Hansel & Gretel – Review

Hello everyone! My name’s Loc (like Loch in Loch Ness) and I’m a new writer for JapanCinema! Some things you need to know about my reviews: I pick movies to watch base on how interesting the title is and I love movies with something to tell not just something to show. Without further ado, I will start off with a Korean scary movie called Hansel and Gretel directed by Yim Pil-Sung and released in 2007.

I’m not really a scary movie person, but I HAD to see a movie based on one of the creepiest fairy-tale of all time. To refresh your memory, it’s a story about a boy and girl name Hansel and Gretel who are abandoned by their parents in the woods. They cleverly find their way back home each time, but finally got ditched for good. Luckily, or should I say unluckily, they find a house made of cakes and candy and get tricked into staying by a cannibal witch. I think we all know the rest. The movie plays out in the same manner, but instead the kids are now the evil witch(es) who lure and trap adult to their cakes and candy home. Their fate then depends on how well they play nice with the children.

The movie centers around Eun-su, played by Chun Jung Myung, who crashes his car while on the phone with his pregnant girlfriend and blacks out. His car rolls off the highway and landed in a dark, foreboding forest. He wakes up to find a young girl by the name of Young-hee who quietly leads him home to nurse him back to health. Once they’ve arrived, Eun-su sees a nice family with both parents, the oldest son name Man-bok, Young-hee, and the youngest Jeong-sun. Despite the smiles, the parents clearly act strangely nervous around the kids. Later on, they tell Eun-su that they’re leaving on a trip but never come back. Even stranger, later that night, dinner is served with meat when cakes and candy were the regulars.

As Eun-su tries to figure out the story behind this secluded house and the children that inhabit it, he finds out there were many adults that came before him and all have disappeared as well. What’s even more disturbing is their disappearance is depicted in a story hand-drawn by the children. Finally, he finds an unfinished story and the main character is indeed…him. When Eun-su tries to make his escape, the forest changes and his path always lead back to the strange little house. Is escape even possible?

I was drawn to the movie because of the title and also wanted to see how the director could adapt this well-known fairy tale into a scary and suspenseful film. Overall, I feel he did a good job but the pacing of the movie was way too drawn out. In addition, the main character played by Chun Jung Myung always talked incredibly slow and sluggish I thought he was high most of the time. The concept is, however, quite interesting switching the roles of the children and adult. In the original, it is the adult who tries to hurt the siblings, but it is the opposite in this movie. Adults are viewed as being corrupted who hurt everyone around them including children. Here, the children do the reprimanding in creative and twisted ways. In general, not a very scary movie, but it is very interesting.