The Witch Part 1 The Subversion: First Time Reaction

Wow, that's a really great insight! I kept thinking of X-Men, too, as well as Black Widow and the Winter Soldiers. And yeah, the buildup was perfect for the anticipation/mystery leading up to the explosive finale. That's interesting info about Part 2, and we can't wait to see it!

Also some fun facts: Something i noticed recently is that movie don't usually have actors actually eating food too much. This is partially bc it's hard to eat without making the mouth sounds you heard here, and to be heard/understood (like in the train). But it's also because if you have to do like a ton of takes you might make them sick lol. Case in point, for the train scene the actresses said something like "yeah that kinda sucked, we had to eat like 90 eggs bc of all the retakes" And also that the main actress here, Kim Da-Mi, and the antagonist (who as you noticed was in Parasite and Train to Busan), Choi Woo-sik, would later reunite a few years later to play the protagonists and lovers in a romance tv series called Our Beloved Summer. I haven't watched it yet, but I know that show has some crossover with this movie because fans want to see the two actor's first work together (and come up with crazy alternate universe fanfiction) lol

Kelvin

Long comment below lol Usually I'm not someone who likes to rewatch movies, but this is just one of those that I always treasure even though I've seen it quite a few times now. I think it comes down to the fact that even though a lot of the elements of this story are technically familiar (you mentioned Stranger Things, I always think of the X-men movies, a few of which I still like a bunch), the movie makes it feel new in some circumstances and a deliberate sort of loving homage in others (orphaned kid raised on a farm with loving parents shaping her). I think part of it really comes down to them taking it slow and building up the character of Ja-Yoon and her relations here. A weaker movie wouldn't have had so much buildup or done the buildup not as well. Ironically I couldn't see that on my very first watch because I was kind of led astray by the person who recommended it to me; they basically compared it to John Wick and Upgrade, so I expected action in like 10 minutes and got annoyed when it didn't happen lol. But on the rewatch I totally got it and loved it. I think there's a weaker version of this movie where Ja-Yoon is totally what she appears to be on the surface in multiple parts. For example, we could have had a movie where she really didn't know what was happening. But in Subverting that, we get a story that is totally her own. She wasn't caught by some nefarious group and jumping through hoops to get the power, she planned it all. In the same way, I think a weaker movie would do the twist in a worse way, or do the twist and kind of stop there and it just makes her a crazy killer who was hidden and then she drives off into the night or something. But they bring her back and show she really does care about the relationships she's formed and the movie's built in the earlier half of the movie, while *even* in the process of doing that kind of showing that those relationships weren't completely blind to what she was/didn't completely change her nature. But they did save her, because otherwise she'd not have been able to live in society and have all the friends she did, and it made the parents pretty key in that way too even if they don't have superpowers or weren't perfect. So I really like this movie for the character stuff too. I have to temper expectations for Part 2 though a bit, sadly. There was some weird contractual stuff, so they couldn't get the original actress back for much of the sequel's runtime. She still appears, but she's not the main character, the next movie follows someone completely different because of it. And also in my experience at least, even though it's the same director and the sequel has all the same elements of this one, it's done a lot more weakly/subtly imo; I was disappointed on seeing it. But I think it's still worth a watch if you want! And the one thing they definitely do better is that in the sequel the action is incredible. I think like every fight in that movie is as good or better than the last one here, so you won't be disappointed there.

Kelvin