WORLD CINEMA WONDERS: I SAW THE DEVIL (2010, dir by Kim Jee-Woon, South Korea)

South Korean Kim Jee-Woon’s I SAW THE DEVIL may, for this programmer’s money, be the best South Korean movie of the last 10 years. But beyond that, it is one of the best movies period of the 21st century.

The movie has a dynamite premise wrapped up in an almost unbearable first twenty minutes: Serial Killer Kyung-Chul (Choi min-Sik of Oldboy) kills Joo-yeon, the pregnant fiance of South Korean Secret Service Agent Lee (Kim Soo-hyeon). When Lee’s almost father-in-law (who also happens to be a police detective) shares the four main suspects in the murder, Lee tracks down Kyung-Chul.

But instead of killing him or turning him into the police, Lee beats the hell out of the murderer. Then lets him go. With the help of government tracking devices, Lee tracks Kyung-Chul and constantly frustrates the sociopath’s plans for future kills so that Kyung can feel what it’s like to be prey.

In many ways, the entire movie is right there in the title. This is not only a movie about coming face to face with one of the ultimate evils in this world but also the dangers of feeling like one can play God to punish that evil.

Director Kim Jee-Woon walks a tightrope of tones. At first, the movie appears as if it will be an unrelenting near torture porn type movie. The murder of Lee’s fiance is shown in an artfully timed and ultimately prudently edited manner. But it’s still almost unwatchably graphic.

But then the movie pulls a bit of a 180 degree turn and becomes a deeply dark, cinematic black comedy of sorts in which we’re left scratching our heads at how this cat and mouse game is going to end. Kyung-Chul turns out to be much more resourceful and determined than Lee may have expected.

The midpoint sequence where Kyung-Chul seeks refuge in an ornate mansion with yet another serial killer the cannibal murderer Tae Joo is so bonkers that one wonders where the heck the movie could go from there.

But where it goes is really where it has to go. Unlike many revenge movies, I Saw The Devil wants the audience to sense Lee’s plan is misbegotten from the beginning. Although we get some very satisfying moments where Lee clearly has the upper hand on the serial killer AND the serial killer suffers the way we want him to suffer, we also ask ourselves how long Lee’s luck can last.

Every time Lee lets Kyung-chul go, we sense that things could go south fast. Because NOBODY can control everything. Least of all a sociopathic brutally resourceful killer.

One of the movie’s most chilling and illuminating scenes comes fairly late. Kyung-chul, face to face with Lee, explains that Lee’s concept of revenge means nothing to Kyung-chul. The emotions that Lee wants Kyung-chul to feel-pain, fear, terror, regret, humiliation, desperation-Kyung-chul is incapable of feeling.

This has always been this programmer’s deep seated fear about a large part of the nature of evil: it is banal, incapable of being reasoned with, relentless, and immune to logic that dictates reality for the rest of us. Sort of like trying to reason with a Shark that it’s in his best interest not to eat you.

This movie is not an easy watch. Though it’s long middle section has many cinematic pleasures and delights, it both begins and ends with a brutal relentlessness you’ll want to brace yourself for.

But if you can go into the movie knowing what to expect, you may find yourself surprised, as this programmer did, to discover a profound and illuminating story on the importance of humility in the face of cosmic evils that always and forever will be forces beyond any one mortal’s control.

Written by Craig Hammill, the founder.programmer of Secret Movie Club.