Henjel gwa Geuretel
Tags: fantasy, cruelty, gothic, murder, haunting, flashback, psychedelic, suspenseful

Plot synopsis:
Eun-soo, a salesman, is driving his car along Highway 69 while talking on the phone with his four-weeks pregnant girlfriend, Hae-young. She tells him to stay by her side for the remainder of her pregnancy, but he replies that his mother is ill and he has to visit her, leading to a quarrel as Eun-soo is driving and causing him to hit a rock and pass out. He wakes up to find himself stranded in a dark forest. He sees light from a lantern that a young girl is carrying. She introduces herself as Young-hee as they head for her house, a large house in the middle of the forest called the "House of Happy Children".
Her parents, older brother Man-bok and younger sister Jung-soon are waiting on the porch when they arrive. Eun-soo finds the children following his every move the following day. He decides to leave, but returns because it is getting dark. As he tries to leave again, he discovers that the parents are leaving, and they tell him to take care of the kids.
He soon learns from their mother, who is hiding in the attic, that they are not the children's real parents. Their car broke down on Highway 69 too, and they met Jung-soon when they explored the woods. She tells him not to believe the children. As Eun-soo makes his way out again the next day, he sees Man-bok and a couple approaching the house. The man, Byun is a seemingly amicable deacon while his wife has a malicious aura about her. Eun-soo keeps looking for clues, finding that the meat they had consumed was actually the flesh of the missing 'father' and his wife had turned into a china doll. He also notices that Byun's wife had disappeared after accusing Jung-soon for stealing her ring. At night, he secretly follows Man-bok into the woods, making a trail of breadcrumbs so he wouldn't get lost. He realizes Byun's wife had turned into an oak tree.
Man-bok stops in front of a mysterious door to a room, putting down the notebook that the siblings have been working on throughout the movie. His face changes to an old man's face as he passes the door. When he leaves, Eun-soo enters the room and looks over the notebook's contents, finding out that the children are over thirty years old. Suddenly Young-hee comes in sleepwalking, and as they talk, Eun-soo looks at her face which has become an old woman's. Eun-soo backs in shock, hitting bookcases in the room and causing notes to fall off the shelves. As he reads the notes, the reason Man-bok wanted to get rid of the couple who used to be his 'parents' is revealed. The husband did nothing but quarrel with his wife when Jung-soon accidentally stepped on shards of broken glass while playing, angering Man-bok who used his powers to almost force the husband's hand into a boiling pot of soup. Since their awareness of Man-bok's powers, the couple tried not to mess up, or they would end up dead.
Eun-soo sees more of the children's drawings in the notebook, such as a woman with mutilated limbs, a woman turned into an oak tree, a woman in a dress with red crayons splattered on her face and a man resembling himself laying on the grass beside the red flowers he had seen on his way out. He realizes that the last depiction foretells his end and is determined to stop the children before they murder him.
Meanwhile, Young-hee returns to the house upon hearing Byun singing. Eun-soo heads back too and learns that Byun is a religious cult leader trying to kill the children, and he is holding Jung-soon hostage. He knocks Byun out and listens to the children's side of the story from Young-hee in the form of a flashback.
The kids lived in an orphanage called the "House of Happy Children". The abusive caretaker raped the girls and beat the boys. Man-bok tried to save his friend Seung-ho from being beaten for spilling food, but he failed and Seung-ho was locked in a dark room. Young-hee and Jung-soon once tried to escape but came back, ending in Young-hee going into the caretaker's room to save Jung-soon from being raped. One Christmas Eve, they wondered if Santa Claus would give them presents, because they thought they weren't good that year. This led to Man-bok activating his powers, which he only realized the next morning when Santa Claus did come and told the siblings that their wishes could come true just by imagining it, and he gave them a Hansel and Gretel storybook. They believed they must reenact the story to all bad adults. The three of them then witnessed Seung-ho being forced into a sack, where he was beaten to death. Man-bok felt that this must stop. They sneaked up to the locked room which Man-bok unlocked just by imagining it. They tried to give candy to their friends inside but realized that they were all dead. The caretaker found them and was going to burn them in the fireplace, but Man-bok screamed, bringing the story back to the present as he screams when Byun rises to kill Eun-soo, causing a whirlwind in both the flashback and the present which throws the caretaker into the fireplace, and Byun is stabbed to death.
The winds stop and the children ask Eun-soo to stay with them. Eun-soo rejects them for his loved ones and suggests taking the children outside with him. The children refuse, saying adults will always be bad. Eun-soo argues that if they continued their doings, they would be bad adults too. Young-hee suddenly whispers, "Burn the notebook, so you can get out of here." He does so before Man-bok can stop him, and Eun-soo glances at the crying children as the book burns.
Eun-soo wakes up in the location Young-hee found him at. He walks up the road and sees the police, who tell him the tragic stories of Highway 69, and that they are amazed at his survival.
A year later on Christmas, Eun-soo has married Hae-young, and they have a baby boy. Hae-young asks Eun-soo to go buy milk. As he goes out, he wonders if his encounter was real or if it was a dream. His collection of news clippings of Deacon Byun (now revealed to be a serial killer and religious cult leader) who is apparently missing suggests that it was real. He comes across the same notebook that the children used and browses it. The pages are blank until the last page, which shows three children dressed like Man-bok, Young-hee, and Jung-soon all holding hands and smiling. The children had given up and realized that they didn't need parents to be a family. Eun-soo looks out the window and outside in the snow, Man-bok, Young-hee, and Jung-soon turn around and make their way back into the woods.

Review: Maybe I've been ignoring Korean films for too long because I've seen some good things coming from those regions lately.
Some similar elements to Korean(/Asian) horror films are definitely present but in the end the film presents itself more like a darker fantasy.Comparing this film to others is not an easy thing.
It's these kind of things that help to establish the uneasy atmosphere from the start of the film.As the story progresses the tone becomes gradually darker, as does the styling.
It takes a while to get a good grip on the story as more and more elements are introduced to the film and certainly not all of them fit well together from the start, but about halfway through you should have a good idea of what the hell is going on.Visually this is a very consistent film, with pretty awesome camera work and a great sense of color.
Something the film gratefully makes use of to crawl under your skin.While the revealing of the mystery is nothing too special and the film knows its share of typical Korean taboo-breaking weirdness, it's that very mysterious, dark and fantasy-like atmosphere that gives the film enough momentum to easily swing past these little imperfections.
In the end, Hansel and Gretel is a rather special experience that leaves a solid mark in the world of film.Rather than call it a horror film, it's a dark fantasy mixed with drama and a touch of horror elements.
Take one dark little fairytale and blend it in with some Asian horror sensibilities, and you get this loosely based modern take on "Hansel & Gretel".
Truth is that the "Hansel & Gretel" theme is actually just a background for the film, and not the whole story.The basic storyline centres around a man who following a car crash finds himself lost in the forest.
Taken by a friendly young girl to her family's home, he finds the family is living in a fantasy like house full of toys and nursery school imagery (replacing the gingerbread make-up from the original tale).
The protagonists are the three children, controlling the house and toying with those who enter it, becoming the bane for our lead man as he tries his best to escape their "ideal" world.What is it all about?
The original Hansel and Gretel story is a pretty dark fairy tale.
The plot is about some guy who gets into a car accident and finds a young mysterious girl when he wakes up, she soon takes him to her family home.
But I thought the original Hansel and Gretel fairy tale was quite dark too, especially with the ending.
You know, the kids who come to know of this gingerbread house where everything and anything can be eaten to fill their empty stomachs, only to culminate in their stuffing of the owner into a large stove so that they can take possession of the property to live (and eat) happily ever after.OK, so if you believe my synopsis of the fairy tale, then you, like me, probably saw what many others don't.
Pity Eun-Soo (Cheon Jeong-myeong), who got involved in a car accident, and got led by one of the children to live with them in their house.
The set designs and art direction were all beautiful to look at, and most times you'll shift your focus to admiring the sets when events start to get repetitive, with Eun-Soo's attempts to get out of the house and the enchanted forest in more than 4 attempts, of course thwarted each time.
Supporting characters like the adults who come and go, at first might make you scratch your head, but let that be the least of your worries, because once Santa Claus came visiting, you'll have to suspend your disbelief, otherwise this movie wouldn't work.Hansel and Gretel's a pretty decent thriller, a mix of groundhog-day-ness with the usual trappings of cheap horror movies, boosted though by its rich production values.
This Korean movie might seem like a story that could be told to people and it's shooting style is amazing, but it moves very slow.The colorful movie has quite a few twists, while taking it's sweet time.
It is therefore no surprise that Hansel and Gretel continues the tradition of outstanding Asian Horror film with its aim to entertain the audience with a good story as well as shocks.
It will probably give you goosebumps if you're not thick skinned - but that's good right!It revolves around a creepy family of children in a strange cottage in the woods, the adults they snare keep disappearing, when our main guy appears they take to him but he cant leave...
Watch this with some fairy cakes and sweets and you'll feel like you are there.To sum it up: Everything about this film is wonderful!
It just oozes class, the story is a nice mix of supernatural fantasy fairy tale with a small injection of psychological horror..
Hansel & Gretel is jam-packed (Nathan's jam, in my own fairytale) with twists and turns so there's hardly ever a dull moment.Although things start to become repetitious when our hero keeps going into the woods and getting lost, so going back to the house it's there for a reason, so that we start to feel as fed up and trapped as he does/ There's a great atmosphere of isolation and the film is incredibly eerie at times with the creepy children.
Hollywood could never make a film like this because they lack the imagination and creativity that makes Hansel & Gretel so great.
Many people may not totally get the fantasy element but I see it important, as it makes the film become its own fairytale and also leaves a lot of things up to interpretation, and I like that sense of ambiguity.The protagonist is also a very likable character,being that he's the only normal one in the whole film.
It makes you sympathise for the characters and almost changes into a completely different genre which is very original.Hansel & Gretel can sit up there with all the other great Korean films, I have yet to see a bad one!
My title doesn't quite trip off the tongue, but one thing about fairy tales is that they can be set and adapted to anywhere in the world, the characters being wholly universal.Premiered on Film 4 tonight, as part of a 'Fright-Fest' double bill, this eerie movie starts out like all Hollywood 'horror' flicks - you know, dark slippery road at night, middle of an impenetrable forest, driver uses his mobile - almost enough to put folk like me off, but maybe clever as it entices the new cinema-going market as they feel smugly content with what they're watching - until:Yes - a fairytale house in a clearing, with cute kids and cuter parents and lovely toys and dreamy food...again, drawing us in but generating a sense of unrest and unease, as we know this is labelled as a 'horror' movie and ultimately, things have to get sinister and bad at some point.
It is ultimately the story that generates the most chills - how often can you say that, these days?The art direction is the trump card here, along with the acting of the three main children.
In truth, HANSEL & GRETEL bears little resemblance to the story we know of old, acknowledging it stylistically rather than via the narrative.The film is billed as a horror movie but in truth it isn't.
The film ends up relying on huge chunks of exposition plonked in towards the end in an effort to explain things, and undigested back story never makes for a dramatically satisfying movie.Indeed, you can't fault the calibre of acting on offer – especially from those great child actors – or indeed the technical perfection behind the scenes.
The capture of the snow filled Korean forest and claustrophobic house create a feeling of wonderment straight out of a fairytale.
While the story adapted from a famous folklore, the writer/director twist it sick enough to make sure that people knows that this movie ain't for the family.
Honestly, I knew this movie since 2011, but never quite acknowledge its quality due to language barrier, and because I always encounter with boring K-horror.This movie follows a man who discovered a house full of toys in the middle of the woods after he lost after a car accident.
I don't like the situation somehow feels on/off though (there were scenes the MC is quite cocky to the children, but the children quickly forget it), but overall the screenplay (and also the actors) narrates the story well.I am not quite fond of the twist, because rather than surprising, I found it very obvious.
Jeong-myeong Cheon was very good as young salesman Eun-Soo, who the children viewed as 'different' to the other people.
This particular film is a modern adaption slightly inspired by the world famous German fairytale "Hänsel und Gretel".The mysterious story kicks off surprisingly quickly.
Eun-Soo establishes a confident relationship with the three children but he soon realizes that they are not like other kids.
But as Eun-Soo realizes that the three seemingly innocent children have been through unspeakable events in their early childhood, he realizes that he needs to find out their most disturbing secrets and to face his own tragic fate to get out of the forest.Despite a more or less predictable story line, the film convinces on many other levels.
The costumes, decorations and special effects relate this film to the fantasy genre first but the movie also includes some important portions of the drama genre and some minor horror elements.
They act like real children but at the same time, they have some strangely mature behaviours and one is never all to sure if these three mysterious kids are angels, demons or both of it until the end.The tension in this atmospheric movie rises more and more and features many diversified cinematic elements such as flashbacks or moments when scenes of past and presence happen on a parallel level until a certain climax.
The movie gets more emotional but also tension filled towards the end while the ending is as enchanting and well catalysed as the opening scene.In the end, any fan of imaginative fantasy movies, fairy tales in general and contemporary South Korean cinema shouldn't miss this movie.
A fairy tale for adults rather than a straight out horror film.
Korean fairy tale based in part on the Grimms story only now things are reversed.A man with a troubled life has a car accident and stumbles into the woods.
However things transpire that quickly lead him to realize that all is not well and that he may never be able to leave.If you suppress your desire to compare the film to other works of terror and fantasy in the early going you'll find that this is a pretty good and rather creepy story in the revised fairy tale genre.
It is ultimately a fairy tale and not a horror movie (its very creepy and doesn't have really big scares) and on that level it scores big points.You can pretty much click off the typical fairy tale elements and see that they are all working here (and no you won't do it while you're watching-though you will be aware that this is not a typical horror film) To be certain it did remind me of other films, but at the same time it bends them to its own end.
I can't imagine how I would have reacted had the call not come since as is I'm a tad unsettled (which should not imply anything either way since the impact was emotional I'm not sure which way it left me).Worth a look if you get the chance and like dark fairy tale type stories.Not sure of the rating, I have to sit on this one a while.(Its at least a 7 out of 10).
One of the better Korean horror films (Very Minor Spoilers).
The best Korean horror films seem to work because of the screenwriter and director's ability to blend elements of both horror and drama in such a way that you simply cannot give up on the characters in the story, no matter how much you might dislike them.This is definitely the case with Hansel & Gretel, a film which if all you know about the film is the title you will find something very much the opposite of your expectations.
Quite the opposite in fact and despite being led to believe by the title that you've heard this story before and are now only going to experience a slight variation you're in for something very different from the typical Asian horror horror film.
There is none in sight.When all is said and done, the story of a man, surviving a car accident and happening upon a house and an eccentric family in the deep woods (don't worry, they're not gonna pull a Sixth Sense on you) you realize you experienced the Korean equivalent of Pan's Labyrinth, a story about children and their strange capacity to realize real evil through the filter of their imaginations (don't worry they're not gonna pull a Bridge to Terabithia on you either)..
This movie was good on so many levels it is hard to swallow it did not get more international attention than it did.It starts of in reality where someone get's into a car accident and crashes in the woods and wakes up in the dark where he meets a young girl looking for a hairpin her little sister lost.
Convinced he can call at the girls house she guides him to a place that looks like an everlasting Christmas scene with lots of toys and of course sweet foods.He than meets the rest of the family but besides them being very nice he's starting to get the feeling there is something not right about this "happy"place.From there on things get even darker and nothing in this place is what it appears to be in the beginning and all the twists and turns fit to the story so at the end you really get a feeling it's a complete story.The acting was top notch and especially the children did an excellent job on playing good/bad kids which was really creepy sometimes.Could be compared slightly to"the brothers Grimm"but than with"off"Korean drama which i'm beginning to like more and more.Movies are all about storytelling and it's become clear to me South Koreans do this very well.Maybe this low quantity ,high quality works?!.Think about it,Holly..
Early into the journey, it feels like you are watching Pan's Labyrinth.The Good Some of the casts are good, especially the girl, Eun Kyung (got her name from IMDb, I am not really familiar with Korean actors).
Also, like Pan's Labyrinth, I think this is a fantasy movie, not a horror movie..
The technical and imagery side of this cinema is great, some of the best photography i've seen recently comes from korean films.This one could actually have been something powerful, it was ambitious, but it fails, to me.Basically it tries to be a mix of three elements: suspense/horror, mapped into children's drama, mapped into Grimm's brothers tale..it is horror because we have a designated viewer, someone who represents us is the story.
Yet none of the common things of true horror films occur, and we feel heavy all the way, suspenseful, without being 'scared'.
So, we are intended to be given a twist as we fall for the children's motivations and start facing them as victims instead of devils..Hansel & Gretel, the tale, structures loosely the narrative.
She has a lantern, seems kindly disposed toward him, and leads him to a place to stay, the 'House of Happy Children.' It is lovely inside, and looks like everyday is Christmas.
They patch up his more major wounds from the accident.Eun-Soo meets Young Hee's mother, father, younger sister, and older brother, Man-bok.
This does not help.Eun-Soo finds a fairy tale book, and the boy gets cross with him for touching it.
So the kids are carnivorous fairies or demons or whatever.The layering keeps getting deeper for Eun-Soo, as he makes his way through more documents in the attic.
Man-bok killed his father, and decided that all bad adults need to be punished like the punishment in Hansel and Gretel.
I liked the child actors better than I thought I would.Screenplay: 9/10 A bit long, but a good story told through the movie..
The longer he stays there the more he realises there is something very strange about the house and the children and that anybody who tries to leave or upsets them is in grave danger.This film is a delightfully chilling reversal of the famous fairytale as he it is the children who present the danger to an adult lost in the woods.
Many horror films rely on the dark and lots of jumps to keep the viewer on edge but here it is the excessively bright palette that makes everything seem slightly wrong and there is very little actual violence.
Early on as the story gets going,it sort of leads you to think maybe there's something dark,and fearful about the children.
the child who plays the complex and often sinister Man-Bok is also excellent and maybe even at times more impressive given the nuances of his character.as well as having some hauntingly beautiful photography and set design, this film also displays a outrageous sense of humorous design as in all the little robots and toys and animals in the house, drapes and wallpaper.the message here is surprisingly moving, but that doesn't make a lot of the movie any less chilling.
In this interesting contemporary Korean take on the Grimm Brothers' original, everything is turned upside down: a stranded motorist ends up at a cottage in the woods where three children prevent him from leaving.The story always keeps you guessing, the film looks good - given that it hovers in the horror/supernatural realm, it is brightly lit with saturated colours.