Henjel gwa Geuretel / Hansel and Gretel (2007) - Welcome to an imaginative world - 8/10 (19/11/12)

This contemporary movie is another little imaginative masterpiece coming from South Korea that doesn't stop to bring fresh ideas to the film industry. 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. Young salesman Eun-Soo is on the road to visit his sick mother and has an argument with his pregnant girlfriend on his cell phone when he suddenly has an accident and temporarily loses conscience. As he awakens, he meets a young and warm hearted girl that leads him through a deep forest and to an old house where she lives with her dynamic younger sister and a wary young boy. They do live in isolation with two adults and seem to have everything they need to be happy: they have a big selection of toys, a wonderful garden and many candies for breakfast. Eun-Soo soon realizes that the adults are not the kid's parents as they quickly go away and leave him alone with the three kids. Eun-Soo establishes a confident relationship with the three children but he soon realizes that they are not like other kids. They do everything to keep him in the house and there seems to be no way out to civilization through the strange woods. When another strange couple gets lost and comes to the house, the tension slowly rises between all residents. Eun-Soo finds also out that the two adults from the beginning didn't make it through the woods and encountered a series of fateful events. 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. First of all, it features many stunning images, sometimes colourful and enchanting but dark and frightening at other moments. 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. The creative artwork is definitely worthy to borrow the name of a fascinating old fairytale.

Another strong point is without the glimpse of a doubt the solid acting. Especially the three children play their roles close to perfection. 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. It has this certain magic mood, features numerous solid ideas and has no notable lengths. It's clearly not the best movie coming from this fascinating country but still easily in the top ten of the best South Korean movies of the last decade.