Mowg’s pounding, atmospheric score stands out among impeccable tech specs across the board.According to Dispatch, an official from NEW confirmed the news in a phone interview and said, “Rookie actress Cynthia has been cast in The Witch 2 through audition.” If a second part is in the pipeline, as the title suggests, there was no need to rush key revelations. Park has a good eye for visuals and great DPs in Kim Young-ho (Park’s V.I.P., Haeundae) and Lee Teo, yet falls into a “tell” instead of “show” trap for character and narrative momentum Baek would give Auric Goldfinger a run for his verbose money. The sequence’s style, energy and Kim’s coiled glee save it from tipping into overkill. The Subversion is lean at two hours, but in cramming so much into the narrative it stumbles over itself on more than one occasion it very often forgets its own internal logic and drags the final showdown out to the breaking point. Park’s timing couldn’t be better.īy Korean action standards The Witch: Part 1.

She steers clear of bratty and precocious center of attention tics too often hoisted on female characters, and layers Ja-yoon with fear, gratitude, resignation and determination as required. Kim plays Ja-yoon close to the chest-Is she a psychopath? A mutant? A superhero?-in a nicely modulated performance as a young woman coming into her own and realizing her own power. That minor quibble (for some) aside, Park’s signature acrobatic and/or creative fights (choreographed by martial arts directors Park Jung-ryul and Kim Jung-min) and set pieces (another greenhouse, industrial-chic concrete hallways) are always in service to the story, never overwhelming it, and that kicks it up a notch at the end of the second act. Saying more about the occasionally overly-complex story would spoil it, but it is safe to say that given its title and the opening images of witchcraft lore dating from the Middle Ages to wartime human experimentation, The Witch isn’t actually a witch movie, and the title is more metaphoric. He eventually leaves her be, but reports his findings to Baek, whose lackeys have been looking for Ja-yoon for a decade. On the trip to Seoul for the performance, Ja-yoon meets Gong-ja (Choi Woo-shik, Okja), who claims to know her, insisting they have a connection. A quick fix appears in the form of a reality competition show that Ja-yoon’s bestie Myung-hee (Ko Min-shi) is sure she can win. Her only problems seem to be a lack of funds to run the farm with, and a mother suffering from Alzheimer’s. Ten years later, the girl, Ja-yoon (relative newcomer Kim Da-mi), is a clever young woman who has her small community-and her adoptive parents-wrapped around her finger.

A girl gets away and collapses on a nearby farm, whose elderly owners, the Koos (Choi Jung-woo and Oh Min-hee), promptly take her in and get her patched up. Choi (Park Hee-soon, doing his best to channel Lee Byung-hun). The slaughter unfolds in blue-tinged, neo-noir light, complete with flickering bulbs and slick floors, before the action heads outside where one of just two survivors, a little boy, has been caught by Baek’s right hand, Mr. The Witch opens in a hospital facility with a wholesale massacre of (grab your pearls) children at the behest of steely Professor Baek (Cho Min-soon, star of Kim Ki-duk’s divisive Pieta).

The witch the subversion