15 Awesome Films Since 2000 You'll Never Watch Again
13. I Saw The Devil
Plot:
A secret agent embarks on a destructive campaign of revenge against the serial killer who murdered his fiancee.
Why It's Awesome:
This shows the consequences of revenge in an unusually hard-hitting way, while it also boasts great direction and amazing performances from Lee Byung-hun and Choi Min-sik.
Why You'll Only Watch It Once:
I Saw the Devil is a horrible film; not in terms of quality, but in terms of its content it is relentlessly grim, the violence is appallingly sadistic and it's a generally nasty, bitter and cynical movie (in a good way).
In terms of bleakness, this is another level. As the protagonist's quest for revenge destroys him, gets various other people badly hurt and, by the end, drive him into a complete mental breakdown, this asserts itself as one of the darkest-ever cinematic depictions of how revenge destroys you. This is a real tragedy where it doesn't end well for any of the characters.
By the end, the protagonist has turned into a violent psychopath while you also feel increasingly sympathy for the serial killer and wonder if he's motivated by misery and loneliness instead of evil. We no longer know who's good and who's evil and this makes the film even more unsettling.