Saw I Saw the Devil, another Korean revenge film. Although I watch my films in a semi-random order, weird clumps like this seem to appear. I suppose that's how I know it's truly random. Anyway, this film was great. A serial killer murders a woman in the opening scenes. Unlucky for the serial killer, she is the daughter of a police chief and the fiance of some dude who is a special agent (or wears an earpiece and sometimes talks into his watch, at any rate.) So the special agent fiance tracks down this serial killer dude, extracting a slow and satisfying revenge. Like Hard Candy, this film is very satisfying but not very ennobling. I am made uncomfortable with my own enjoyment of suffering, even if the sufferer is an evil murderer. I did enjoy the hunting and tormenting and all, I just feel guilty. Your mileage may vary.
The film does acknowledge the moral ambiguity of the Dexter-like central character. Many times the killer makes desperate shouts, mid-torment, accusing the protagonist of becoming a monster like he is. Even the cops start accusing the protagonist of enjoying his mission of revenge. It's interesting, but we know the conclusion already, right? Revenge doesn't provide healing. The end of the film, a sort of orgy of killer-torment and leaden pronouncements by the protagonist, explicitly touches on this fact. The killer points out that he (the killer) has already won. He cannot be made to atone for his crimes because he is crazy and does not regard them as crimes. The protagonist absorbs this information and continues to torture the bad guy.
So, a fun film which requires a strong stomach to watch (there's a lot of gruesome torture inflicted on all involved.) The horrible violence is supposed to make you feel sympathy for the killer and to also feel shocked by your own sympathy. This nicely complicates the morality of the story. The final scenes, where the killer is at last reasoning with the protagonist are amazing. I believe it is this scene which the title refers to. I wonder if the protagonist can possibly walk away untainted from his revenge, or if he has truly become a monster.
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