rapoon wrote:The director (Jee-woon Kim, very well known director) intended for the film to have a very straightforward
and simple plot. What makes the films unique is instead of simply putting a bullet in the villains (Min-sik Choi) head, he plays with
him throughout the entire film. We don't watch the protagonist aimlessly run around for 90 minutes searching for clues. Instead,
scene by scene you watch these men tear each others lives apart and inflict as much pain as possible on one another. The protagonist,
in the process of exacting revenge, slowly destroys himself and compromises those around him: yes, in order to kill a monster,
you must become a monster. You know exactly what's going on within the first 15 minutes of the film and it never stops; the tension
constantly escalates then finally climaxes at the very end. The film is relentless, uncompromising and unsettling. There are no twists or
cliffhangers. It's a brutal thriller that's exceptionally long. I *thought* that anyone who enjoyed the Vengeance Trilogy would
love this film. Guess not. Glad DEL liked it.
Min-sik Choi is fucking incredible as the psychopathic villain; his performance is reason enough to see the film. The protagonist,
Byung-hun Lee (A Bittersweet Life, The Good, the Bad, the Weird, J.S.A. <-- Chan-Wook film) doesn't give his best performance
but it's hardly shit. The director knew exactly what he was doing with the film and the direction he was going.
"I Saw the Devil" is loaded with gratuitous violence and brutality. That's a valid criticism of the film. But those scenes exist to make
the viewer uncomfortable and to sympathize with the protagonist. Criticizing the films violence then recommending any film from the
"Vengeance Trilogy" is silly. Oldboy, Lady/Mr. Vengeance are all littered with over the top violence. It's hardly art. Chan-Wook
and Jee-woon flood your eyeballs with these terrible scenes to get a point across: sympathy.
I firmly stand by my recommendation, regardless of whether or not you enjoyed the "Vengeance Trilogy." I think anyone considering
seeing the film should read other reviews; there's a laundry list of amateur and "professional" reviews praising the film. There are also plenty
of reviews bashing the film for it's pointless brutality and vapid plot.
I don't give a toss about professional critics or otherwise. I gave up on listening to them years ago. I'll go as far as to accept that they're employed, and that's about it.
You took more from the movie than exists within it. Min-sik Choi was good, he always is because he can act - even if the material is thin on the ground and he spends 2.5 hours essentially repeating himself over and over. Byung-hun Lee on the other hand was completely useless. He managed to get through the entire turmoil by exhibiting one expression (one that shouldn't be misunderstood as grim determination, this guy obviously graduated from the 'plank of wood' acting academy.)
I find that hard to swallow. If so he could have made it a simple film. It's only simple in its mentality and its failure to keep a theme: is it serious, sinister, scary, violent, sensationalist, gratuitous, comedic or action hero material? It's all of the above, and loses any believability rapidly. The script is badly formed: there's an entire police force hunting a single guy who is leaving bodies all over the place with no attempt to mark his tracks for days on end - yet they can't pin him down until he gives himself up. But we're expected to ignore that aspect and just focus on the cat and mouse between the central two characters.The director (Jee-woon Kim, very well known director) intended for the film to have a very straightforward
and simple plot.
Not really. The film plays its best tension cards very early on. It begins to peter out quickly after about an hour when the chase begins, because it repeats itself over and over and over. By the end I was fidgety and bored, the graphic violence being overused to the point of tedium. I got to the point where I felt the film was so superficial, I didn't care a damn about another cracking skull or decapitation, or long, rambling, blood-spitting monologue.yes, in order to kill a monster, you must become a monster. You know exactly what's going on within the first 15 minutes of the film and it never stops; the tension constantly escalates then finally climaxes at the very end.
One of the biggest problems with the film and its superficiality, was that it extended to the characters. Min-sik Choi was a twisted killer that, in the beginning, looked like he might go somewhere - but by the end he was totally one-dimensional and completely devoid of any depth. There was nothing interesting in his psyche, he was a character that warranted no investigation or thinking about in any real degree. That was an enormous failure by the director and scriptwriter, who just went for totally surface level kicks that roamed between overtly sexual and graphically violent.
In a film like The Vanishing (Spoorloos), which has very similar themes, the protagonists both have a huge amount of depth. The psyche of the killer is fascinating because of how you can relate to him in ordinary life, and the film is far more accomplished and sinister than I Saw the Devil, and genuinely unnerving.
I felt a bit like I'd wasted my time watching this one. It was big load of nothing, blown up into just more nothing. The violence was pointless, the plot was aimless, the developments repetitious, the characters vacant.
You misunderstood my previous point too: I didn't criticise the film's violence, I criticised its use. It was violence for violence sake, it offered nothing to the movie whatsoever except to cheaply engage the viewer with disturbing imagery. Chan Wook Park has similar violence (although not as excessive), but his movies are far more accomplished in their own right, therefore the violence in his vengeance trilogy have more purpose.
I don't know why you would recommend this movie to people who like Park's Vengeance trilogy. I Saw the Devil is just a tearaway movie devoid of depth, and falls woefully short of accomplishing itself as anything except vapid sensationalism. That's not enough of a substitute for all the things it lacks.
)
| My games - 
I've recommended it to several friends. They either love it or hate it. 
) It managed to hold her interest for the films duration at least. 
.....subjectivity exists within the mind.....
Dude, it's hopeless. I don't know why I continue to bother, but here goes one last (probably foolish at this point) attempt to get you to realize that you are incorrect.
