When it comes to bloody revenge movies, it’s difficult to beat the South Koreans.
You might remember “Oldboy” (2003), which inspired a South Korean student to go on a shooting rampage on a Virginia college campus, killing 33 people, including himself.
That film, which was warmly received by critics before the murders, stars Choi Min-sik, one of his country’s most popular actors, as a businessman held prisoner in a hotel room for 15 years, unaware of his kidnapper’s motives.
Now Choi is back in another revenge chiller, “I Saw the Devil,” by Kim Jee-woon (“A Tale of Two Sisters”).
This time he’s a serial killer being tracked by the government agent (Lee Byung-hun) whose pregnant fiancée is killed and dismembered in the film’s gory opening.
But this is no ordinary revenge caper. The G-man quickly tracks down the killer, beats him to a pulp, implants a tracking device and lets him escape — so the whole process can be repeated over and over and over, even if it means more women must die.
He wants the murderer to suffer as much as his victims did.
You’ll squirm in your seat as blood flows and bodies crunch for nearly 2½ hours. Even so, “I Saw the Devil” is a masterpiece of its genre — superbly acted, directed, filmed and composed.
You won’t soon forget it — if you have the guts to see it.