TAKING A STAND
In Innocent Witness, a lawyer with a slamdunk case instead finds himself on the road to redemption. By AMANDA SHEPPARD
The concept of ‘innocence’ implies a freedom from guilt, but also a pure, harmless soul. It is explored in both its forms in Lee Han’s latest film, Innocent Witness.
Housekeeper Mi-ran is charged with murder but vows that she was trying to protect, not kill, her elderly charge; while Ji-woo (Kim Hyang-gi) is her neighbour, an autistic teen and the unwitting sole witness to the death in question.
Bringing them together is
lawyer Soon-ho (Jung Woosung), who’s just joined the cutthroat corporate world. He is assigned Mi-ran’s case and told to discredit Ji-woo on the witness stand, by any means necessary.
What follows is a touching tale of connection and redemption, in which the lines between right and wrong in the personal and professional realms are challenged – and inevitably redrawn.
Director Lee Han is known for his gentle approach to handling sensitive social issues. His 2013 film Thread of Lies deals with the emotional repercussions after a family loses a member to suicide; while his 2011 coming- of-age movie Punch explores class and ethnicity in society.
In Innocent Witness he confronts much-stigmatised issues of mental health and developmental disability in a way that’s thoughtful yet confronting enough to highlight how these stigmas are very much prevalent in society today.
Kim’s portrayal of Ji-woo is nothing if not meticulous: she’s able to create a whole world of her own that viewers – and Soon-ho – can’t help but try to infiltrate. And it’s clear that such access must be earned, not demanded.
All too often, innocence can be seen as weak: but in Innocent Witness, it may hide the strongest of convictions.