Directed by Kim Ji-woon

Written by Park Hoon-jung

Starring Choi Min-sik, Lee Byung-hun, Jeon Kuk-hwan Chun Ho-jin, Oh San-ha and Kim Yun-seo

Running time 144 minutes

 

 

I saw The Devil is another fine example of South Korean film making, with an eye for incredible cinematography and a stomach for intensely viscious unrelenting violence tempered with a raw emotions.

 

The film opens with a beautiful young woman on the phone stranded, roadside with a flat, waiting for a tow truck. Her fiancee, Intelligence Agent Soo-Hyun, sings Happy Birthday to her on the phone, as she waits. Soo has to run as people begin filing into the conference room, as Joo-yun (Soo's Fiancee) hangs up there is a tap at her window, an offer of help. She politely tells the kindly stranger no thank you, but it seems he had something far more devious planned than helping. Violently ripping her from the car, he drags her unconscious to his, and next we see she is naked, bound, pleading for her life as he prepares to hack her to bits. Putting the pieces in place for one of the most intense, epic revenge driven stories I have ever watched. It turns out not only is her Fiancee an Intelligence Agent, but her father is a Squad Chief, and they both want vengeance in its truest form! Soo receives a file, from his almost father in law, that shows the top four suspects, all of them violent offenders. Soo begins to track and question each one until he finds the evidence needed to be sure who the killer is. Thus begins a cat and mouse game that is really almost indescribable, epic in acts, characters, and finally conclusion!

 

There are numerous moments of brutality that will make you want to almost pull away, but the story is so well written and tightly put together you cant stop watching.The pace of the film is perfection, generally in a film of this length at some point you are going to be longing for the end, but not once was I waiting for the finish. I was completely hooked into the characters, and their struggle against one another. Its engrossing on every level! The violence is just as driving as the story, and comes in these grand waves that are so disgustingly realistic that they are literally painful to watch, but so well balanced that they don't overwhelm the story at all, and just brilliantly executed. We watch as Soo becomes more and more like the man he is hunting, spiraling through this dark slippery emotional blackness that is sorrow, guilt and self loathing, while never loosing focus on his supreme goal no matter the cost.

 

This is just an absolute MUST WATCH film. Granted its a bit of an investment time wise, but it is so beyond worth it. This is one of the best Asian films I've seen since OldBoy (which Choi MIn-sik also starred in), its seriously that level of genius! There are so many twists and turns you just wont believe where this one takes you!

 

*HeatherOmen*