I Saw the Devil (Korean: 악마를 보았다, Akmareul boattda ) is a 2010 South Korean thriller film directed by Kim Ji-woon, written by Park Hoon-jung and starring Lee Byung-hun and Choi Min-sik. The film premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival and had a limited U.S theatrical release.^[3][4] The film was Choi Min-sik's first major role since his self-imposed exile in protest of the changes to the Korean screen quota system.^[5] The film has received mostly positive reviews.

Plot[link]

During a snowy night, the car of Joo-yun (Oh San-ha) gets a flat tire and Kyung-chul (Choi Min-sik) drives up and offers to help fix her tire. Joo-yun turns down the request. However, she does not know that Kyung-chul is a sadistic murderer, and he ends up kidnapping her and brutally kills her. Afterwards, Kyung-chul cuts Joo-yun into pieces and scatters her body parts. The next day, a boy encounters one of Joo-yun's severed ears, and the police are called in to find the rest of the body, under the command of Section Chief Oh (Cheon Ho-jin) and Squad Chief Jang (Jeon Kuk-hwan), who is the father of Joo-yun. After it is confirmed that Joo-yun is the victim, her fiancée, Soo-hyun (Lee Byung-hun), who is a secret agent, becomes determined to track down and take vengeance against Joo-yun's murderer, even if he is forced to become a monster himself.

After receiving a list of potential killers from Jang, Soo-hyun receives Kyung-chul's location from his son, whom he has abandoned and sent to live with his grandparents. Upon finding his fiancée's wedding ring in Kyung-chul's home, Soo-hyun attacks him in his greenhouse, while Kyung-chul is raping one of his would-be victims. After suffocating him until he passes out and breaking his wrist, Soo-hyun places a transmitter inside Kyung-chul, so he can find his exact location and listen to his conversations. Waking up, Kyung-chul goes to a hospital where he sexually assaults a nurse, only to be again attacked by Soo-hyun, who severs his achilles tendon.

Kyung-chul goes to the home of his friend Tae-joo (Choi Moo-sung), a cannibalistic murderer, for a place to stay. After explaining his situation, Tae-joo remarks that whoever is after him must have some relation towards one of his victims. Through the transmitter, Soo-hyun arrives at the house, where he proceeds to incapacitate both murderers and Tae-joo's girlfriend Se-jung (Kim In-seo). The next day, both Tae-joo and Se-jung are found by the police and sent to a hospital. Meanwhile, Kyung-chul is sent to a private medical area where he and Soo-hyun are treated for the their wounds by a trusted subordinate of Soo-hyun's. However, a barely conscious Kyung-chul manages to learn about the transmitter inside him.

While Soo-hyun is buying painkillers, Kyung-chul taunts him over the transmitter, now knowing who he is and how he's being tracked. To make Soo-hyun lose track of him, Kyung-chul injures a clerk, defecates out the transmitter, and places it inside a taxi driver he assaults, and then steals his car. Determined to find out where Kyung-chul is going, Soo-hyun interrogates Tae-joo and learns that Kyung-chul is going after Joo-yun's family; Jang and Joo-yun's sister Se-yun (Kim Yun-seo). Afterward, Kyung-chul intends to turn himself over to the police.

Soo-hyun arrives too late to stop Kyung-chul, who blinds Jang with a dumbbell and murders Se-yun. However, he manages to prevent the police from capturing Kyung-chul by abducting him before Oh and his men can reach him. Soo-hyun brings Kyung-chul to his old home, where he states his intent to only kill Kyung-chul when he is filled with fear and pain. Eventually, Soo-hyun sets up a guillotine above Kyung-chul's head that will be activated when his parents or son open the door to the room he is in. Placing a new transmitter nearby, Soo-hyun's hears the death of Kyung-chul and his family's reaction to his decapitated corpse. He attempts to walk away from the house, but breaks down crying on the street.

Cast[link]

• Lee Byung-hun as Soo-hyun
• Choi Min-sik as Kyung-chul
• Jeon Kuk-hwan as Squad Chief Jang
• Cheon Ho-jin as Section Chief Oh
• Oh San-ha as Joo-yun
• Kim Yun-seo as Se-yun
• Choi Moo-sung as Tae-joo
• Kim In-seo as Se-jung

Alternate versions[link]

The Korea Media Rating Board forced Kim to recut the film for its theatrical release, objecting to its violent content. Otherwise, the film would have received a "Restricted" rating, preventing any sort of release in theaters or on home video.^[6] Seven cuts were made with the total run time of removed material between eighty and ninety seconds.^[7] It was made available in its original form in other countries.

Reception[link]

I Saw The Devil was released in South Korea on August 12, 2010. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on 21 January, 2011.^[8] 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]

American distribution rights were acquired by Magnet Releasing which released it in theatres on a limited basis on March 4, 2011.^[10]

Critical[link]

The film was met with generally positive reviews. Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a rating of 81% based on 72 reviews, with an average score of 7.2/10. However, Rotten Tomatoes' selected top critics gave the film a mixed rating of 55% based on 11 reviews. Metacritic assigned the film a score of 67%, based on a weighted average of 19 reviews from mainstream critics.

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."^[13]

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."^[14]

Rob Nelson from Variety magazine stated that "Repugnant content, grislier than the ugliest torture porn, ought to have made the film unwatchable, but it doesn't, simply because Kim's pic is so beautifully filmed, carefully structured and viscerally engaging."^[15]

It was named one of the ten best pictures of 2011 by British movie magazine Total Film.^[16]

Awards and nominations[link]

2011 47th Paeksang Arts Awards^[17]

• Grand Prize Award for Film - Lee Byung-hun

2011 17th FANT-Bilbao Fantasy Film Festival^[18]

• Official Selection Best Film

2011 29th Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival^[19]

• Golden Raven

2011 5th Asian Film Awards^[20]

• Best Editing – Nam Na-young
• Nomination - Best Cinematographer - Mogae Lee

2011 31st Fantasporto Film Festival^[21]

• Fantasy section Best Director - Kim Ji-woon
• Orient Express sidebar Best Film

2011 Festival international du film fantastique de Gérardmer

• International Critic Choice Award
• Young Jury Award
• Public Choice Award

2010 31st Blue Dragon Film Awards

• Best Cinematography – Lee Mo-gae
• Best Music – Mowg
• Best Lighting – Oh Seung-chul
• Nomination – Best Leading Actor – Lee Byung-hun
• Nomination – Best Art Direction – Jo Hwa-sung
• Nomination – Technical Award – Jung Do-ahn, Lee Hee-kyung

2010 13th Director's Cut Awards

• Best Actor – Choi Min-sik

2010 47th Grand Bell Awards

• Best Lighting – Oh Seung-chul
• Nomination – Best Actor – Lee Byung-hun
• Nomination – Best Actor – Choi Min-sik
• Nomination – Best Film

2011 Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Awards

• Nomination - Best Foreign Film

2011 Houston Film Critics Awards

• Best Foreign Film

2011 St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association Awards

• Pending - Best Foreign Film

2011 Austin Film Critics Association^[22]

• Best Foreign Language Film
• Top 10 Films

Home media[link]

The film was released on DVD in South Korea on 29 March, 2011 as a 3 disc set, which contains both the Korean theatrical version and international version.^[23]

Special features include:

• Making Of
• Art Direction
• Action Featurette
• Costume and Makeup
• Special Makeup
• Interview Collection
• Music Featurette
• Additional Scenes with Director Commentary
• Poster Shoot

It was released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc in the US on May 10, 2011 which will include deleted scenes and "HDNet: A Look at I Saw the Devil".^[24]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official Korean website
• Official U.S. Site
• Official Facebook Page
• I Saw the Devil at the Internet Movie Database
• I Saw the Devil at the Korean Movie Database
• I Saw the Devil at HanCinema
• I Saw the Devil at Rotten Tomatoes
• I Saw the Devil at AllRovi
• I Saw the Devil at Metacritic
• AMP Movie Review
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