The Eighth Night of Halloween: I Saw the Devil

ON THE EIGHTH NIGHT OF HALLOWEEN … I watched I Saw the Devil (2010), a Korean ultraviolent crime thriller directed by Kim Jee-woon (who also made the excellent ghost movie, A Tale of Two Sisters). A serial killer (played by Choi Min-sik, the heavyweight lead from Old Boy) makes the mistake of butchering the pregnant fiancée of a superspy. What ensues is basically James Bond versus Hannibal Lector. It avoids all the clichés one might expect from that, however, by showing the faceoff through the lens of the surprising ironies of contemporary Korean filmmaking (as also exemplified by works like the demonic horror epic, The Wailing, and last year’s best picture winner, Parasite). Since this film understands that James Bond is himself a professional serial killer under government contract, it has its superspy quickly beat the mere hobbyist of a murderer at his own game. He smashes his way through the suspect list, leaving a trail of broken bodies, and nabs his man. He could kill him at this point, but that wouldn’t sate his appetite for revenge. Instead, he decides to play a brutal game of catch, torture, release, stalk, and catch again. Eventually, of course, he slips up and comes to regret not ending things earlier.

This all takes place in a somewhat heightened reality where, for example, legendary serial killers at large are old friends and have (cannibalistic) dinner together on the weekends. Moment to moment it seems quite grounded, though, since both the acting and the cinematography are so nuanced and naturalistic. I would have preferred for I Saw the Devil to say more about the parallels between state-sanctioned violence and violence for personal enjoyment, instead of dwelling on the simpler violence-begets-violence theme, but I really appreciated how well every scene was executed.