Kim Jee-woon’s technical skill is up there with the best filmmakers working today, and his talent leaves its mark on every frame of this movie. The material is so nihilistic, I kept asking why he was applying that talent to it. It’s as in your face with the violence and the sadism as a film can get, but I never once felt that KJW wasn’t in complete control. The violence isn’t done to look cool, push your buttons, cross a moral line or gross you out. It’s a visceral approach to an intellectual exercise. You may believe this was indeed a film put together by the devil, but it isn’t dwelling in the darkness. It’s just giving it the proper importance.
The world of the film is so absent of any morality it’s like the cold vacuum of space. Our “hero” commits sadistic acts. The people he comes across on his journey are killers and savages. KJW keeps a white-knuckle grip going for 140-minutes, and the lack of any grace makes me wonder if the film Is meant to be taken as parable. It’s only at the very end that morality returns, putting a punctuation on the film. Add to that a technical perfection that would make David Fincher or The Coen Brothers envious. There’s a severed head found in a stream and the way it breaks free of the rocks and rolls to face the camera, the way the hairs slowly float away like a curtain revealing the horror, is nothing short of masterful.
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