I Saw the Devil
Short description
A psychopathic killer has long eluded the police, preying on young women with methods too brutal to contemplate. When his latest victim turns out to be the daughter of a retired police chief and the fiancée of a secret agent named Kim Soo-hyeon, the agent takes matters into his own hands. Rather than hand the man over to the authorities, Soo-hyeon arranges leave from his work and sets out to find him, determined to inflict suffering in return. Catching the killer proves to be only part of the plan, as Soo-hyeon deliberately keeps the pursuit going, drawn further from his former self as he goes.
Kim Jee-woon directed and co-wrote the screenplay with Park Hoon-jung. The film followed The Good, the Bad, the Weird, the fourth of the ten features Kim has directed, and precedes Doomsday Book. Lee Byung-hun plays Soo-hyeon opposite Choi Min-sik as the killer Kyung-chul, with Jeon Kuk-hwan, Cheon Ho-jin, Oh San-ha and Kim Yoon-seo among the credited cast of forty-one. Produced through Finecut, CJ Entertainment, Peppermint&company and Showbox, it cost about six million dollars and took roughly thirteen million worldwide.
Reception on IMDb stands at 7.8 out of ten from around 164,000 votes, and on TMDB also 7.8 from some 3,167 votes. A critics' rating of 7.3 from eighty-six reviews places professional opinion slightly below the audience scores on both platforms.
What's left behind the scenes
- The South Korean version of the film had to be re-edited twice to receive an 18+ rating.
- This was Choi Min-sik's first leading role after his protests and refusal to act due to quotas on foreign films.
- The film's script was found and offered to the director by actor Choi Min-sik, who played one of the main roles.
- Filming took place in the Mokdong district of Seoul.
- There are two versions of the film: one for South Korean theatrical release and an international version. They differ in some scenes, runtime, and music.
- Cannibal (Choi Moo-son) tells his next victim that he will dismember her in the following order – arms, legs, head. It is in this very order that the vigilante (Lee Byung-hun) maims the maniac (Choi Min-sik): first breaking an arm, then cutting the Achilles tendon on a leg, and finally decapitating him.
- The working title of the film was “Subtropics” (Ayeoldae).
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