the witch part 1. the subversion explained

#The witch part 1. the subversion explained movie#

I bring this up, as, like any other Korean film, The Witch subverts the slice of life tone about as dramatically as possible. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with that, however, there are more ways to tell a story than by slavishly adhering to a singular tone. Western cinema, rather dully if you ask me, establishes one tone and sticks to it like a toy car to its electronic track. Korea, Japan, China, Hong Kong, watch any of their film output and the one consistent will be their inconsistency.

Throughout that first hour, Ja-Yoon is shown to be suffering from violent headaches, twin that with the nasty violence of the first scene and we know that this tension is building towards a violent release. In the second half, tone and direction completely change. Together they are adorable, there’s nothing complicated about either of them but their friendship is a joy to just be around. Together the two girls have a relatively normal life in the Korean countryside, they talk about boys and are fully committed to Ja-Yoon doing well on a TV talent show. Fast forward ten years and that little girl now goes by Ja-Yoon (Kim Da-Mi), and best friend to the flighty Myung-Hee (Go Min-Si).

#The witch part 1. the subversion explained movie#

The movie opens with a nasty scene in which some adults are attempting to kill some children who are part of their illicit underground school, one girl escapes and is saved by collapsing exhausted in the grounds of a well-to-do couple who end up taking her in as their daughter. New World is a prominent gangster epic (of comparable stature to A Dirty Carnival), I Saw The Devil is a grim satire of the Korean Revenge narrative that saw Korea garner global recognition and the Witch? Honestly… it’s a little anime. The Witch Part 1: the Subversion is the latest directorial effort from the man behind New World and I saw the Devil writer, Park Hoon-Jung, and it is unlike either of those high profile movies.