![]() The cast are terrific, with a standout performance from Da-mi Kim as Ja-yoon, the girl at the heart of the story. Certainly as director, Hoon-jung Park stages it very well indeed. It’s probably closer to something like The Villainess than The Raid films, but whichever way you look at it, it is exciting, brutal and has moments of humour too which was a pleasant surprise. We never see the opening massacre, We see some moments of violence, but really it’s not until the second hour the action kicks in.Īnd what impressive action it is. As a result for the first hour of the film there is little action. There are a number of scenes, where people are simply talking, setting things up to pay off at a later point, possibly in a future film. With ‘Part 1’ in the title and the way this film ends, it certainty that we’ll get at least one more, but with that being the case, this film has to do a lot of exposition, perhaps too much. The IMDB suggests it’s the first of a potential trilogy. ![]() This film is a completely different thing.īut the problem with it, is that we won’t know really what it is until the final film comes out. It’s written and directed by Hoon-jung Park, probably best known to western audiences as the screenwriter of ‘I Saw The Devil.’ That film involved a serial killer and was certainly encroaching into horror territory. Now we have The Witch: Part 1 – The Subversion. We’ve had the outstanding Raid films, the stunning Train To Busan and the superb film, The Villainess. Years later, the girl, who can’t remember her past, enters a talent contest, which leads those looking for her to find her…and in doing so, she finds out who she really is…Īsian cinema is on a bit of a roll recently. A young girl escapes a facility after a massacre of children there. Withholding information that the main character knows makes it impossible to feel what they’re feeling, and the reveal inevitably falls flat, which is what happens in The Witch: Part 1-The Subversion. It works because the viewer’s understanding and the character’s understanding changes together. And when the big reveal comes, the audience’s shock is Crowe’s shock too. He’s showing us the world through Crowe’s eyes. Night Shyamalan isn’t tricking his viewers. Bruce Willis’s Malcom Crowe in the classic The Sixth Sense doesn’t know he’s dead. Those fights might have been enough to make up for the slow start and the two-dimensional characters if it weren’t for the twist, which I won’t spoil. She lives the kind of power fantasy that’s normally reserved for male characters. It’s also great to see Ja-Yoon beat the everliving s*** out of people. Many of the combatants are powered, and it’s fun to watch them dismantle squads of stormtrooper style fodder. Park elects to go more of the 2000s realistic fight scenes, full of chaotic quick hits. It’s not enough to overcome the slow start, but the fight scenes are pretty damn cool. Related: Parasite’s Big Night at the Oscars is a Big Win for Horror He brings a pitch-perfect goofy, supervillain energy to everything he does. His performance is one of the highlights of the film. The previously mentioned Parasite ’s star Woo-sik Choi stars as the unnamed leader (credited as “Male English-Speaking Witch”) of a group of powered escapees who are also chasing her. ![]() Two opposing factions from within the institute want her back. RELATED: Seo-joon Park Exorcises Demons with His Fists in The Divine Fury On the way to and from Ja-Yoon’s second appearance on Birth of a Star, Park introduces the different groups that are after her. What starts out as the story of a star (albeit one who escaped from a supervillain training camp) being discovered turns into an action movie in the second hour. Like other Korean films - Parasite, A Tale of Two Sisters, The Wailing, and The Divine Fury to name a few - The Witch: Part 1 - The Subversion jumps between genres. ![]() Watching The Witch: Part 1 - The Subversion is something like that. Imagine listening to an hour long joke when you know the punchline. What makes the decision so strange is that the power’s nature is fairly obvious. Related: I Saw the Devil: The Pursuit of Revenge Love Real Life Ghost Hunting Shows? CLICK HERE FOR MORE! ![]()
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