I Saw the Devil : over the top drama, action and characters drags it down

over the top drama, action and characters drags it down

It all starts to fall apart when they introduce the cannibal character and all the crazy shit that goes down at that house, implied or explicit. It goes from being gritty to cartoonish pretty quickly. Like a Quentin Tarantino film without the humour.

The lead protagonist also never seems to be at much risk of being harmed. Sure, he often inadvertently causes harm to people he cares about or other innocents, but he himself just seems like an unstoppable force who gets involved in numerous action set-pieces that are beyond ridiculous.

It also has occasionally annoying Korean drama elements, though not even close to the worst I've seen in a film from that country (Train to Busan did it worse). I just don't need to see an extended scene of a Korean pretty-boy crying as the natural audio is drowned out by a generic piano soundtrack, or something similar. I get that the character is grieving, but it's lingered on a bit too dramatically at times.

I'll give credit where it's due for being able to lead a first-time viewer to wonder where the film will go next after the protagonist finds and incapacitates the rapist/killer within the first 40 minutes or so of the 2 and half hour run-time. (that is if the person doesn't read the imdb plot description).
I do also like that a lot of the film follows the antagonist rather than the protagonist, blending it with a nice twist on the perspective of the hunted, rather than the hunter.

But unfortunately, it just becomes a run-of-the-mill and predictable revenge-action film from there on, though not without providing some memorably gory moments.

It's decently acted, I guess. But Min-sik Choi did a far better job in Oldboy.

Some quite fuckable Asian women in the film, though nothing to really write home about.
Memories of Murder handles the rapist plot in a much more compelling and disturbing way.

6/10

Re: over the top drama, action and characters drags it down

You are such a boring man.

Re: over the top drama, action and characters drags it down

Thank you, I try to be the least noteworthy person at all times.

Re: over the top drama, action and characters drags it down

Re: over the top drama, action and characters drags it down

Very cool
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