| Hansel and Gretel | |
|---|---|
 Poster for Hansel and Gretel (2007) |
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| Hangul | 헨젤과 그레텔 |
| Directed by | Yim Pil-Sung[1] |
| Written by | Kim Min Suk |
| Starring | Cheon Jeon-yeong Eun Won-jae Shim Eun-kyeong Jin Ji-hye |
| Music by | Lee Byung-woo |
| Distributed by | CJ Entertainment |
| Release date(s) | December 27, 2007 |
| Country | South Korea |
| Language | Korean |
Hansel and Gretel (헨젤과 그레텔) is a 2007 South Korean horror film.
Contents |
The scene began with pictures that narrates the original Hansel and Gretel's story. It then shifted to Eun-soo, a salesman, driving his car while talking to his girlfriend on the phone. Apparently, his girlfriend was four weeks pregnant and wanted him by her side. But he can't because his mother is ill and he had to visit. So as they got into a quarrel Eun-soo accidentally drove into a boulder which caused his car flip over the side of the road.
When Eun-soo came to,he realized that he had been unconscious for hours and that he is now stranded in a unknown dark forest. He tried to keep himself awake as he wander around in the woods but eventually fainted. In the next scene,as he became conscious again Eun-soon saw a light in the distant.The source of light was actually a lantern held in a little girl's hand(Kim Young-hee).
The little girl came and helped Eun-Soo up and as they were walking, Eun-soo asked her name and she told him her name was Young-hee. He then followed her into a big, neat house in the middle of the forest.The house's signboard read "House of Happy Children".
In the terrace her parents were waiting, with her two siblings, who is introduced as Man-bok, her older brother, and Jung-soon her little sister. Strangely their parents were acting weird,like as if they were nervous and afraid of something.The next day,when Eun-soo woke up he saw many sweets on the table.But strangely enough the children were monitoring every movement he made. He then decided to leave, but had to retrace his steps and go back to the house as darkness was fast approaching.It was then he realized that he could never get out of that forest.
As he continues to attempt escape out of the house he realized that the parents were missing.This is also when we learn the reason to why Man-bok is always filled with anger and why the children are always watching the same, sadistic TV show that kept replaying over again. We also learn the source of the creepy sound in the attic.Eu-Soo then plucked the courage to investigate the source from the attic. To his surprise he found their mother, who was hiding in the attic.He then found out from her ,that she and her husband were not their real parents. Their car broke down at the same highway and they were found by the children and now they could never get out.
She then adviced him to not believe the innocence of the children as it is only pretence.The day after, it was snowing. Eun-soo met Man-bok and a couple who was going into the house. The husband was a deacon named Byun and he seemed very nice and was sympathetic to the children while the wife had a malicious aura about her. As Eun-soo kept looking for clues, he realized that the meat they were eating at dinner that night was actually the cooked body of their "father",and that their "mother", had been turned into a china doll. He also realized that Byun's wife had disappeared.
That night, Eu-Soo spied on Man-bok who was secretly going into the woods. He then followed Man-bok, and made a trail of breadcrumbs so he wouldn't get lost.He was given this advice from Young-hee who got the idea from the original Hansel & Gretel.As he continues following Man-Bok he chanced upon a huge oak tree and was horrified to find out that it was Byun wife.She has been turned into the tree.
Man-bok finally stopped in front of a mysterious door, it opens to a room filled with dust. When Man-bok left, Eun-soo immediately went into the room to further investigate on what's going on. He looked over some notes and found out that the children was actually over thirty years old. Suddenly Young-hee came and when Eun-soo looked at her face, it was an old woman's face. Then she strangely went back to the house. He decided to go back, and found Byun was a paedophile who is now trying to kill the children. Eun-soon took Byun by surprised and managed to knock out before asking the children to tell him what was happening all along. As Young-hee began the story, the scene turned into a flashback.
The kids were originally living in an orphanage called "House of Happy Children". The caretaker was abusive, he had always wanted the children dead. One Christmas morning when Santa Claus came, he gave them powers to make their imagination come true. Alongside that, he gave them a box of sweets, and a storybook which told the story of Hansel and Gretel. As the children read the story, they began to believe that it's true even the part of when Gretel pushed the evil witch into the burning fireplace. They believe that all bad adults must not go unpunished.
Man-bok, Young-hee and Jung-soon couldn't stand the caretaker and his abuse any longer, so with the power of their imagination they screamed and the caretaker was burned in the fireplace. Since then they tried to find suitable parents to care for them, but the ones they found were unsatisfactory.
As Kim Young-hee is telling the story Byun became conscious and attempted to break Eun-soo's neck.Man-bok saved Eun Soo by screaming which killed Byun just like how they killed the caretaker.
They confronted Eun-soo about not leaving them, he told them to have a life and they refused, finally they let him go.Christmas morning, one year later, Eun-soo finally made his choice to marry his girlfriend. They now have a baby and his girlfriend asked him to buy milk. When he went to the living room he took out a scrapbook filled with articles about Deacon Byun, and Highway 37 where he fell into the woods, people called it "the road of death". While he was thinking about the children, he found a blank notebook, but at the end page he saw a drawing of three smiling kids, "happily ever after". He slowly wept and as he looked out of the window, three shadowy figures of Man-bok, Young-hee, and Jung-soon, went back from Eun-soo's house to their place into the woods, and the screen finally faded to black.
More International Film Festival to be announced
United Kingdom : January 16, 2009 in TheatreCalum Waddell, Fangoria
Rob Daniel, Sky Movies
X, Twitchfilm
AnthroFred, Slasherpool
Andre Koh, The UrbanWire
Rob Nelson, Variety
Other Reviews :
  | Variety - Hansel and Gretel Movie Review - Read Variety's Analysis Of The Film Hansel and Gretel |
| | French Distributor : Wild Side - Wild Side Films |
| | Trailer - YouTube - Hansel and Gretel Trailer |
| | Movie Exclusive - Hansel & Gretel (Hen-jel-gwa Geu-re-tel) (2007) || movieXclusive.com |
| | Pictures - Evokative Films's Photos - Hansel and Gretel | Facebook |
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