We’re back with a new Korean film review, this time we’re writing about the much loved film ‘The Witch: Part 1 The Subversion’.
‘The Witch’ was released in 2018 and was written and directed by Park Hoon-jung. In 2010 he wrote the screenplay for ‘Unjust’ which I added to my to-watch-list, because it was a box office success and won multiple awards for its writing, screenplay and acting.
Plot
In the film we start in a medical facility and as is the norm, questionable things that cross over moral boundaries are done in there. It’s a slaughterhouse including bad guys with guns who shoot everything that moves. One girl manages to escape and literally runs for her life.
Our protagonist, Ja-yoon is found by farmers. They’re a sweet old couple who take her in and raise her. That’s when we get a ten year time jump and we see teenaged Ja-yoon with her best friend, doing pretty okay.
That is, except for her massive debilitating headaches. Her adoptive mother is showing signs of dementia and the farmer couple is struggling financially. They’re doing their best though.
Ja-yoon decided to audition for a talent show in the hopes of winning the money to help her family. During her audition she makes a microphone float in the air. The show is aired on national television and the head of the medical facility realizes she isn’t quite as dead as she’d believed the girl to be.
That’s what sets off a hunt for Ja-yoon. They find her at her family home and Ja-yoon discovers that she has massive strength and insane reflexes. The men that held her family at gunpoint don’t quite survive.
It turns out that she’s not the only survivor from the facility. The other witches are in on the hunt too and their interactions with Ja-yoon gave us some of the best one-liners. ‘Godspeed’.
At this point, I can’t tell you more about the plot, but there are some really great action scenes and not everything is as it seems. It’s brilliant, sneaky, gave me all the strong female characters I needed and more. If you’re looking for something romantic, I wouldn’t recommend this though.
Cast
The actors in ‘The Witch: Part 1. The Subversion’ are fabulous. All of them did such an amazing job and had me thoroughly enthralled in the story.
Ja-yoon was portrayed by Kim Da-Mi. This was her first leading role and she absolutely smashed it. This film was an amazing stepping stone for her.
Jo Min-Su played the head of the facility, Dr. Baek. She’s played in films like ‘Venus Talk’ and dramas like ‘Goddess of Marriage’ and ‘The Cursed’.
The last major role was for Choi Woo-Shik who we all know and love from ‘Parasite’, ‘Time To Hunt’, ‘Train To Busan’ and ‘Fight for my way’. He was fabulous in this and had great chemistry with Ja-yoon that made him a believable antagonist.
Overall
Despite some of its plot holes, I thoroughly enjoyed watching ‘The Witch: Part 1 The Subversion’. It’s a great ride with cool action scenes and even better acting.
The second part of the series was supposed to come out in 2020 but that got delayed by COVID-19. I do hope they release Part. 2, because it ends in quite a mysterious way.
Go ahead and watch the trailer.
