Bedevilled (2010)

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

This movie destroyed me. I watched it twice and I picked up on so many little details the second time around. This movie will break some people's hearts. There is a lot of cruelty in this movie and some may find the gore over the top. I felt so bad for Bok-nam and how she gave and gave, while everyone treated her like a dog. This movie is tragic and touching and I think it is one of the best movies I have ever seen. Korea makes such great movies, I wish Hollywood would get over the superficial crap and be brave and produce even a few movies of this quality.My personal opinion, pay attention to all the little details. If you are an unsophisticated movie watcher like me, watch this movie twice and see how intricately made this movie is. I saw Bok-nam's selfessness and I empathized with her when she broke mentally. I literally cried after watching this, twice.

I don't know how people rated this movie so high where as there are plenty of Korean Movies that are rated very low. For instance "New World (2013)" is 7.6.Any how, since perspective matters, let's just talk about this movie.This movie started moderately but the first 10-20 minutes were useless and petty reasons for Hwang Geum-hee (starred as Hae-won) to visit her village after all those years. Director could have given a strong plot like Hae-won visited her village because she saw someone getting killed or raped which reminded her of her childhood village friend Seo Young-hee (starred as Kim-Bok-nam) who was raped in her early age also. This could give a strong reason for Hae-won to visit her village. It even showed at one point that Hae-won saw her friend Kim-Bok-nam getting raped, slightly teased about the situation, so there were plenty of opportunities to use that plot as plot development. Nudity was completely unnecessary here. Few scenes didn't even make any sense as why it was so important to show blow- job or Kim-Bok's brother in law forcefully have sex with her; naked; whenever her husband was not near. Simple acting and audio based cinematography could have done that even more dramatically here.The way Hwang Geum-hee (starred as Hae-won) acted in this movie, it really puts me on serious level of doubt whether she has really stood in front of a camera or not. Her acting was so flat, so terrible and so dull, I even wanted to skip her parts. But since lot of movie data base gave this movie high ratings, I still kept watching the movie, hoping for something twisted plot.Seo Young-hee (starred as Kim-Bok-nam) acted gorgeously. Her level of acting puts Hwang Geum-hee on a shameful slum as they had to act alongside each other in lot of scenes. The gap of acting skills between these two actress were so visible that at some point I thought the caster who selected Hwang Geum-hee for the "Hae-won" role should check him/herself for mental treatment. You can't put a gem alongside a dirty pebble.In all interviews, the directors said this movie is psychological horror and even renowned database like AsianWIKI said the same thing. This movie is nowhere near psychological horror. Yes there were unstable characters in this movie but this movie does not put you on any sort of mental state; of disturbance. It's just some crime happening in a small village. There's no twist, there's no suspense and there's no dramatic wave of fear.Still this movie had chances to make it more interesting as Kim-Bok-nam spent her whole life reading-dreaming about Seoul lifestyle and observed how Hae-Won acts as modern city girl. I literally cried how the director missed the chances of making this movie a good psychological horror is when Hae-Won left the village alone on a boat, barely escaping from the murderous intent of Kim-Bok-nam, they could easily showed that the woman who reach Seoul was not Hae-Won but Kim-Bok-Nam. An identity theft and a new life replacing Hae-Won's life definitely could have given this movie a new life but no, they gave a Cheesy 2 bucks hollywood type story or those stupid Indian action films. God knows how Kim-Bok-Nam found police station and why there was only one police in the station, how she found a sledge hammer, how she entered the station from the front door with that sledge hammer and not getting shot (the police had a gun for himself, he shots her later) and why Hae-Won was cuffed in the station. The ending was so cheesy that all those efforts from the crews-members went wasteland of drainage.Final verdict, director seemed confused. He failed miserably on story focus section. It was utterly absurd that Hae-Won lied to Police regarding Kim-Bok-Nam's daughter's death, who was her childhood best friend, shared everything with each other and then later in the end told police the truth regarding a girl's beat-down that had occurred in front of her, for a completely unknown girl, she told the truth but could not tell the truth for her childhood best friend. This movie was ethically b00lschit and failed to show any sort of ethics but tried intensely. It is hard to believe, these directors, casters, producers gets paid for their job and they can't do it properly. I give this movie a solid 4. It's an overrated piece of trash. It is really shameful to see this movie on per with "No Mercy (2010) - 7.4" , "Confession of Murder (2012) - 7.1" , "The Yellow Sea (2010) - 7.4" and many more on rating base. I guess it was a great hand trick of *cough*cough*cough*FAKE RATINGS*cough*cough*cough*

bedevilled is a compelling movie which describes how emotional torment can push a human being (bok-nam) beyond the limits of sanity to the extent that, that being goes on a rampant killing streak. But thats about it, there is nothing deep to this movie. The director and screen write try to be clever by contrasting bok-nam's psychological issues, with her friend (hae-won)ego-centric personality. This egocentricity is displayed when hae-won avoids going into harms way. This can be witnessed in numerous scenes, but is generally highlighted when hae-won sees bok-nam's child murdered by bok-nam's husband, only to deny that she ever witnessed the scene in the first place. One would then think that bok-nam's murderous tendencies are a conduit of redemption, but it reality the movies fails to fully achieve redemption as Bok-nam fails to kill Hae-won (her one friend who betrayed her). If the true intent of the director was to emphasize the theme of redemption then he should have let bok-nam finish her job. Personally speaking I was hoping for a scene in which Hae-won, while at the brink of death, reconciles her wrong doings. Instead we find that bok-nam is killed by the hands of Hae-won, who then turns a new leaf in life. It just seems so pathetic, how can one have such flat characters that only change their view towards life after killing a human being, wasn't the whole point of the film to show that one can't live their life for themselves, rather in order to survive one needs to be caring about other peoples values (what bok-nam did throughout her entire life). In my opinion,by killing off bok-nam there is no justice served, which just leaves a distasteful feeling when the movie ends. Honestly speaking, I have no idea what the director is trying to do in this movie. The implicit themes and messages seem so ambiguous that you don't know whether they are done intentionally or whether its just terrible screen play. It is a shame that this movie fails follow through with its original message because the acting of bok-nam and her husband was done exceptionally well.Overall this movie doesn't fit into the category of a horror or a thriller because it isn't scary, frightening or even unpredictable. I guess the director was hoping that the gory scenes would provide shock value or some sort of detestation from the viewer but having watched numerous similar films, this one doesn't really strike me as being different I recommend watching this movie just to check it out but in no way is this a master piece like others have suggested.

Korea is such a stand-out country for delivering consistently sensational horror films, often in the revenge department. Oldboy is nothing short of a masterpiece and I Saw the Devil is one favourite films ever. The Koreans aren't afraid to push the barrier and also never fail to deliver a few large helpings of emotional wallops. They put a lot of effort into writing their characters, in order for the audience to invest in the film. Bedevilled is no different.Bedevilled is yet another example of Korean superiority. Thank goodness the loopy Kim Jong-Un has left South Korea alone because otherwise we wouldn't be getting these incredible pieces of art (or Psy!) which are important to our society. Bedevilled is a slow burner, but it's anything but boring. It takes it time in setting up its two female characters so the audience can care about them (even if one of them is a little more than unlikable) and thus not care about the slow pace of the film. However, I would say that if you're only into some slashing and dashings with thrills and spills, then stay clear, because Bedevilled delivers something much more than that.I think that Bedevilled is more complex than just a 'revenge movie' and I think too many people dismiss it as just that. To me Bedevilled was about a lonely woman who had been subjected to years of abuse from her husband and lack of support from the few islanders, yet always pushed it aside and treated it as nothing, until she cracks. I found Bedevilled very psychological and it brilliantly portrays the tragic mental breakdown of an isolated woman who just can't take any more abuse.The build up in Bedevilled is nothing short of brilliant. I loved the way it slowly switched main characters about a quarter of a way through. We initially follow a hard-nosed woman working in mainland Seoul who then goes over to a small island where her grandfather used to live to see her friend. Initially we don't really think much of her friend, because we've been following Hae-Wan who is also very self-centred. However, the film slowly allows Kim Bok-Nam (the friend) to surface and we begin to feel an unbelievable amount of sympathy for her as she's so badly treated by her husband.As I said before the build up is slow but extremely effective. I didn't find it boring in the slightest because it allowed the characters to develop, which in turn made the film more and more gripping as it went along. Eventually Bedevilled does explode after some truly shocking and devastating moments, but should we really be rooting for Kim Bok-Nam all the way? Bedevilled ends up being incredibly thought-provoking as well as exciting and visceral. The final moments pack quite an emotional punch and will have you glued to the screen. I especially liked the match cut which compared Hae-Wan to the island, suggesting a deep inner conflict with herself.Bedevilled is yet another masterful Korean film which manages to tick all the boxes. The actresses also end up being quite exceptional in their respective roles. The film also looks gorgeous in blu-ray, I'd highly recommend it. The cinematography is often breath-taking which adds an usual quality later on as the beautiful back-drop is also used for the scenery of such vile and hideous acts. Bedevilled is well worth your time and money. It reminds you just how amazing foreign films are.