I Saw the Devil (South-Korea, 2010) into censorship problems

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I Saw the Devil (South-Korea, 2010) into censorship problems

Post by HungFist »

Kim Ji-woon (The Good, The Bad, The Weird, A Bittersweet Life) can't get his latest film I Saw the Devil movie ratings board. After two attempts the film still hasn't been granted an 18 rating due to "damaging the dignity of human values". Wildgrounds reports the film has been given Restricted rating, which means it cannot be advertised, and it can only be show in adult theaters. There are no such things in South Korea, apparently.

http://wildgrounds.com/index.php/2010/0 ... estricted/

The film starts two of the country's biggest stars: Lee Byung-hun (The Good, The Bad, The Weird, A Bittersweet Life) and Choi Min-sik (Oldboy, Sympathy for Lady Vengeange).

Trailer and teaser:
http://wildgrounds.com/index.php/2010/0 ... the-devil/

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Re: I Saw the Devil (South-Korea, 2010) into censorship prob

Post by gasteropod »

Those crazy Koreans need to get over themselves, it's a film!
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Re: I Saw the Devil (South-Korea, 2010) into censorship prob

Post by romerojpg »

Yup films have boobies and other things as well :thumbs:

I couldn't care less myself what rating/shenanigans go on etc.. as long as it is uncut when I get it :thumbs:
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Re: I Saw the Devil (South-Korea, 2010) into censorship prob

Post by gasteropod »

I can't find a GBW thread so I'll post here, can anyone tell me which cut the US BD of The Good, the Bad, the Weird is, because the review on DVD Active (http://www.dvdactive.com/reviews/dvd/th ... eird2.html) says that it appears to have the Korean ending, but is 9 minutes shorter than the Korean cut. If anyone knows the deal with this that'd be great, cheers.
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Re: I Saw the Devil (South-Korea, 2010) into censorship prob

Post by Shingster »

I was under the distinct impression that the longer cut is not available on Blu-ray anywhere in the world (except possibly Japan?).
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Re: I Saw the Devil (South-Korea, 2010) into censorship prob

Post by gasteropod »

Indeed, but that DVD Active comment is intriguing.
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Re: I Saw the Devil (South-Korea, 2010) into censorship prob

Post by Shingster »

Well bear in mind that the reviewer hasn't seen both cuts of the film and is going by the "wikipedia description", and he's also the person who criticised the US Blu-ray of Drunken Master 2 for cropping the film down to 2.35:1 and refers to the director/star of Zatoichi throughout his review of said film as "Takeshi Kintano".
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Re: I Saw the Devil (South-Korea, 2010) into censorship prob

Post by gasteropod »

:lol:
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Re: I Saw the Devil (South-Korea, 2010) into censorship prob

Post by HungFist »

great US poster

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Re: I Saw the Devil (South-Korea, 2010) into censorship prob

Post by gasteropod »

I think it's a bit crap!
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Re: I Saw the Devil (South-Korea, 2010) into censorship prob

Post by HungFist »

nah, it's just your taste :D

It's so much better than the carbon copy Korean poster I posted earlier
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Re: I Saw the Devil (South-Korea, 2010) into censorship prob

Post by thelostdragon »

Wait, does it mean that if "I Saw the Devil" is trimmed down in order to be released in Korean cinemas, we will get the same Korean cut overseas? Any word of a director's cut to be released anywhere?
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Re: I Saw the Devil (South-Korea, 2010) into censorship prob

Post by HungFist »

From what I've understood they've been playing the uncut version overseas and the cut version in Korea. But don't take my word for it.
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Re: I Saw the Devil (South-Korea, 2010) into censorship prob

Post by thelostdragon »

Thanks. It's showing at the Fantasy Filmfest in March over here in Germany. German Blu-ray will be released in April. Intended to watch it at the Filmfest, but I'll never pay to watch a film that is cut. Gotta ask the German distributor.
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Re: I Saw the Devil (South-Korea, 2010) into censorship prob

Post by romerojpg »

Germany getting it so soon, hopefully we follow quickly :)
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Re: I Saw the Devil (South-Korea, 2010) into censorship prob

Post by Yi-Long »

thelostdragon wrote:Thanks. It's showing at the Fantasy Filmfest in March over here in Germany. German Blu-ray will be released in April. Intended to watch it at the Filmfest, but I'll never pay to watch a film that is cut. Gotta ask the German distributor.
Will Amasia be releasing it again? Also, do you know if Amasia will be releasing the 2010 Won Bin flick The Man from Nowhere?
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Re: I Saw the Devil (South-Korea, 2010) into censorship prob

Post by thelostdragon »

Yi-Long wrote:
thelostdragon wrote:Thanks. It's showing at the Fantasy Filmfest in March over here in Germany. German Blu-ray will be released in April. Intended to watch it at the Filmfest, but I'll never pay to watch a film that is cut. Gotta ask the German distributor.
Will Amasia be releasing it again? Also, do you know if Amasia will be releasing the 2010 Won Bin flick The Man from Nowhere?
Yes, Splendid's sublabel Amasia will be releasing it.

As for "The Man from Nowhere", I really hope somebody is going to pick it up. Splendid seems to be the right label having released "A Bittersweet Life".
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Re: I Saw the Devil (South-Korea, 2010) into censorship prob

Post by Yi-Long »

thelostdragon wrote:
Yi-Long wrote:
thelostdragon wrote:Thanks. It's showing at the Fantasy Filmfest in March over here in Germany. German Blu-ray will be released in April. Intended to watch it at the Filmfest, but I'll never pay to watch a film that is cut. Gotta ask the German distributor.
Will Amasia be releasing it again? Also, do you know if Amasia will be releasing the 2010 Won Bin flick The Man from Nowhere?
Yes, Splendid's sublabel Amasia will be releasing it.

As for "The Man from Nowhere", I really hope somebody is going to pick it up. Splendid seems to be the right label having released "A Bittersweet Life".
Yeah, I don't really have any complaints about Amasia, apart from them occasionally changing the title of a movie, making it pretty damn hard to find reviews for them... plus they seem to be releasing a lot of mediocre movies as well.

I don't think they've butchered any of their releases, have they!?
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Re: I Saw the Devil (South-Korea, 2010) into censorship prob

Post by thelostdragon »

Yi-Long wrote:I don't think they've butchered any of their releases, have they!?
In the past, they did butcher a lot of films. Not only violence, but dialogue etc. as well. But I think their policy regarding that has changed. Now they only cut films if the FSK forces them to.
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Re: I Saw the Devil (South-Korea, 2010) into censorship prob

Post by grim_tales »

Do you know if A Bittersweet Life is coming to BD, LD? :)
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Re: I Saw the Devil (South-Korea, 2010) into censorship prob

Post by Yi-Long »

thelostdragon wrote:
Yi-Long wrote:I don't think they've butchered any of their releases, have they!?
In the past, they did butcher a lot of films. Not only violence, but dialogue etc. as well. But I think their policy regarding that has changed. Now they only cut films if the FSK forces them to.
I thought they haven't been around that long? Sure hope I haven't been subjected to one of their cut releases.
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Re: I Saw the Devil (South-Korea, 2010) into censorship prob

Post by thelostdragon »

Yi-Long wrote:
thelostdragon wrote:
Yi-Long wrote:I don't think they've butchered any of their releases, have they!?
In the past, they did butcher a lot of films. Not only violence, but dialogue etc. as well. But I think their policy regarding that has changed. Now they only cut films if the FSK forces them to.
I thought they haven't been around that long? Sure hope I haven't been subjected to one of their cut releases.
Well, Amasia isn't that old, but Splendid is. It's the same guys, just with an additional name they added to their Asian releases. Lots of Jackie Chan films and other HK films were cut in the 80's. Don't know if they were the ones who cut them originally or if they just bought the rights to the cut versions from some other distributor.
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Re: I Saw the Devil (South-Korea, 2010) into censorship prob

Post by Yi-Long »

thelostdragon wrote:Well, Amasia isn't that old, but Splendid is. It's the same guys, just with an additional name they added to their Asian releases. Lots of Jackie Chan films and other HK films were cut in the 80's. Don't know if they were the ones who cut them originally or if they just bought the rights to the cut versions from some other distributor.
I don't think I have any of their old stuff, and if they're not cutting any of their releases now, I hope they'll be around for a long long time... :)
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Re: I Saw the Devil (South-Korea, 2010) into censorship prob

Post by thelostdragon »

Yi-Long wrote:I hope they'll be around for a long long time... :)
I think they will. They bought the rights to "The Expendables" before it has even finished shooting. I guess they are doing pretty well.
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Re: I Saw the Devil (South-Korea, 2010) into censorship prob

Post by Japanflix »

There must be some seriously Fucked up shit in this film for them to restrict it so much. I've seen a lot of Korean films and the things I've seen in their unrestricted films may well have traumatized me for life.