The Witch: Part 1. The Subversion
Directed by: Park Hoon-jung
Written by: Park Hoon-jung
Starring: Kim Da-mi, Jo Min-soo, Choi Woo-shik, Park Hee-soon
Release Date: June 27, 2018 (South Korea)
Available on: Amazon Prime Video
I watched The Witch: Part 1. The Subversion on Amazon Prime and enjoyed it far more than I expected. At first glance, it seemed like yet another sci-fi thriller with shadowy government figures doing secret experiments and super-powered teenagers. But unlike most films in this category, this one actually made me care about the main character. It also helps that the action is fantastic, and the story, while familiar in parts, has a distinct edge that sets it apart from standard Hollywood superhero fare.
Of course, it does owe something to The Matrix—how could it not? The way the characters move in fight scenes, the slow-motion destruction, the general sense that someone is about to take off his sunglasses and say something cryptic—it all carries a definite Matrix influence. There’s also a bit of Blade Runner in its atmosphere, particularly in the sense that we’re watching a world where powerful people treat human life as disposable. But these are just influences. The film has its own identity, and it doesn’t feel like a copy of anything.
The film starts with a brutal opening sequence: a group of young children have been locked inside a research facility, to be experimented on and turned into something more than human. A girl—who will later be known as Ja-yoon—manages to escape. She’s wounded, barely clinging to life, but somehow stumbles into a rural village, where an elderly couple takes her in and raises her as their daughter.
Fast forward ten years, and Ja-yoon (played by Kim Da-mi) is now a seemingly normal high school student. She helps her parents on their struggling farm, keeps her head down, and shows no sign of being anything other than a typical teenager. But she suffers from terrible headaches, and something about her past is clearly not right. When she decides to enter a national talent contest to win money for her family, she inadvertently reveals herself to the people who have been searching for her all this time.
From that moment, things go rapidly out of control. A group of sinister individuals, led by the impeccably dressed and unsettlingly calm Nobleman (Choi Woo-shik), appear in Ja-yoon’s life, watching her from a distance, waiting for the right moment to strike. And then, when they do—well, that’s when things really kick off.
What makes The Witch better than your average super-powered thriller is that it doesn’t start with action. The first hour is entirely about Ja-yoon as a person, not just as a subject in a lab experiment. We see her struggle with ordinary life—her family’s financial difficulties, her school routine, her relationships. By the time we find out what she really is, we already like her, which makes what happens next all the more intense.
A lot of credit for this goes to Kim Da-mi. She gives a performance that makes Ja-yoon feel completely real, shifting effortlessly between a sweet, awkward schoolgirl and something much darker. It’s rare to see a character like this played so convincingly. She isn’t an obvious action hero at the start, but by the end, you can’t take your eyes off her.
Choi Woo-shik also deserves a mention as Nobleman. He’s a different kind of villain—calm, polite, and disturbingly amused by everything happening around him. There’s something about his quiet menace that makes him more frightening than if he’d been a standard, over-the-top bad guy. He doesn’t have to raise his voice to be threatening, which makes him even more unnerving.
The action, when it comes, is worth the wait. The final act of the film is packed with expertly choreographed fight scenes, made even better by the fact that we now care about who is fighting and why. Unlike many films that throw CGI and explosions at the screen in an attempt to impress, The Witch actually builds up to its action in a way that makes it feel earned.
The one issue I had with the film was the ending. It’s not that it’s bad—it’s just a little confusing. After spending so much time setting up Ja-yoon’s story, the final moments introduce new elements that aren’t fully explained. It’s clear that the film is setting up a sequel, but it feels as though a few pieces of information were deliberately left out just to create a cliffhanger. This wouldn’t be a problem if the sequel were easily available, but as it turns out, my parents refuse to pay for The Witch: Part 2 on Amazon Prime, meaning I have no idea how the story continues.
Overall, The Witch: Part 1. The Subversion is a fantastic sci-fi thriller. It takes familiar ideas—secret experiments, super-powered individuals, shadowy organisations—and does something fresh with them. The performances are excellent, the action is stylish but not excessive, and the slow-burn storytelling makes the final act all the more rewarding.
It’s frustrating that the ending leaves so many questions unanswered, but that just shows how invested I was in the story. If nothing else, it proves that this is more than just another mindless action film. It has real substance, and I’d gladly watch it again. If only the sequel were free.
Discover more from The Libertarian Alliance
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
[…] that made The Witch: Part 1 – The Subversion such a compelling experience. It was, as I wrote in my review, a “thrilling, character-driven sci-fi […]