THE WITNESS

Han Sang-hoon is an ordinary insurance claims investigator who moves his family into an upper-middle-class neighborhood. After a soju-filled night of celebrating with his colleagues, he comes home to pleas of help nearby. Outside, a serial killer with a weapon in hand towers over his victim and takes note of the lone light in Sang-hoon’s living room. Overwrought with conflict, Sang-hoon reluctantly realizes he is the primary witness to a heinous crime. Meanwhile, the neighborhood is up in arms from the negative attention, more worried about reputation than justice. Sang-hoon wishes it would all go away, even the police, but what happens when the killer is tying up loose ends, including Sang-hoon and his family? Can Han Sang-hoon turn a blind eye then?

Using the personal to take apart the social, director Jo Kyu-Jang’s (Mood of the Day) taut thriller takes on how the “bystander effect” and society cloud our sense of justice, asking: how will an ordinary salaryman deal with guilt and paranoia? THE WITNESS is less about solving a crime, and more about the consequences of saving face amidst it.

– Erwin Mendoza