Bedevilled (김복남 살인사건의 전말)

Hardworlders is on a roll. Second post this month! This time I'm diving into some good Korean movie goodness. Bedevilled was released last year over here, and has received some good press, however, not too much international "acclaim." I imagine that the reason for this is that it's a pretty bloody movie, and shitholes like the Cannes likes Korean movies that are more dramatic (save Oldboy....which is also dramatic). To be honest, all Korean movies are dramatic. Koreans love drama, and they can pull tears out of you quicker than most other movie makers. Or annoyance. Yes, they can get carried away with the drama.

What we have here is the debut from Jang Cheol-soo, who did some work under Kim Ki-duk (responsible for some of the best and worst Korean movies ever). It's part horror, part mystery, part revenge, and part drama (of course). I don't want to get too into details about the movie because I hate reviews like that, but I'll just say that there's a woman from Seoul that travels to visit her old friend on a tiny ass island somewhere around the Korean peninsula. From there she witnesses how shitty the locals treat her friend, and then mayhem happens, and I'm not gonna tell you the breaking point, but when the mayhem happens you will see blood and scythes and heads and insanity. So, did I like the movie? Yes, it's probably one of my all time favorite Korean movies. It's really well made, and there are definitely some surreal, bizarre moments where you're like, "fuck." There's also a couple of moments where you're like, "Now why would she blah blah blah." And, to be honest, there's rarely a Korean movie that doesn't make me think something like that at some point. BUT: highly recommended, and please watch this movie, and I hope I'm not talking up this movie too much but it's worth watching.