For this week’s Patreon Exclusive Review, I’m writing about the 2019 film ‘Innocent Witness’.
Cast
This film tells the story about lawyer Soon-Ho portrayed by Jung Woo-Sung. He’s been in the industry since 1994 so he knows what he’s doing. He was very good and I liked his layered portrayal of Soon-Ho. He’s not immediately likeable because he’s trying to get a promotion at all costs.
The other lead character is Im Ji-Woo who’s a girl on the autism spectrum. She’s also the only witness to a potential murder. Ji-Woo is portrayed by Kim Hyang-Gi who was absolutely amazing. She was also the main character in the film ‘Young-Ju’ that I reviewed a while back.
Soon-Ho is responsible for the defense of the cleaning lady of the man who was found dead in his house. The cleaning lady was played by none other than Yum Hye-Ran. There’s quite some star power in this film and you can tell from the quality of the performances.
Lee Kyu-Hyung played another lawyer who has experience with autism and people on the spectrum. You might know him from ‘Hi, Bye Mama’ and many other amazing dramas.
Ji-Woo’s mom is portrayed by Jang Young-Nam who also has an enormous list of brilliant shows under her name. The latest most memorable one was ‘It’s okay to not be okay’.
Verdict
The film ‘Innocent Witness’ was written by Lee Han and Moon Ji-won and directed by Lee Han. It made 18 million USD in the box office and won multiple prizes during Award season.
Jung Woo-Sung won the Grand Prize at the Baeksang Arts Awards and the Golden Cinema Film Festival. Kim Hyang-Gi won Best Actress at the Korean Culture and Entertainment Awards and the Korean Association of Film Critics Awards.
I really enjoyed watching the film and its many layers. The character arc of the lawyer was quite simple when I come to think of it. But do we ever get sick of stories where the protagonist learns to be more empathetic? I don’t think so.
The story also took quite a few interesting turns and that was really cool as well. I would definitely recommend watching this.
Go ahead and watch the trailer.
