The South Koreans have something of a reputation in the Western world for delivering violent and disturbing movies, not least thanks to Park Chan-wook's Vengeance trilogy. For sheer out and out brutality, however, look no further than Kim Jee-woon's serial killer thriller, I Saw The Devil. Starring Lee Byung-hun as a secret service agent and Choi "OldBoy" Min-sik as the serial killer who tortures and murders his pregnant wife, I Saw The Devil knows how to shock with its scenes of ultra-violence. At the same time it remains an exceptionally well constructed film with the kind of aesthetic quality usually reserved for art house cinema - the torture is disturbing, but there's no denying that it looks beautiful, too. The scene featuring two rival psychopaths and a taxi driver has to be one of the most virtuoso examples of filmmaking of all time.
