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I Saw the Devil

2010 film

Watched 31 October 2016

An overall enjoyable film, thanks to good performances and some amazing visuals. The taxi scene sticks out as an amazing feat, and a cool nod to Children of Men’s oner.

My problem is with the script. Being about revenge, it does a poor job of selling the main character’s taste for it. Not much attention is given to how the main character is transformed into a psychopath — the film seems only interested in exploring the gory end result of that transformation. There is no “descent into madness”; the main character seems to take an express elevator straight to the bottom floor.

While other revenge flicks like Oldboy or The Man From Nowhere offer revenge as catharsis, this film seems content in presenting it as a fetish.

About star ratings

My ratings are subjective. I’m not aiming for a perfect ranking of comparative artistic merit, just trying to represent how I feel about stuff. Here’s what they mean:

Personal favorite. I simply love it, warts and all.
Something special. Highly recommended.
Good, but unremarkable. I’ll probably forget about it.
A waste of time. Not recommended.
Practically insulting. Soulless garbage. (Rare!)