I Saw the Devil

One night, a school-bus driver named Jang Kyung-chul encounters a pregnant woman named Jang Joo-yun, and offers to fix her flat tire. After beating her unconscious, Kyung-chul executes her with a makeshift guillotine at his home, and scatters the body-parts into a local stream. When a boy discovers one of Joo-yun's ears, the police arrive en masse to conduct a search, led by Section Chief Oh and Squad Chief Jang, the latter being Joo-yun's devastated father. The victim's fiance, Kim Soo-hyun, who is an agent of the National Intelligence Service, is also present and vows to take revenge against the murderer. Soo-hyun learns of the four suspects from Squad Chief Jang, and proceeds to privately torture and interrogate two of them. Upon searching the home of Kyung-chul, the third suspect, Soo-hyun finds Joo-yun's engagement-ring, proving that Kyung-chul was the perpetrator. A short time later, as Kyung-chul brings a schoolgirl home and sexually assaults her, Soo-hyun beats him unconscious. Rather than killing Kyung-chul and being done with it, Soo-hyun decides to shove a GPS tracker down his throat, allowing him to see Kyung-chul's location in real-time, and to listen to his conversations. Waking up injured, Kyung-chul walks along the road and is offered a ride by a taxi already containing one passenger. Upon getting in, and correctly guessing that the driver and passenger are, in fact, two bandits intending to rob and murder him, one being Soo-hyun's unvisited fourth suspect, he strikes out preemptively and kills them both, afterward finding the body of the real taxi-driver in the trunk. Kyung-chul throws out all three bodies, and drives to a small town where he sexually assaults a nurse. Soo-hyun arrives to subdue him, and slashes his Achilles tendon before releasing him once more.

Kyung-chul visits the home of his friend Tae-joo, a murderer and cannibal. After explaining his situation to Tae-joo, the latter remarks that whoever is after him must be the relative of one of his victims; Kyung-chul consequently deduces Soo-hyun's identity after recalling Joo-yun's engagement-ring, which Soo-hyun had put on before attacking him previously. Soo-hyun arrives and incapacitates both murderers along with Tae-joo's girlfriend. The next day, Tae-joo and Se-jung, still unconscious, are arrested by the police and sent to the hospital. Soo-hyun's trusted subordinate arranges for Soo-hyun and Kyung-chul to evade the police and receive treatment for their wounds at a separate facility. The barely conscious Kyung-chul hears Soo-hyun and the subordinate talking about the transmitter. Soo-hyun releases Kyung-chul again, but the latter outsmarts Soo-hyun by removing the transmitter this time and dashing away, but not before slashing the throat of a pharmacist. Soo-hyun enters Tae-joo's hospital room to question him, and learns too late that Kyung-chul is going after Squad Chief Jang and his other daughter Jang Se-yun. Angered, he breaks Tae-joo's jaw. Kyung-chul arrives at the house of Squad Chief Jang, and proceeds to brutally assault Squad Chief Jang and Jang Se-yun, killing them. Shortly after, Kyung-chul attempts to avoid Soo-hyun's revenge by surrendering to the police. However, Soo-hyun drives by and kidnaps Kyung-chul right in front of the police's eyes. Taking him to the earlier warehouse, Soo-hyun tortures him and places him under the makeshift guillotine. Kyung-chul's son and elderly parents, whom he had abandoned some time ago, are told of his whereabouts and try to visit him. Upon opening the door, the guillotine is dropped and Kyung-chul's head rolls to their feet. With Kyung-chul finally dead, Soo-hyun, who was listening through the transmitter some distance away, emotionally breaks down and begins crying in the street.

• Lee Byung-hun as Kim Soo-hyun, an agent in the National Intelligence Service[6]
• Choi Min-sik as Jang Kyung-chul, an academy bus driver and serial killer
• Oh San-ha as Jang Joo-yun, Soo-hyun's fiancée
• Jeon Gook-hwan as Squad Chief Jang, Joo-yun's father
• Kim Yoon-seo as Jang Se-yun, Joo-yun's sister
• Chun Ho-jin as Section Chief Oh, the leader of the police
• Choi Moo-sung as Tae-joo, Kyung-chul's friend
• Kim In-seo as Se-jung, Tae-joo's girlfriend
• Yoon Chae-young as Han Song-yi, nurse
• Nam Bo-ra as Section Chief Oh's daughter

The Korea Media Rating Board forced Kim to recut the film for its theatrical release, objecting to its violent content. The film received a "Restricted" rating twice, preventing any sort of release in theatres or on home video and promotions as well.[7] Seven cuts were made with the total runtime of removed material between eighty and ninety seconds.[8]

I Saw the Devil was released in South Korea on August 12, 2010. The film premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival on 21 January 2011.[4] It also received screenings at several other international film festivals, including the Fantasporto Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, Sitges Film Festival, San Sebastian Film Festival and the London Korean Film Festival.[9]

North American distribution rights were acquired by Magnet Releasing which released it on a limited basis on March 4, 2011.[10][11] Optimum Releasing distributed the film in the United Kingdom.[12]

The film was released on DVD as a three-disc set, which contains both the Korean theatrical version and international version, in South Korea on 29 March 2011.[24] The DVD and Blu-ray for the US and Canadian markets were released on May 10, 2011.[25]

• Ek Villain, a 2014 Bollywood film one reviewer said was inspired by I Saw the Devil.[26]
• It was reported that the concept of implanting electronic bug (GPS + audio transmitter) and monitoring the plan from this film was used in the 2015 Indian Tamil-language film Thani Oruvan which the Tamil director denied as co-incidence.[27]

• Official website
• I Saw the Devil at IMDb
• I Saw the Devil at the Korean Movie Database
• I Saw the Devil at HanCinema
• I Saw the Devil at AllMovie