Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.0

The Witch 2: The Other One Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman November 4, 2022

It's probably going to be unavoidably hilarious to those with jaded senses of humor, especially about the movie business (ahem), that this film is called The Witch 2: The Other One, since some wags might have termed the film which gave (unholy?) birth to this one, The Witch: Subversion, could have itself been called The Witch: The Other One, since it appeared in the wake of the probably overall better remembered The Witch. As I mentioned in our The Witch: Subversion Blu-ray review, that film was actually released in some markets with Part One stuffed in there after The Witch, which (no homonym pun intended) obviously indicated a follow up might be in order. As I also mentioned in the review of the first entry in this apparently nascent franchise, the fact that the first outing ran well over two hours might itself indicate that The Witch has an almost insanely Byzantine plot and a surplus of characters, something this second outing also features, for better or worse.

And in fact The Witch 2: The Other One covers so much of the same ground, sometimes seemingly literally in terms of elements like bloody little girls lost in the woods, while also spending more than two hours getting to a place which I'm assuming announces a third entry (only a logo without subtitles is offered, so I can't opine authoritatively). What's so frustrating about this is that because of all the repetitiveness, this film could very well have been named The Witch 2: A lot Like the First One. The first hurdle some "mature" viewers may have to overcome is an early scene which is identified as having taken place "a long time ago", but which offers two young girls arguing about the relative strengths of MP3s versus cassette tapes. That vignette ends with a horrifying event which sees one of those girls taken prisoner, where it's revealed she's pregnant with twins who the notorious Dr. Baek (Jo Min-su) assures the frightened mother to be will change the world.

Meanwhile, yet another bloody and battered young girl (Shin Si-ah) has been shown escaping a high tech facility where carnage has obviously occurred. The girl, who is code named Ark 1, is soon found by a passing car which kind of ridiculously turns out to belong to a bigwig crime boss named Yong-doo (Jin Goo), and it may be this patently odd sidebar that strikes fans of The Witch: Subversion as being unnecessary and frankly just kind of annoying after a while. Another woman in the car is named Kyung-hee (Park Eun-bin), who ends up helping Ark 1 when Ark 1's "particular set of skills" ends in disaster for the crime boss' henchmen. One major strand of the film then follows the developing relationship between Ark 1 and Kyung-hee, as well as a perhaps quasi-romantic unfolding involving Ark 1 and Kyung-hee's brother, Dae-gil (Sung Yoo-bin). Things are further complicated by the fact that Yong-doo is out for the deed to property owned by Kyung-hee, with suddenly thrusts this enterprise into old timey melodrama territory, where one might reasonably expect Yong-doo to be twirling an outsized mustache as he laughs maniacally at his dastardly plans.

Lest all of the foregoing not completely satisfy those who want even more befuddlement and subplots at cross purposes with each other, two bounty hunter types, Jo-hyeon (Seo Eun-soo) and a male counterpart (Justin John Harvey), with the two often engaging in banter that is ostensibly comical but which clashes pretty badly with a tone that is otherwise graphically violent and often probably too "layered" for its own good. What should be a fairly straightforward cat and mouse game with science fiction undertones instead devolves into an endless series of detours that arguably take too long without ever delivering any real goods in terms of "ultimate" answers (one assumes that's what the third outing will do, unless it follows suit and spends more than two hours simply setting up a fourth film).

While The Witch 2: The Other One definitely could have used some serious pruning in terms of narrative and the sheer number of characters populating the enterprise, it does benefit from some of the same near hallucinogenic visuals and sound design that were part and parcel of the first film. This is yet another story that requires "staying tuned" through the credits for a bit of a coda, kind of weirdly featuring Jo-hyeon and her male partner, but my hunch is after two hours and change, many will have ceased to care.

The Witch 2: The Other One Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Witch 2: The Other One is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Well Go USA with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. Despite a glut of logos dotting the end of the closing credits roll, I didn't see any for cameras, and much as with the first film in this series, I haven't been able to uncover any authoritative information on the technical aspects of the shoot or the resolution of the DI. One way or the other, this is another very striking presentation that is very much in line with the first film, though this second outing tends to grade things in yellow quite frequently, along with those cobalt blues which were so much a part of the first film. Other moments have a pronounced greenish tint, but through all of these stylistic choices, detail levels remain remarkably intact. A number of "dark and stormy night" sequences, or at least dark and foggy or misty resolve very nicely, without any compression artifacts that I noticed. There are some passing deficits in shadow definition in some of the darkest material.

The Witch 2: The Other One Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Witch 2: The Other One follows Well Go USA's tradition of offering both DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and Dolby Digital 2.0 options in the original language (in this case Korean) and an English dub. I toggled between the two surround tracks while watching and noticed no discernable differences in general amplitude or overall mix, other than the obvious differences in voice work. I'd still recommend sticking with the Korean track if you don't mind reading subtitles, and the good news is some of the interplay between the two bounty hunter types is actually in English anyway. The sound design here is arguably even more impressive than the excellent sonic qualities of the first film, and there are both rumbly low frequency effects and some possibly painful high frequency tones that indicate what might be auditory hallucinations being experienced by Ark 1. A number of fight scenes, both hand to hand and of course featuring guns, also provide some really impressive surround activity. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.

The Witch 2: The Other One Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Behind the Scenes (HD; 4:17)


• Trailer (HD; 1:44)

Note: As tends to be the case with Well Go USA Blu-ray releases, the disc has been authored so that supplements follow one another automatically (so that clicking on Behind the Scenes is essentially a Play All button. The disc is also authored to automatically move on to trailers for other Well Go USA releases after the Trailer for this film plays. Those trailers for other Well Go USA releases also play automatically at disc boot up.

Additionally, packaging features a slipcover.

The Witch 2: The Other One Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

It's kind of ironically amusing that so much of the subtext of this nascent franchise has to do with twins, since this second outing is in many ways more or less identical to the first. If you are a fan of The Witch: Subversion, my hunch is you'll enjoy this film, despite what I personally feel is its over length and over reliance on way too many subplots and characters. Technical merits are first rate for anyone who may be considering making a purchase.