With two episodes left until the end of Channel A‘s weekend drama ‘The Witch’, its tightly-packed narrative is gaining momentum and increasing the satisfaction of its regular viewers.

‘The Witch’ tells the story of Park Mi-jeong (played by Noh Jeong-eui), a reclusive woman with the stigma of a ‘witch’ after the men who like her start getting hurt or dying one by one, and Lee Dong-jin (played by Park Jin-young), a man who tries to save her from the law of death.

The drama is based on the webtoon of the same name (2013) by Kang Full, and director Kim Tae-gyun of the film ‘Dark Figure of Crime’, who directed the webtoon, added his own adaptation to fill in the blanks of the original work, precariously treading the line between pure love and stalking.

The actors’ acting skills also make the original characters, which were once fragmentary, three-dimensional, adding persuasiveness to their actions. Park Jin-young proved that he is an actor with a wide spectrum of acting by properly utilizing the charm of the complex genres of mystery, romance, and the mood that changes with each scene, and Noh Jung-eui showed a new face by shedding her glamorous image as the MZ goddess and transforming into a character that is plain but full of sadness.

It is unique in that it does not follow the typical romance structure. The male and female leads only meet in episode 7, and when the two are on the same screen, it becomes a thriller and creates a mysterious atmosphere. The setting where Lee Dong-jin tries to help Park Mi-jung from a place that is not visible like Daddy-Long-Legs presents a relationship model that acknowledges and supports the existence of a witch as it is, rather than a hero who saves a ‘witch’. It also adds original characters and content unique to the drama, delivering a positive message about how Park Mi-jung overcomes the witch hunt with the help of those around her. The compassion and regret shown by Lee Dong-jin‘s mother Mi-sook (played by Jang Hye-jin) and the reliable older sister character Heo Eun-sil (played by Jang Hee-ryeong) are characters who demonstrate modern solidarity.

In particular, the slow and long-winded directing style that goes against the short-form era is both a weakness and an advantage of ‘The Witch’. The analysis is that in order to make viewers understand the supernatural setting of the ‘Law of Death’ surrounding Park Mi-jung and the recklessness of data miner Lee Dong-jin who solves it only with ‘collected data’, the emotional lines of the characters had to be shown in depth and in many ways.

In fact, half of the 10 episodes were devoted to depicting the respective perspectives of Lee Dong-jin and Park Mi-jung, the interpersonal relationships surrounding the two, and the reason Lee Dong-jin began data mining his unrequited love, showing an effort to soften the original work’s stalking problem by giving it a sense of legitimacy.

In the latter half of the drama, episodes 7 and 8, the pace of development really picked up. Lee Dong-jin realized that the variable that avoided the ‘Law of Death’ was ‘Park Mi-jung‘s heart’, and he shed tears of vain realization that he was nothing more than a stalker. Nevertheless, he stood in front of her, risking his life for the last variable, ‘Park Mi-jung loving him’, which was a possibility that was close to zero. It was an ending that raised tension as to whether Lee Dong-jin would be able to safely avoid the ‘Law of Death’.

As a result, the viewership ratings for episode 8 recorded 3.1% nationwide and 3.2% in the metropolitan area, breaking its own record. The highest viewership rating at the time even reached 3.7%. (Provided by Nielsen Korea, based on paid households) It also ranked 2nd in Netflix Korea Top 10 (based on March 10-14).

It has shown remarkable results not only in the domestic market but also in overseas OTT markets. Among them, its early performance on the Viu chart, Asia’s largest regional OTT platform, is unusual. Unlike the romance genre that has been strong in the existing K-drama market, it has quickly settled into the overseas market despite being a mystery thriller.

According to Viu‘s weekly chart for the third week of February, ‘The Witch’ ranked 2nd in Indonesia and Thailand, 3rd in Malaysia, and 6th in Singapore and Hong Kong, showing a steep rise. On Rakuten Viki, an Asian content platform, the drama entered the top 10 in weekly viewership rankings in all regions including the Americas, Europe, Oceania, the Middle East, and India immediately after its airing, and has maintained its position in the top 5 in weekly viewership across all regions as of its third week of airing.

A+E Global Media (formerly A+E Networks Korea), which was in charge of the exclusive global distribution of ‘The Witch’, told Donga.com, “In an environment where the boundaries between broadcasting and OTT are rapidly collapsing, we have strategically expanded our content through major overseas OTT platforms based on Channel A in Korea.”In particular, by boldly distributing slow-paced dramas like ‘The Witch’, we focused on quenching the thirst of global viewers for in-depth dramas. “Even in the current trend where shorts and drama summaries are mainstream, providing a differentiated content experience is our core strategy,” he said.

The ending of the modern ‘witch’ story, which paradoxically gives us time to savor in an age of content obsessed with speed, can be seen on Channel A at 9:10 PM on the 15th and 16th.

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.