O
VER THE LAST DECADE SOUTH KOREA HAS EXPERIENCED A BOOM IN THE PRODUCTION OF STYLISH AND INTENSE GENRE FILMS, NO-
TABLY CHAN-WOOK PARK’S OLDBOYTRILOGY AND JOON-HO BONG’S THE HOST. WHILE SOME OF THESE MOVIES HAVE PUSHED THE BOUNDARIES OF ACCEPTABLE CONTENT IN THE CONSERVATIVE KOREAN FILM INDUSTRY, NONE HAVE CAUSED AS MUCH CONTROVERSY AS JI-WOON KIM’S NEW SERIAL KILLER MOVIE I SAW THE DEVIL. FEATURING TWO OF THE NA- TION’S BIGGEST STARS, MIN-SIK CHOI (OLD- BOY) AND BYUNG-HUN LEE (A BITTERSWEET LIFE), THE FILM WAS A HIGHLY ANTICIPATED MAJOR RELEASE LAST SUMMER BUT ALMOST NEVER MADE IT INTO THEATRES.
The first few times it screened for the Korean Media Ratings Board,
the members were apparently so infuriated by the graphic content – particularly some scenes involving casual cannibalism – that they issued the film an 18+ Limited Screening rating, which meant it could only be shown in adult-only movie theatres with no advertising. Since no such theatres exist in South Korea, the film was essentially banned. Following weeks of re-edits from the filmmakers, the movie eventually made it to screens after substantial cuts that removed seven minutes of graphic material. I Saw the Devil revolves around a government special agent, Soo-
hyun (Lee), whose fiancée is kidnapped by a hammer-wielding serial killer named Kyung-chul (Choi), who rapes and dismembers her in his makeshift abattoir, flushing the remains down a sewer pipe and into a nearby creek. After police discover some of her body parts, Soo-hyun mounts his own investigation outside of the law. After ter- rorizing potential suspects, he tracks down Kyung-chul – who’s a school bus driver! – and begins stalking him. Before the monster can rape and murder his next victim, Soo-hyun beats him to within an inch of his life and then... disappears. Burning with vengeance, he plants a tracking device in the killer
and decides to toy with him, stepping in every time Kyung-chul’s about to victimize someone to lay a savage beating on him. This process continues with the agent uncovering a house of horrors run by Kyung-chul’s cannibal friends. But he underestimates his re- sourceful foe and soon the tables are turned. Now Soo-hyun’s loved ones are in danger and he’s at the killer’s mercy, forcing our “hero” to become as remorselessly violent and calculating as the man he pursues. The movie screened uncut last September at the Toronto Interna-
tional Film Festival, where it shocked audiences while earning praise for its technical craft, including some exceptional cinematography. (It went on to play at Spain’s Sitges and other European film festivals.) The movie secured North American distribution through Magnolia Films’ genre arm, Magnet Releasing, which will bring it to screens (hopefully uncut) in spring of this year.
Hellbound Trail: (above) The Killer kidnaps his prey, (left) Soo-hyun’s fi- ancée Joo-yoon (San-ha Oh), and (opposite left to right) Byon-hun Lee as Soo-hyun and Min-sik Choi as Kyung-chul.
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