The Witch and the genetically modified children – when the movie is no longer just a movie

Fiction, reality and the fear of being created

When i started to watch The Witch: Part 1 – The Subversion, i didn’t know exactly what to expect. I had a vague idea that it was a Korean thriller with sci-fi elements, but i wasn’t prepared for what was to come. The movie doesn’t grab you from the start, but rather lets you settle comfortably into a story that seems simple: a girl, a family, a rural life. But something doesn’t connect. Something in Ja-yoon’s gaze, in the way she smiles, in her silences… tells you that there’s more there. Much more.

Kim Da-mi is phenomenal. She doesn’t just act well – she becomes the character. And when the truth starts to surface, it’s not just a narrative revelation, but an emotional awakening. I felt my stomach tighten, not out of fear, but anticipation. I knew something violent was coming, but i didn't expect it to be so elegant. Yes, elegant. Because the violence in, The Witch is not gratuitous – it's a form of liberation, of reclaiming one's own identity.

The second part, The Other One, is something else. It's no longer about Ja-yoon, but about another girl – mute, lost, but with a strength that seems to defy all logic. Here the film becomes more ambitious, but also riskier. The universe expands, more characters, more organizations, more narrative threads appear. Sometimes i felt overwhelmed, sometimes fascinated. It's as if the director wanted to throw all his ideas on the table and see what would catch on.

But what really touched me was the vulnerability of the protagonist. The fact that she doesn't speak, that she doesn't explain herself, that she just exists and yet says so much. It reminded me of the times when i too felt like i couldn't articulate what I was feeling, but it was all there in my eyes. The film made me think about what it means to be "made" - not born, not raised, but made. And what it means to reclaim your freedom when you don't even know what that is.

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In the end...I can't say that The Witch is perfect. But it doesn't have to be. It's a film that challenges you, that makes you feel uncomfortable, that doesn't give you clear answers. And that's exactly why i liked it. Because it gave me space to think, to feel, to wonder. If i had to describe it in one word? Unforgiving.

And maybe that's why it's memorable.

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When Fiction Becomes Reality: Genetically Modified Children

Hmmmm!!.....After watching The Witch, i was left with a nagging question: how far are we, as a society, from creating such beings in real life? And the answer, unfortunately, is not a reassuring one.

In 2018, in China, researcher He Jiankui announced that he had genetically modified human embryos using CRISPR-Cas9 technology, with the aim of making them resistant to HIV. The result? Three children born, following an experiment that shocked the entire scientific world. Not only was the procedure illegal and lacking ethical approval, but it was done in secret, with falsified documents and questionable consent.

What disturbed me the most? The fact that these children were placed under monitoring, and since then... nothing has been heard of them. Neither their identity, nor their health, nor whether the genetic modifications had any side effects. It's as if they were hidden from the world, like experiments that must be forgotten.

And then, i wonder: what freedom does a "manufactured" child have? What rights does someone who was modified before birth, without being able to consent, have? The Witch asks these questions in a fictional setting, but the reality is much colder. We have no answers. We only have silence.

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Genetic modification is not just a matter of science – it's a matter of identity, of rights, of humanity. In the film, Ja-yoon fights for her freedom. In reality, these children may not even know that they were created differently. Maybe they will never find out. Or maybe they will become symbols of an era in which science has crossed moral boundaries.

And then, The Witch is no longer just a film. It becomes a warning. A mirror. An awkward question: are we ready to live in a world where people are made, not born?

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I didn’t write this piece just to review a film. I wrote it because The Witch stirred something deeper in me — a need to understand the world we’re living in, and the one we might be heading toward. The film shook me, not just with its elegant brutality, but with the questions it raised about identity, control, and freedom. And what haunted me most was the feeling that it wasn’t just fiction. That somewhere, in the shadows of our reality, stories like this are already unfolding.

That’s how i ended up revisiting the real-life case of genetically modified children in China. It’s not a theory. It’s not sci-fi. It happened. And it’s terrifying. Because those children didn’t choose to be created. They had no voice. And now, no one knows where they are or what became of them. It’s as if they’ve been erased — hidden away like experiments that were never meant to be remembered.

This article is a bridge between two worlds: one imagined, one disturbingly real. Between a girl fighting for her freedom on screen, and children who may never even understand what freedom means. I didn’t write this to offer answers. I wrote it to make sure we don’t stop asking the hard questions.