The Witch: Part 1 - The Subversion (2018)
She might be the one.
Fun story for the lead up to tonight. On a journey through the YouTube rabbit hole of music videos (for those that aren’t me and know what I’m talking, that’s when you just keep clicking recommended videos and try not to run into repeats) for a band me and a pal had found, I came across one song that was from an OST. We did some searching to try and figure out what it was to, and it turns out it’s to the sequel of a movie that I had watched before but he had never seen. Lead on up to tonight, where I can use it as a review since I've apparently only done that double V title - tonight is a bit more menacing than that though. Strap in for a ride and some subtitled reading (unless you speak Korean), tonight we watch The Witch.
There’s a whole subtitle thing to it to, but let’s just suffice for calling it “Part one” if we need to distinguish it from any other Witches out there. Our story starts with a pile of bodies and a bunch of folks chasing after a girl through the woods. For some reason, there’s a brutal clean up of folks, but we aren’t entirely privy to the full details yet, and when the girl seems to escape they aren’t that worried about it as surely she’ll be dead soon anyway. Surprise though, she isn’t and makes a pretty good comeback after a farmer finds her and he and his wife get the doctor involved. Years later, mom has some issues with some Alzheimer’s (arguably the scariest thing in the movie), the girl is helping out around and everything seems relatively normal. Her friend even convinces her to enter a talent contest - although perhaps the amount of money is more the draw, as it could really be used to help the family out after the cow market has kind of crashed leaving the farming business in a bit of a bind. Don’t you know, the sudden televised appearance of her talents cues the strange men in black cars showing up, and her world seemingly is about to flip upside down.
Acting is good, but I have to be honest when I say once again I don’t know the language. In turn, I might be missing some intonations or word play that’s going on that doesn’t come across as I read the subtitles. As far as body language though, they do a great job. Facial expressions also get a lot of well done play here. I will say some of it could be considered a bit over the top when it comes to the villains or the end of the movie, but at no time did I necessarily get ripped out of the movie like someone suddenly breaking out into a song and dance number would cause. Also, the main actress has some range, because that flip towards the end is downright scary.
Characters are there, although I would point the main conversation points more towards thoughts and morals then development for most. The main has an arc, but it’s more of a mystery and discovery path for the viewer than it really is her developing as a character necessarily. As the mystery plays out and gets more clear, there are little “aha!” moments even for some of the characters themselves, and the acting does a lot to make them feel like they are hitting the role well - but for the level of drama going on it is a bit surprising that it doesn’t feel like there’s a heavy character journey that goes on.
Random kid in the field? Eyes of a hawk.
Costumes are area and time matching. I think that’s about the coolest way I can say “it blends modern to what you expect, so you really just don’t even register costumes as costumes.” Some folks get a collection of scars to sport on them to add a bit of flavor, but fine dressed and black matrix-like outfits that don’t stand out too far doesn’t stick in the head to solidly. Probably the most stand out thing about a costume is the friend’s constant hair roller - but even that technically isn’t that crazy or stand out. It all just looks like it should - but you also won’t find yourself being confused by whose who at any point, as all the actors and actresses do cut a different enough look and vibe that they can still feel like individuals.
Action, when it crops up - mostly in the final leg of the movie - is pretty baller. It gets real brutal, but in an old school sense where it’s breaks and squibs and blood wall paintings as opposed to anything graphic like gaping wounds and spilling innards. It pulls back from being unnecessarily gory while still retaining the brutal “ow” factor of some of the hits. It does suffer a little bit from some super-power style action here and there where it can feel a bit comic book, but considering how long Marvel movies have still been doing good I don’t think that would be a problem for most people.
Audio is there. One buddy had mentioned the volume levels of the movie being a bit all over the place, but I didn’t have the same experience. That said, my ears aren’t the greatest, and my audio setup might not be as sensitive to a wider range of loud and soft as his might be. Lines are delivered well - i think. Again, I don’t speak the language so I really can’t speak to that. Music is there, but it leaves my head by the credits as usual. For the thinking folks, there’s a decent amount here but the biggest thing would probably be about how being raised can impact a person - that nature versus nurture idea with the added super soldier indoctrinated violence angle that comes up in a lot of spy, soldier, or young warrior kind of flicks. It handles it pretty well all considering it really doesn’t bring that point up until the end of the movie - a bit of an attesting to effectiveness when I call it the main point, no? We do also have some stuff in there with the whole outdated at this point “using only part of your mind” science angle, and stuff about family and life in general. Thinking folks could probably find more in it - I mean, it really feels more like a thriller drama movie until the end crops up with all the action.
A couple of girls out on the town.
I enjoyed it the first time, and probably enjoyed it just as much this time. It’s a cool little flick as long as you can either speak Korean or don’t mind reading subtitles (so probably not a great background noise kind of movie). When the action picks up it’s pretty awesome, but the acting and especially the lead will probably leave the biggest impact on a person after watching it. It has some thoughts, it’s got some good story telling elements as long as you can be patient enough to connect it all together and get the full picture, and it’s got some well done action - I look forward to when I finally get around to the second one.