The Channel A weekend drama ‘The Witch’, which first aired on the 15th, has become a hot topic in just two episodes. This is because the charm of the work, which is a feast for the eyes, enjoyable for the ears, and heartbreaking at the same time, and even provides laughter with unexpected points, has been fully revealed. As if to prove this, the highest viewership rating per minute for the second episode that aired on the 16th rose to 3.5%. (Provided by Nielsen Korea, based on paid households)

● Park Jin-young and Noh Jung-ui, detailed past stories shown from each other‘s perspectives

‘The Witch’ opened with the painful past story of ‘Dong-jin’ (played by Park Jin-young), a man who tries to break the bad luck surrounding women called witches, and ‘Mi-jung’ (played by Noh Jung-ui), a woman who became the seed of tragedy and cut herself off from the world. And the process was depicted from the perspectives of Dong-jin and Mi-jung over episodes 1 and 2. From the first episode, instead of the fast-paced development that is typical of other dramas, the past narratives were densely built up through each other’s perspectives. And viewers responded to this ‘Ping-Pong narrative’ with “great welcome”. The detailed and kindly built narratives actually caused excessive immersion.

When Dong-jin witnessed Mi-jung‘s sadness while the students were mourning the male student who died from lightning, Mi-jung was tormented by guilt, saying, “If Jeong-hwan hadn’t met me that day, wouldn‘t he have died?”. Mi-jung, who was afraid of meeting people, always ate lunch in a remote corner, and it was Dong-jin who set up an awning for her. When the year changed and the third grade began in March, this time, a male student in the same class died from electrocution. Mi-jung, who was full of wounds, left school right away, and Dong-jin could only watch. In the end, he couldn’t say “Hello, I‘m Lee Dong-jin” and kept it in his heart. And then, when even her father, Jong-soo (played by Ahn Nae-sang), died because of her, Mi-jung ran away from the village where she had lived for a long time. The story that built up like this makes us look forward to the story of Dong-jin and Mi-jung who met again 10 years later, as if it were a lie.

● Park Jin-young and Noh Jung-ui, a ‘real couple’ romance that turned expectations into certainty

At the center of it all are Lee Dong-jin and Park Mi-jung, and Park Jin-young and Noh Jung-ui, who created dazzling acting and chemistry that melted into them themselves. First, Park Jin-young multiplied the charms of Dong-jin in each character, from the ordinary student who studies hard and gets along with his friends, to the immature son in front of his mother, to the clumsy man who can’t approach the woman he has a crush on. On the other hand, Noh Jeong-ui delicately unraveled the story of Mi-jeong, who isolates herself due to a deep-rooted wound in her heart and endures her daily life, drawing favorable reviews.

Above all, the romantic chemistry between the two, who had been nicknamed a “real couple” even before the broadcast and had viewers eagerly awaiting them, turned those expectations into certainty. The visuals that made people say, “Just looking at their faces tells a romantic story,” were self-explanatory, and their acting chemistry, which delicately expressed the changing emotions through the tightly developed story, was perfect.

● “Great aesthetic!” Director Kim Tae-gyun and writer Jo Yoo-jin showed their power of directing and adaptation from the first broadcast

Director Kim Tae-gyun and writer Jo Yoo-jin, who showed their power of directing and adaptation from the first broadcast, are the reason why we look forward to future broadcasts even more. Director Kim Tae-gyun filled the beauty of blank space with overwhelming immersion. Especially, the scene where Dong-jin wants to turn back time on the day Mi-jung leaves school, ‘Snow Falling Above’, was directed, and even the actors were amazed. The viewers also responded to the directing, saying, “The sense of beauty is so good”, “It‘s sadly pretty”, “It’s like a movie”.

The way to convey the problem that a work with an original work cannot help but face and the point of differentiation was also cleverly solved. It not only provided a different kind of fun by finding the adapted points in the original storyline, but also made the audience more immersed in the characters‘ narrative and emotions. In the original, it was told from the perspective of detective Jung-hyuk (played by Im Jae-hyuk), but in the drama, it followed the perspectives of Dong-jin and Mi-jung. The scene where Dong-jin pressures his mother Mi-sook (played by Jang Hye-jin) to set up a sunshade and visits Mi-jung’s house with a graduation album and a bouquet of flowers after the graduation ceremony was also added in the adaptation. The story naturally filled in between the scenes of the short webtoon made ‘The Witch’ even richer, and announced the birth of a work that was well-received by fans of the original work.

Channel A‘s Saturday-Sunday drama ‘The Witch’ airs every Saturday and Sunday at 9:10 p.m.

Jeon Hyo-jin, Donga.com reporter jhj@donga.com

This article is automatically translated using Google AI. If you notice any inaccuracies, please let us know at allkstar@donga.com.