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I Saw the Devil: Unrated
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray A - America - Magnolia Pictures Review written by and copyright: Andy James & Noor Razzak (22nd August 2011). |
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The Film
 Director Jee-woon Kim’s "I Saw the Devil" is a confronting, brutal and gruesome entry into the sub-genre of films focused on vengeance, and once again coming from South Korea. No punches are pulled and nothing is shied away from, creating a disturbing and haunting portrait of the true cost (and futility?) of vengeance. When Joo-yeon (San-ha Oh), the pregnant fiancee of dedicated cop/secret agent Kim Soo-hyeon (Byung-hun Lee) is brutally murdered by notorious serial killer Kyung-chul (Min-sik Choi) he sets about taking vengeance/justice into his own hands. That's the entire film in a nutshell, right there. But from that kernel (kernel? nut? What is it?!) a film of savage brutality and occasional, jarring beauty is crafted. The murder of Joo-yeon is utterly brutal and callous; body parts are strewn around Kyun-chul's killing floor, with Jee-woon Kim never shying away from showing the very real gruesome horror of a human being in bloody pieces. Even thinking about it now makes me a feel a little queasy, but this is all set-up and introduction into the twisted world of "I Saw the Devil". Kim Soo-hyeon feels at least partly responsible; he was, once again, away and unable to protect his love. He takes it upon himself to exact equal and bloody revenge upon her killer and methodically works his way towards Kyung-chul. To do so, he becomes something less than a man; he becomes a cold and driven vengeance machine determined to hunt Kyung-chul down and make him pay. The hunt for Kyung-chul is over relatively quickly, and Kim Soo-hyeon incapacitates him only to let him go; he's playing with Kyung-chul. Soo-hyeon can now track him and hurt him however, whenever and wherever he pleases. This is his vengeance: to hurt Kyun-chul as much as he hurt Joo-yeon. And this raises incredibly troubling issues, as Kyung-chul cannot stop brutalising and hurting people (especially women). So is each new victim then the fault/responsibility of Soo-hyeon? Not that he cares - his focus is Kyung-chul. And the the majority of this chase narrative is spent with the killer, Jee-woon all but daring us to identify with this psychopath. The question also becomes: how much can Soo-hyeon really hurt this man? Soo-hyeon can savage him physically, but can he possibly hope to do to Kyung-chul what Kyun-chul has done to his victims? How much of a monster does Soo-hyeon have to become? It's a question pretty explicitly touched upon when Kyung-chul is holed up with a fellow serial killer (the film also gives the impression of serial killers roaming the countryside around Seoul like an infestation) and they discuss how similar See-hyeon is to them. Despite clocking in at 2 hours, 20 minutes you never feel that time as everything moves along at an incredible pace. Every scene, every confrontation is perfectly balanced and executed with some stunning photography. In the cold snow of the countryside and in the lit canyons of Seoul, there are a plethora of arresting shots; the film draws you in with its beauty even as it repulses you with its violence. And the performances are also uniformally excellent. Min-sik Choi is one of the most fascinating actors working in any country right now, utterly inhabiting the skin of Kyung-chul and almost making him a(n even more) twisted version of Oh Dae-su from "Oldboy" (2003). He's somewhat hypnotic and fair counterpoint to Byung-hun Lee's emotionally shut-off fiance/hunter. You can see the pain in Byung-hun Lee but you can also see the pain channelled. You sympathize with him up to a point, but he takes you beyond that point and into much darker waters. "I Saw the Devil" is an exhausting and demanding watch with no clear "hero" and bleeding with shockingly confronting violence. It demands a response from the viewer, beyond meatheaded cheering for bodily damage. It's hard to say the film glamourises the violence, as even when Soo-hyeon is beating on Kyung-chul, he is almost as bad as the killer. Jee-woon Kim doesn't shy away from showing anything; there aren't really moments of holding back or pulling away. Vengeance is unleashed and it only leads to escalation and destruction, offering no closure or catharsis.
Video
Presented in the film's original theatrical ratio of 1.85:1 this 1080p 24/fps high definition image is mastered using AVC MPEG-4 compression. The first impression viewers will have of this film is it's rich, dense and incredibly striking color palette which is beautifully rendered here in this HD image. The crisp picture allows optimal clarity, with excellent depth and wonderfully textured and detailed elements that make this transfer so nice to watch. Sharpness is well handled, the picture is clean and bold with striking black levels. Skin tones appear natural, there's no dirt, no edge-enhancement or compression issues that I could spot. Grain is evident and adds weight to the overall image. Magnolia/Magnet has done a splendid job here.
Audio
Two audio tracks are included in a dubbed English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround mixed at 48kHz/24-bit or the film's original Korean DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track also mixed at 48kHz/24-bit. For the purposes of this review I chose to view the film with its original Korean audio. Atmospheric, immersive and impressive, this audio track truly envelopes the viewer with solid sonics that deliver clean dialogue and impressive surrounds. The mix has a depth usually displayed in bigger budget Hollywood fare and the audio here doesn't fail to impress on every level. Additionally the score adds further depth, surround effects are natural and overall fans won't be disappointed. Optional subtitles are included in English, English for the hearing impaired and Spanish.
Extras
Magnolia/Magnet have released this film onto Blu-ray with only a few supplements in the form of some deleted scenes, a featurette and a collection of bonus trailers. Below is a closer look at these extras. The disc includes some deleted scenes (480i) that runs a collective 24 minutes 50 seconds, there's some interesting stuff here but mostly it's stuff that was rightly omitted from the final cut of the film. "Raw and Rough: Behind the Scenes of I Saw the Devil" (480i) is a featurette that runs for 27 minutes 6 seconds, it's a bit more than the usual EPK fluff but still cold be more in-depth. There's decent behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with the principles. A series of bonus trailers (1080p) are included for: - "Vanishing on 7th Street" which runs for 2 minute 32 seconds. - "Black Death" which runs for 2 minutes 1 second. - "13 Assassins" which runs for 1 minute 52 seconds. - "Hobo with a Shotgun" which runs for 1 minute 27 seconds. - "Rubber" which runs for 2 minutes 17 seconds. - "HDNet" promo which runs for 1 minute 2 seconds. The disc is also BD-Live enabled for profile 2.0 players only.
Overall
The film review was originally published on the blog Rockets and Robots are Go! by Andy James. The Blu-ray specs were reviewed by Noor Razzak.
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