I Saw The Devil (악마를 보았다) (Ang-ma-reul bo-at'da) (2010)

I don't mind ultra violence in movies when revenge is being meted out to those especially deserving of it, like in Harry Brown or Bedevilled, The Brave One or a zillion other bloody revenge fests, and for the first hour or so, that's what's on offer here when a secret service agent goes beserk, seeking revenge on a Korean Max Cady serial killer who has horribly killed rhe agent's pregnant girlfriend, but by film's end, when the secret service agent's very short-sighted plan for revenge has resulted in pain, suffering and death for myriad extraneous others and when so much depravity is on show - so much that the serial killer becomes just one part of a greater universal serial killer problem - the thrill of revenge becomes more than absurd: From Dusk Til Dawn presents a more reasonable, grounded world.

★★★☆☆

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Old Boy (올드보이) (2003)

Upon his release from 15 years of captivity in a small hotel room, a man sets out to discover the identity of his captor and the reasons for his imprisonment, in Park Chan Wook's neo-noir mystery based on a Japanese manga which, from this implausible set-up, becomes in turns hilarious, ridiculous, tragic, fantastical, moving and disturbing, and is distinguished by its featuring the most harrowing scene of mental collapse ever committed to screen.

★★★★★

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