One of the last films I screened at the 2011 NYAFF was a great Korean film called Bedevilled. It was a favorite at film festivals across the world and also earned a few awards for its participants in the process, including best actress for Seo Young-Hee. After patiently waiting for the news, Bedevilled is finally getting a Blu-ray/DVD release here in the States on October 9th thanks to Well Go USA. If you love Korean revenge films then this is one you absolutely shouldn’t miss (it was #9 on my top 10 of 2011 list).
Hae-Won (Ji Seong-Won) is, what I’d like to call, a cold hard bitch. She’s an ice-cold, soulless bank teller that could care less about anyone, even if it meant getting rid of a few pieces of scum from the earth (she wouldn’t tell the cops who mugged/raped a girl). All this intelligent beauty wants to do is get ahead in life but now, after an incident at her bank, she is taking a vacation to an island where her grandmother once lived and where an old childhood friend, named Bok-Nam (Seo Young-Hee), anxiously awaits her arrival.
When Hae-Won arrives on Moo-do Island, she finds that it is run by a few rural men and a handful of old ladies, all of whom are as orange as a girl who just stepped out of a tanning booth, except that these people earned their color. On this island, we find out that no one respects Bok-Nam and that she does a lot more work than anyone else. She’s constantly on the receiving end of beatings and aggressive sexual encounters from her husband Man-jong (Park Jung-Hak) and his brother, while also being constantly ridiculed by the women and the grandmother (the leader of the women who thinks she is lazy and useless). This island has a strict patriarchal hierarchy with Bok-Nam being the only one who thinks this isn’t fair. In addition to this social structure, the men are misogynistic assholes who are not only praised by the old ladies, but take the meaning to a whole new level.
Throughout Hae-Won’s stay, Bak-Nam uses her as an escape mechanism and continually tries to ask for help from her. She would like Hae-Won to take her daughter, Yeon-hee, to Seoul with her since she suspects that Man-jong, who has been eyeing his daughter, will do something that will haunt both herself and her child forever. Soon after this request, a fight erupts and tragedy strikes the island, turning Bok-Nam from a friendly, honest, and sane individual into a woman set on getting revenge for being mistreated her entire life.
Sounds awesome, doesn’t it? I absolutely loved this movie for a variety of reasons. First off, the cinematography was beautiful.
The film made me feel like I was on the island, experiencing the beauty of it while also allowing me to see how beauty and disgust collide i.e. watching blood splatter from a scythe slicing a neck open. I also enjoyed the really gritty feel it had, everything was dirty and the darkness was highlighted to make everything look more vibrant and menacing.
Additionally, I thought basing this film on a remote island was the perfect way to set this film up, not only because no one can escape a remote island easily, but it’s actually the kind of place where a hostel patriarchal society would/could exist. Furthermore, what was brilliant about having this type of social structure setup on the island is that it was able to show the desensitized Hae-Won was. You could see that even in this extremely rural area, you will always find yourself running into men that are cruel and vicious. When you reach the end of the film you begin to realize that the people in a city like Seoul may not be so different from an island with a population of ten or so people.
Director Jang Cheol-Su, who made his directorial debut with this film, did an excellent job crafting Bedevilled. He focused so much on the characters and developing them that, when it came time to drastically changing the pace and tone of the film from a gritty drama to a bloody vengeance flick, he was able to do it with such ease because the audience was already heavily invested in the film and were simply anticipating this turning point to come.
I also really respect Jang Cheol-Su for making sure that Hae-Won retained her inherent flaw from the start which, when you find out certain things, makes your jaw drop and the movie even better.
Lastly, I thought Seo Young-Hee did a phenomenal job as Bok-Nam. Not only did you fall in love with this quirky girl when you were first introduced to her as this kind and tortured soul but, by the end of the movie, when she has her psychological breakdown and starts hunting and killing everyone, you can’t help but cheer her on (which is what the entire theater did throughout the final 40 minutes of the film).
When she takes a scythe and carves up her husband’s brother, everyone was disturbed but still managed to go wild over her success. I think she’s now my favorite female cinematic character to date.
My chief complaint has to do with Bok-Nam and Hae-Won’s encounter on the mainland and how, at a pivotal moment, all seems to be forgiven. It’s hard to explain my dislike without giving it away but, rest assure, that I’m sure you’ll cry foul as well. After that annoying moment, my attitude shifts again to a positive note because you notice a change in Hae-Won’s personality. While you still want to call her a bitch, it’s hard to continually do so because you see she has learned from her experience, which is important when reevaluating your life’s philosophy.
Overall, Bedevilled has everything you could ever want from a thrilling genre film. It has great acting, superb character development, good pacing and, like many, it spills a lot of deserving blood. Why does it seem that the Korean’s are the only one’s able to pull this kind of crazy revenge shit off? I don’t have an answer for that but I can say that if you like Korean movies or fantastically thrilling horror dramas, then I would highly recommend you give Bedevilled a watch. It was much better than I anticipated and I’m sure it will find a way to get under your skin and get you to appreciate what happens when a nice girl snaps and takes matters into her own hands.
Rating: A tenacious genre film that shows what happens when the last straw is broken (8/10)
As for the movie itself, if I had watched it on a bigger screen it would have looked almost identical. The blu-ray is definitely the way to go for this title if you have that option. If you buy the disc though it’s only going to be for the movie because the only special features that comes with it is a behind the scenes featurette (12:45) which shows raw behind the scenes footage from a handful of scenes and then the trailer.
Disc rating: 4/10 (only ’cause it looked good)
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