It’s been four years since writer/director Park Hoon-jung thrilled audiences with The Witch: Part 1. The Subversion, featuring Kim Da-mi in the title role with a dark, brooding tale about a young girl whose mysterious past comes back to haunt her with violent effect. Four years later, the stage is set for another offering as Park delivers in full once more with The Witch: Part 2. The Other One – intriguingly titled, despite some of the sheepish reactions it got online, and certainly lends to a sort of menacing air per the narrative.
Both films are set against the backdrop of the Witch Program, a black-ops project aimed experimenting on young children at a private facility known as the Ark, with the result ending up in the child’s escape after a catastrophic event. Park’s sequel follows suit in some ways, firstly kicking things off with a foreboding prologue, which also includes a moment of betrayal involving a bus full of people, and a young woman’s kidnapping, after which it’s not long until the film introduces our latest protagonist in the form of another young girl (Shin Si-ah), initially presumed dead and covered in a blood-drenched gown when she awakens from what looks like a horrific massacre.
Moments later, she is taken into a van full of shady characters with another woman in captivity named Kyung-hee (Park Eun-bin), none of whom really unsuspect anything about the girl until the captors get a little aggresive, only to get summarily neutralized by the girl just before the van crashes, and Kyung-hee escapes the scene with her just before local law enforcement arrives. The rest of this particular arc sees the young girl, after recovering from injuries she sustained earlier on in events unseen in the film up until this point, acclimating to the safe and comfort of the remote home Kyung-hee shares with her brother, Dae-gil (Sung Yoo-bin).
As you might guess, the reprieve is only temporary, as it’s not long before the plot thickens and we are introduced to Yong-du (Jin Goo), a gangster and ambitious land developer whose eyes are set on the Jeju territory on which Kyung-hee’s home sits. With no one but the uncanny young girl who is compelled to ward off Yong-du and his men, little does Kyung-hee know that the girl’s exposure, as well as her uncanny abilities, has only brought more unwanted attention to the impending dark forces that now threaten the girl’s newfound peaceful life.
It wouldn’t have been enough to simply leave off with the inaugural 2018 film, which is getting to this point with a sequel feels so much more rewarding and promising. Park continues to prove himself to be adept at world-building with his latest sequel, which borrows from a number of genre classics that ultimately combine a number of favorable qualities into the film’s characterization and story progression. There are funny moments in the film where Dae-gil, reluctant to socialize with the girl at first, is later convinced that she is simply an alien from another planet, and spends most of his time curious about finding a way to use her talents to make her an internet star. There’s also one other aspect to her character that finds her discovering she has one hell of an appetite, after Dae-gil shows her videos of YouTube foodies, and it’s not before long until Kyung-hee and Dae-gil take her to a supermarket for the first time.
With a new sequel also comes a new set of villains and other antagonizing entities, including none other than returning actress Jo Min-soo in a dual capacity following the first film’s reveal of the mind behind the program, Dr. Baek. Other agents and factions from other labs, include a team led by Jang (Lee Jong-suk) and another unit known as the “To-Woo” out of Shanghai. Additionally, we have agent by the name of Jo-hyun (Seo Eun-su) who can kill as fast as she can talk smack between English and Korean dialects opposite her cumbersome, albeit useful European sidekick. To this end, the film also delivers wily, gory, lightning-fast and rioutously fun R-rated action sequences with high-flying stunts, and characters who are even more powerful and skilled than in the first film.
Underneath it all lies a particular recurring them as we follow our new protagonist in leading breakout, Shin, who, much like her predecessor, reportedly beat out well over a thousand candidates (the number here is closer to 1,400) for the lead role. You get the brief moments of respite and happiness the girl feels at times where she can sort of just be a teenager instead of a numb killing machine. Parallel to this, of course is the feeling of certain, inescapable dread from knowing the happiness won’t last, something both our new girl, and the first film’s Ja-yoon (Kim Da-mi) had to endure.
A seething, spectacular blend of body horror, action and sci-fi, The Witch: Part 2. The Other One widens the playing field to an even bigger character roster, proffering a sequel to moviegoers that bolsters its universe even greater. Things take a stark twist toward the end, setting the stakes just a little higher as we look ahead to what we can only hope will be a ‘Part 3’. Whether or not that happens or if a new heroine (or anti-heroine) emerges remains to be seen, while this newest chapter showcases riveting performances by our cast, including a prospective breakout performance in Shin Si-ah that should firmly set her screen career in motion going forward.
THE WITCH: PART 2. THE OTHER ONE is now playing in select theaters from Well Go USA.