The Witness

If there was ever a character that I wished would be murdered it is the main protagonist of this movie. Along with many of the other tenants. Gutless, spineless simpering coward. OMG how I wanted him to die.

This movie really made me uncomfortable. How can people be like this? Sadly this actually probably reflects reality more than our average heroic Hollywood movie.

I don't know why people haven't reviewed this movie yet. Like other South Korean movies I've seen, this one didn't disappoint.

The movie starts with Sang-Hoon coming home from having some drinks with his work colleages, when he gets home he hears a woman's scream, when he looks put of the window he sees a man hitting a woman with a hammer. He is shocked and doesn't know how to react when the murderer makes eye contact with him.

The next day the woman is found dead and the police is investigating the case. Since he might be the only witness that night, he decides not to tell the police anything, but the murderer saw him and is now after him. Now Sang-Hoon will have to protect his family from the murderer.

The movie is packed with action and suspense moments. The actors are great, did an excellent job. The murderer's character is a bit undeveloped what we know is that he likes to kill. But well, it's nice to find a movie that uses different ideas, hammer instead of guns, storms, snow.

The movie was overall really good, entertaining, nice way to want to spend 2 hours.

The movie is well made technically but the characters are acting in unrealistic, unrelatable and implausible ways from beginning to end. Maybe if you can suspend disbelief you'll be able to enjoy it, but unfortunately I couldn't.

With a killer on the loose and The Witness paralyzed by fear this movie is as much an indictment on the false security and anonymity of modern living as it is a crime thriller. This is a crime movie, but it is more than that as a man discovers that everything he aimed for and wanted to protect was taking away his humanity. With a killer easily evading what seem to be efficient but disconnected cops the story seems a bit contrived but overall worth the time to watch and the action continues from start to finish.

I'm not saying that "Mok-gyeok-ja" ("The Witness") is a must-see, but it does does tick off a few boxes that makes it worthwhile. Suspenseful? Check. Twists? Check? Deliciously violent? Check. Good acting and cinematography? Check. What are it's weak points? Mainly character development. The lead guy, the father, is the most spineless, ball-less coward under the sun, but at the end, suddenly grows a pair so large his gonads are the size of basketballs. Completely implausible. The filmmakers tried but the development was just uneven. Still, given the very nice ending, I do recommended this film.