“Hantang” Theatrical Poster
Director: Jung Cho-sin
Cast: Kan Mi-youn, Han Seong-sik, Kim Joo-kyeong, Yoon Ki-won, Kim Ki-suk, Hwang Ba-ul
Running Time: 90 min.
By Paul Bramhall
While the erotic genre in Korea had its peak during the 1980’s, it’s never really gone away since. Finding its home on the straight-to-VHS format in the 1990’s, and continuing to DVD in the 21st century, while the covers for such movies may promise a gratuitous amount of flesh and sex, the actual productions themselves tend to be decidedly conservative. A result of pornography being banned in Korea, partially clothed dry humping tends to be the order of the day, but still, there’s clearly a market for them (an educated guess of course), and the adventures around making these softcore romps have been the subject of some entertaining indie productions. Both 2007’s Pornmaking for Dummies and 2013’s Playboy Bong proved that the challenge of making a sexy movie within the limitations of what can be shown can make for riotous narratives, and in 2023 Hantang looks to join the ranks.
Focusing on a production team that specialises in making DTV erotica, when the owner of the villa that they’ve rented to film in turns out to be a ruthless gangster, they make the decision to refrain from telling him exactly what kind of movie it is they’re making. With an already frazzled director, played by original Baby V.O.X. (for those who know their 90’s K-Pop!) member Kan Mi-youn (The Cursed Lesson, Killing Talk), the crew are forced to come up with increasingly hairbrained methods to get their production in the bag.
Helmed by Jung Cho-sin, after debuting as an actor in 1997’s (appropriately named) Mister Condom, he’d make his directorial debut in 2000 with the comedy heist movie Jakarta. Going on to make a name for himself thanks to Korea’s brief infatuation with teenage sex comedies in the early 2000’s (largely inspired by the success of 1999’s American Pie), while it’s JK Youn’s Sex is Zero that tends to be the slice of puberty fuelled coitus remembered most from 2002, it was Cho-sin’s Wet Dreams that actually made it to the cinema first (released in November compared to the formers December). As a sidenote, both also received sequels, but only Cho-sin would remain in the director’s chair for the 2nd instalment, with Wet Dreams 2 released in 2005. Pulling that uniquely Korean director trick of disappearing for years at a time, he’d return in 2013 with the comedy Miss Change, and until Hantang he’s been missing in action.
Clearly working with a minimal budget compared to his heyday, if anything his latest is the kind of movie that proves a large budget isn’t required when you have a sharp script, zany ideas, and an ensemble cast happy to ham it up for the camera. The gangster who owns the villa is played by Han Seong-sik (Attack the Gas Station, The Foul King), and while he spends most of the movie outside the villa negotiating deals with a rival gangster, he leaves his simple-minded lackey Kim Joo-kyeong (Golden Slumber, Pandora) to watch over things. It’s this setup that the narrative gets the most mileage out of, with the crew telling their hosts they’re filming an action movie, allowing them to rope in an all too willing Joo-kyeong for a bunch of made-up fight scenes that have to be shot outside, while the remaining crew film the steamy bedroom scenes inside.
Naturally, having a gangsters enforcer attempt screen fighting results in an increasing number of the crew becoming battered and bruised for their art, and it only becomes a matter of time before the true nature of their movie comes to light. One thing that Korean independent productions often do better than their bigger budgeted counterparts is to come with a runtime befitting of the subject matter, and to that end Hantang clocks in at just under 90 minutes, avoiding any descent into final reel melodrama or mixing in other genres. Sometimes a movies biggest strength is choosing one genre and doing it well, and here Cho-sin successfully uses the limitations of the budget to make the most out of its ridiculous premise, sticking to its comedic guns through to the final credits.
The ensemble cast, frequently onscreen together, have an easily likeable chemistry between them, played by the likes of Yoon Ki-won (Boss X File, Texture of Skin), Kim Ki-suk (Strong Underdog, The Goblin), Hwang Ba-ul (Baridegi: The Abandoned Girl), and Song Yeon-ji (B Cut). The latter clocks in a brief but noteworthy performance as the daughter of the gangster who owns the villa, with her attractive looks proving too tempting to Mi-young and the crew to not attempt to make her a part of the production, with expectedly disastrous results. The climax (quite literally) of her involvement enables the eventful 2nd half, one that sees the crew make the wise decision to pack up and leave, preferably leaving no trace that they were ever there. But with Ki-won giving out his business card to Seong-sik, and Joo-kyeong storing one of their phone numbers in his smartphone, the mission to make a quick exit becomes easier said than done.
There are shades of Kim Jee-woon’s 1998 classic The Quiet Family in the direction Cho-sin takes the plot in the latter half (a movie which, notably, featured Seong-sik in a supporting role), with an unexpected death setting off a spiral of events that plunge their slice of erotica into chaos. Despite getting minimal screentime, there’s fun to be had in the way Cho-sin has managed to enlist supporting actors who were frequently onscreen during his 2000’s era heyday as the gangsters. In addition to Seong-sik, we also get Kim Gang-il (Monstrum, Ghost in Love) as his rival, with the pair having both shared the screen together before in the likes of 2002’s Public Enemy and 2008’s The Divine Weapon. By the time they both descend upon the villa in the final reel with their lackeys in tow, the trail of disaster the crew has left in their wake leaves the scenario primed for a series of amusing misunderstandings.
Perhaps the greatest pleasure to be had from Hantang though is simply the fact that such movies still exist in Korea. Living in an age where Korean content has become globally popular like never before (which certainly isn’t a complaint!), the money being pumped into Korean productions by the likes of Netflix and Disney+ also means the countries most accessible entertainment is also its most viewer friendly. With an almost never ending choice of K-content being made for streaming, it can become easy to forget that the more locally aimed independent productions (a filmmaking approach that, internationally at least, has become synonymous with gritty downbeat dramas) are still out there, and for many who got into Korean cinema during the early 2000’s, it’s these that invoke the feel of the productions from that era the most.
With that being said it certainly won’t be for everyone. For those used to a certain level of polish from Korean productions, the minimal budget and reliance on dialogue driven comedy may well be a turn off. This is the type of movie that invokes an earthquake by shaking the camera, and spent the entirety of its CGI budget on some odorous steam emanating from Mi-youn’s socks while she attempts to show a cast member what position they should be in for a sex scene. However it’s unfussy approach and complete lack of pretention around what it’s there to provide – a few laughs and a small dose of raunch – is sometimes exactly what’s needed from a comedy.
Interestingly director Jung Cho-sin didn’t disappear into the ether again after Hantang, going on to direct the drama Dream Studio in Madagascar the following year, which he’d piggyback a documentary (Madagascar Music) off that was released in 2025 – the same year this review was written. Whether this marks his second wind as a director is yet to be seen, but as a welcome throwback to the genre that made his name, Hantang proves he’s still got it.
Paul Bramhall’s Rating: 7.5/10
