Fridae

Another week, another Asian horror movie � and this one's not even very good. Aside from the lush art direction, this is quite a muddled film, and is plagued by the usual Asian melodrama syndrome, where everything needs an explanation no matter how tedious that can be.

A modern take on the familiar fairy tale, protagonist Eun-Soo (Chun Jeong-Myoung) meets a car accident and is flung out of his car. When he next wakes up, he finds a mysterious little girl who leads him to her house, located deep in the forest. It's a beautiful mansion filled with colourful toys and delicious cookies, but odd sounds emanate from the attic and the children behave oddly at times. Something is obviously amiss, but Eun-Soo finds that he is never able to leave the forest even if he tries to...

There are a number of reasons why Hansel and Gretel fall short of being a good movie. The plot is intriguing but never really developed fully, and the same can be said of the character of Eun-Soo. Since the audience is never really truly vested in Eun-Soo's interests, there is a lack of emotional attachment to both the film and the character. There is also this annoying tendency for the actors to keep repeating the same thing, which quickly becomes tedious and irritating. However, the biggest misgiving we have with the film is that of its second half, which becomes way too dramatic for its own good, and detracts from what already is a rather banal film to begin with.