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Bedevilled shows that there’s nothing like a great foreign film… since Bedevilled is nothing like one!
What you’re expecting from the film, based on the initial presentation, is a slow build-up to an intriguing story as we follow Seoul bank clerk Hae-won (Seong-won Ji) getting suspended from her job after an altercation with a colleague, while at the same time having to identify two men in a police line-up who assaulted a young girl outside a nightclub, the night before. This, in turn, leads to them far too easily discovering that she’s the one who fingered them and a tense stand-off develops that… leads to nowhere.
In fact, it’s just a long-winded piece of plot development to get her out of the city and off on a long boat trip to Moo-do Island, where her grandfather used to live and at a time where, as a young girl, she befriended another girl called Bok-Nam (Yeong-hie Seo) whose stayed in that backwater all her life. With both of them now in their early 30s, Hae-won is shocked to learn how badly things have got for her as Bok-nam is kicked about by her husband, Man-jong (Park Jung-Hak), raped by his brother, Chul-jong (Bae Sung-Woo), some of which seems oblivious to her 10-year-old daughter, Yeon-hee (Lee Ji-Eun).
It’s a tale of domestice violence that at first is very predictable and takes far too long to play out – almost an hour before we get to the real meat of the story, something that only required less than half that. It’s a shame as the real star of the piece is Yeong-hie Seo, as the put-upon Bok-Nam, who really comes into her own when a tragedy strikes, while Seong-won Ji Hae-won) sleepwalks through the majority of the near-two-hour running time. There’s decent support from the actors playing the two nasty brothers, because you want to jump into the screen and punch their lights out, as well as the cast who play Bok-wan’s auntie and her friends and siblings, who are the biggest bunch of selfish bitches you could ever meet.
Overall, I would say Bedevilled is an interesting story about what someone can do when they’re pushed to the limits, but it’s not interesting. And it all gets completely ridiculous as time moves on.
Presented in 2.35:1 and in 1080p high definition, the picture is sharp and detailed, representing the lush countryside of Moo-do Island brilliantly. It’s also well-shot with good use of the 2.35:1 frame.
The sound is in 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, for which I got the 5.1 DTS version, although you wouldn’t know it in either case as it’s purely dialogue-driven with basic use made of incidental music and ambience. This is certainly NOT a demo disc.
The first extra is a straight-forward Behind the scenes featurette (12:50), made of entirely of B-roll footage as they go about filming various scenes. This is followed by a trailer in letterboxed 2.35:1, which basically throws the whole film into a concise two minutes, and a 30-second TV spot which condenses it further. As with the film, these are all in Korean with English subtitles.
The menu mixes eerie audio from the film with a subtly animated image. Subtitles are in English only, and aren’t selectable, so if you’re Korean and want to watch this without them, then you can’t. No idea why Optimum have robbed viewers of this choice. The Blu-ray play reports that the subtitles are ‘off’ but they’re certainly on.
Total number of chapters is the usually poor 12, from Optimum, over the 116-minute running time. At least there’s no pre-menu trailers on this disc, which is another bug-bear of mine.
Bedevilled is out now on Blu-ray and DVD.
|
FILM CONTENT PICTURE QUALITY SOUND QUALITY EXTRAS |
4 10 6 2 |
| OVERALL | 6 |
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 116 minutes
Year: 2010
Cat no: OPTBD2000
Released: February 28th 2011
Chapters: 12
Picture: 1080p High Definition
Sound: 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, DTS 5.1, Dolby Digital 5.1
Languages: Korean
Subtitles: English
Widescreen: 2.35:1
Macrovision: Yes
Disc Format: BD50
Director: Chul-soo Yang
Producer: Kuy-young Park
Screenplay: Kwang-young Choi
Music: Tae-seong Kim
Cast:
Hae-won: Seong-won Ji
Bok-Nam: Yeong-hie Seo
Man-jong: Park Jung-Hak
Chul-jong: Bae Sung-Woo
Yeon-hee: Lee Ji-Eun
Prostitute: Je-Min
Inspector: Jo Duk-Je
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.