Bedevilled (Korean: 김복남 살인사건의 전말; Hanja: 金福南 殺人事件의 顚末; RR: Kim Bok-nam Salinsageonui Jeonmal; lit. "The Whole Story of the Kim Bok-nam Murder Case") is a 2010 South Korean horror film starring Seo Young-hee and Ji Sung-won. The film premiered as an official selection of Critics' Week at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival.
It is the feature directorial debut of Jang Cheol-soo, who worked as an assistant director on the Kim Ki-duk films Samaritan Girl and Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring. The film was a runaway hit in Korea, with the box-office returns far exceeding its ₩700 million (US$636,363) budget
REAR COVER OF DVD
Beautiful Hae-won needs to get away from it all and finds herself drawn to Moo Island, a place where she once spent an idyllic childhood holiday. On arrival she's reunited with her old friend Bok-nam.
Hae-won soon discovers that the beautiful island paradise hides a darker, more grotesque society. The hapless Bok-nam is ritually abused by the island's population. When an attempt to escape ends in tragic results, Bok-nam decides to take things into her own hands. With nothing left to lose, Bok-nam begins a reign of gruesome, blood-drenched revenge.
Pawerful, paignant and extremely unsettling. Bedevilled is one of the most shacking and disturbing films from Korea since the notorious OLDBOY, an experience you'll never forget.
DETAILED PLOT
Hae-won works in a Seoul bank. A stern, tense woman, her status and hyper competitive mentality make her apathetic to other people. After witnessing violence against a woman resulting in death, she refuses to identify the culprit because it's not her problem, even after the offender sexually harasses her. At work, she is accidentally locked in the toilet by the janitor and assumes one of her co-workers pranked her. She slaps her co-worker before realizing she is wrong. Hae-won is fired and accepts a friend's offer to take a vacation in Mudo, the desolate and socially backward Southern island where she spent her childhood.
On the island, Hae-won is warmly welcomed by Bok-nam, with whom she was close when they were teenagers, but whose constant letters she's since ignored. Life on the undeveloped island is hard, and Bok-nam is treated as little more than a slave by her abusive husband Man-jong, his lustful brother, and the local women. Bok-nam's love is reserved for her young daughter Yeon-hee, with whom she tries to escape for a better life. Man-jong is abusing and grooming Yeon-hee, to Bok-nam's rage. Yeon-hee is accidentally killed while trying to defend her mother against Man-Jong. Bok-nam, crying, reveals that Yeon-Hee may not be Man-Jong's daughter, as Bok-nam was raped by many local men.
In a flashback, Hae-won was teaching Bok-nam how to play a tune on her recorder when four local boys began harassing them. Hae-won fled and witnessed the boys assaulting the unconscious Bok-nam.
The locals lie to police when questioned about the death of Yeon-hee, and Hae-won does not support Bok-nam. Bok-nam snaps and begins killing everyone she comes across, armed with a sickle. After murdering three old women, she chases her mother-in-law to the cliff but swings the sickle blade out of the handle due to her poor eyesight. The mother-in-law sees Man-Jong and his brother returning by boat and tries to swim to the boat for help. Due to poor eyesight, she miscalculates the distance to the water and dies falling on the rocks below. Bok-nam decapitates her brother-in-law. Man-jong tries to kill Bok-nam, snapping Hae-won out of her apathy. She threatens to call the police, and he says he can either kill Hae-won or make her his new wife. Bok-nam seduces him by licking his knife. As Man-jong lets down his guard, she bites his finger. They fight until she kills him with the knife. She smears his body with bean paste in mockery of his earlier remark about curing her bruises with bean paste. Terrified, Hae-won runs to the boat. Bok-nam catches up and tries to drown the oarsman for helping Man-jong. As Hae-won tries to turn the boat, the oarsman is caught in the propeller and torn to shreds. Hae-won escapes to the mainland.
Bok-nam travels to Seoul with the childhood recorder and tries to kill Hae-won, who is in police custody. Hae-won did witness Yeon-hee's murder, but lied to the investigator about being asleep. A policeman shoots Bok-nam and she kills him with a sledgehammer. Hae-won kills Bok-nam, who dies in her lap, with the broken recorder. All the murdered victims have been buried or cremated by Bok-nam, leaving the island devoid of human life.
Traumatized and guilt-ridden, Hae-won points out the culprits of the sexual assault she witnessed to the police. She takes Bok-nam's letters out of the trash and reads them, regretting not helping Bok-nam when she had the chance.[4][5][6][7]