edit
]
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.
[3]
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.
[9]
North American distribution rights were acquired by
Magnet Releasing
which released it on a
limited basis
on March 4, 2011.
[10]
[11]
Optimum Releasing
distributed the film in the United Kingdom.
[12]
Critical reception
[
edit
]
The
review-aggregation
website
Rotten Tomatoes
gives the film a score of 81%, with an average of 7.2/10, based on 86 reviews from critics. The website's consensus says: "Never flinching during its descent into depravity,
I Saw The Devil
is a pulverizing thriller that will give bloody satisfaction to audiences who like their revenge served with fiery rage."
[13]
On
Metacritic
, the film received "generally favorable reviews," with a
weighted average
of 67 out of 100, based on 19 reviews.
[4]
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 Mo-gae
, retain complete control of the film’s fluctuating tones and impressive set pieces."
[14]
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."
[15]
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."
[16]
Bloody Disgusting
's Brad Miska gave it a rating of four-and-a-half out of five, writing: "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,"
[17]
whereas
Empire
rated the film four out of five, stating, "This gleefully black
horror
-thriller is a very classy follow-up to
The Good, the Bad, the Weird
for Kim Jee-Woon."
[18]
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.
[19]
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 (written by Park Hoon-jung and adapted by Kim) is unworthy of his efforts" and rated it two out of five stars.
[20]
Elizabeth Kerr of
The Hollywood Reporter
wrote that, "On any number of levels,
Devil
is troublesome at best, offensive at worst."
[21]
In 2014,
Rolling Stone
magazine put
I Saw the Devil
in the top 20 of "the scariest movies you've never seen."
[22]
In 2019, Jim Vorel of
Paste
named it the best horror film of 2010, writing of its ultimate conclusion: "It's one of the great, empty victories of horror cinema in the 2010s, and should be seen by a larger audience."
[23]
Awards and nominations
[
edit
]
Home media
[
edit
]
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.
[24]
The DVD and
Blu-ray
for the US and Canadian markets were released on May 10, 2011.
[25]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"I Saw the Devil - Screened"
. Archived from
the original
on 2012-06-26
. Retrieved
2012-09-10
.
- ^
I Saw the Devil
at
Box Office Mojo
- ^
a
b
"Sundance Film Festival 2011 : I Saw the Devil"
. Archived from
the original
on 2011-02-19
. Retrieved
2011-02-26
.
- ^
a
b
"Metacritic: I Saw the Devil"
.
Metacritic
.
CBS
. Retrieved
2011-08-18
.
- ^
Brown, Todd (28 May 2010).
"
I Saw the Devil
Teaser Arrives"
. Archived from
the original
on 13 December 2011
. Retrieved
2 April
2012
.
- ^
Kang, Myoung-Seok (19 August 2010).
"Lee Byung-hun says "'Devil' makes you think of what you get out of revenge"
"
. Archived from
the original
on 3 January 2013
. Retrieved
23 June
2012
.
- ^
Sunhee, Han (9 August 2010).
"Korea restricts 'Devil'
"
.
Variety
.
- ^
Brown, Todd (13 August 2010).
"I SAW THE DEVIL Trimmed By Seven Cuts, Not By Seven Minutes"
. Twitch. Archived from
the original
on 2011-04-12
. Retrieved
2011-03-10
.
- ^
"I Saw the Devil (2010)"
– via www.imdb.com.
- ^
Truong, Peggy (16 September 2010).
"Magnet sees 'Devil'
"
.
Variety
. Retrieved
5 July
2019
.
- ^
Daley, Ryan (29 January 2011).
"Sundance '11 REVIEW: A Second Look at 'I Saw the Devil'
"
.
Bloody Disgusting
.
- ^
Sunhee, Han (31 May 2010).
"Optimum nabs 'I Saw the Devil'
"
.
Variety
. Retrieved
5 July
2019
.
- ^
"I Saw the Devil"
.
Rotten Tomatoes
.
Flixster
. Retrieved
12 September
2019
.
- ^
Catsoulis, Jeannette (3 March 2011).
"
'I Saw the Devil' - Review"
.
The New York Times
.
- ^
Olsen, Mark (4 March 2011).
"Movie review: 'I Saw the Devil'
"
.
Los Angeles Times
.
- ^
Nelson, Rob (20 September 2010).
"I Saw the Devil"
.
Variety
.
- ^
"I Saw the Devil"
.
Bloody Disgusting
. 20 January 2011.
- ^
"I Saw the Devil"
.
Empire
.
- ^
"I Saw the Devil"
.
The Guardian
.
- ^
"I Saw the Devil"
.
Washington Post
. Archived from
the original
on 2011-01-20.
- ^
"I Saw the Devil"
.
The Hollywood Reporter
.
- ^
Koresky, Michael; Geist, Brandon; Hynes, Eric; Rocchi, James; Newman, Jason; Collins, Sean T. (29 October 2014).
"20 Scariest Horror Movies You've Never Seen"
.
Rolling Stone
. Archived from
the original
on 21 November 2017
. Retrieved
11 June
2015
.
- ^
Vorel, Jim (22 October 2019).
"The Best Horror Movie of 2010: I Saw the Devil"
.
Paste
. Retrieved
22 October
2021
.
- ^
"YESASIA: I Saw the Devil (DVD) (3-Disc) (First Press Limited Edition) (Korea Version) DVD - Lee Byung Hun, Choi Min Sik, Planis - Korea Movies & Videos - Free Shipping"
.
www.yesasia.com
.
- ^
Calonge, Juan (9 March 2011).
"I Saw the Devil Blu-ray Announced"
.
Blu-ray.com
. Retrieved
6 October
2019
.
External links
[
edit
]
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