I saw the devil: Those awesome Korean movies you missed

Jee-Woo Kin is an incredible director. From film to film, he managed to touch almost any subject. The family drama diluted in terror sauce, Two Sisters, very Alejandro Amenábar.The fatalistic thriller and masterpiece A Bittersweet Life. The spaghetti western transferred to China, The Good, the Bad and the Crazy . Or The Age of Shadows, about the Japanese occupation. I saw the devil could be in line with what South Korea has been happy to reproduce in recent years. Namely, the ultra violent thriller where it is about revenge or settling scores. Or both. Here, a new deal is added: the good guy is not that nice. Jee-Woo Kin confronts two wild beasts who take turns playing cat and mouse, explores all the unimaginable evil, concentrated in the skin of a serial-killer. This is a new study on the realization of evil pushed to the extreme limit. And then, he does not go dead handed. You will see all colors, red, preferably.

History

A serial killer rapes, cuts up and kills (by this order) the fiancée of a secret agent. He vows revenge and a ruthless hunt begins. However, he lets him go again as soon as he manages to catch him.

Technical fact sheet

Director: Jee-woon Kim Screenplay: Park Jung Hoon Photography: Lee Mo-gae Year: 2010 Country: South Korea Duration: 141 min. Language: Korean With: Lee Byung-hun, Min-sik Choi

Impressions of I saw the devil

Too much, too much. Maybe even some of you will watch scenes out of the corner of your eye. Or not looking at them at all. Sensitive souls abstain. I saw the devil, which has been defined as "devastating and sadistic" is undoubtedly one of the most violent movies you will ever see in your entire life. And then, 141 min is a long time! Here, it's not about who will end up with whom, but the game. These 141 minutes are held by a most breathtaking interpretation of the two main actors (the female actresses are just there to be cut in the most excruciating suffering, oh, damn, I just told you three quarters of the film…!). Choi Min-Sik (Oldboy, Sympathy for Lady Vengeance) embodies the most infamous psychopath (and that's nothing) with the ferocity of a rabid hyena. The Joker, may God have his soul, was a child at heart next to him. Jee-woon Kim applied himself to show us two completely opposite men. One is a fierce animal, dressed in any way, sweat stains, sweat and the like, matching his empty eyes and dripping hair. It is filth, dirt, abomination. More believable in his role as the devil than other actors or fantasy figures. Finally, the kid from "The Exorcist" was to vomit, or Robert de Niro with his perfectly filed nails in "Angel heart", very scary. (And that egg in the hands representing the soul, the horror) But the more the film progresses, the more we wonder who saw the devil, and especially who is the devil. Lee Byung-Hun, you know him. This is the man behind the black mask of Squid game. With this beauty of ephebe (hard) that he luggs, he embodies this time a secret agent quite execrable also in his kind. Perfectly dressed, clean, impeccably shaved and coiffed, he swears on the bric-a-brac of his fiancée's remains, to inflict a thousand times the suffering she suffered on the killer. Then the hunt begins. He too is a more than rabid animal. Calculator, self-confident. One wonders if he was taken by a transient madness or if he was already a violent man. But I Met the Devil is not a film that would look into finesse and allow itself deepening in the analysis. We don't care why a cat plays with a mouse. What matters is that it's hypnotic. And obsessive. The more the mouse understands that it is going to die, the more excited the cat becomes. Lee Byung-Hun, Jee-woon Kim's favorite actor is able, just by his expressions (let's not forget, Asian, so quite discreet), to make us feel the slightest of his feelings. More expressive than Batman, (whose influences from the last episode, "The Dark Knight" by British director Christopher Nolan, are felt in I saw the devil) it is also more complete, more dynamic. With this charisma that characterizes him, he brings us with him in his diabolical vengeance. Sloppy ending, points that could have been more developed, too much carnage, I saw the devil is nevertheless an innovative experience by the subject but also by the way of filming. Almost always inside a car accentuating the fear of the other, I saw the devil is "still" a turning point of Korean cinema.