A Tale of Two Sisters (Janghwa, Hongryeon)
(2003, Korea, 115 min)
Directed by: Kim Jee-woon
Starring: Kap-su Kim, Jung-ah Yum, Su-jeong Lim, Geun-yeong Mun
www.twosisters.co.kr
Trailer: Low Res | Hi Res

Part of me jumped at the chance to see why this film beat out major Hollywood blockbusters such as Matrix Reloaded in Korean ticket sales but the other half was scared to be bitterly disappointed. Sure, Korean cinema has made great leaps and bounds with dramatic films such as OldBoy and Peppermint Candy, but horror? I will be the first to admit that in the past, Korean horror film has always left much to be desired. It has always stuck with the formula of implanting cheesy cliché ridden scare tactics into a second-rate story that usually caters to an audience all too eager to be shocked by the predictable bogeyman.

Since most of the pre-press information marketed A Tale of Two Sisters as a horror film that is what I expected to see but the complex direction of storytelling enables it to be seen on another level besides one of just a “horror” film. Let me assure you that A Tale of Two Sisters is anything but the conveyor belt stylings of horror that have been previously manufactured.

Director and screenwriter Kim Jee Woon succeeds in approaching his film with a fresh and artistic vision that I have yet to see anywhere else. More than anything, it is the story of loss and one young woman’s attempts at coping with it in a house filled with guilt, sorrow and ghosts.

Think an acid-induced Cinderella story…without the happy ending.

The film opens with Sumi (Im Soo Jung) in a mental hospital being questioned by a doctor. He asks her if she knows who she is and to identify the people in a photograph, but he receives no answer from the traumatized patient. Her catatonic state is jarred when she is asked what events led up to her being hospitalized. Told in flashback, we are allowed to explore the psyche of a troubled young girl through her own eyes.

After being treated for an unspecified illness, Sumi and her younger sister, Suyeon (Moon Geun Young) returned to a home controlled by a cruel, borderline maniacal ice queen of a stepmother, Eun Joo (Yeom Jeong A) and are ignored by an aloof father (Kim Kab Su) who seems to have no clue as to what is going on around him. It is clear from the get go that neither of the girls are willing to accept Eun Joo as their new mother and she, in turn, has no great affection for them either. They go to war with each other, which leads one to believe that the hatred between the two sisters and Eun Joo may have a deeper meaning behind it other than an ordinary stepmother and stepdaughter relationship. Eventually, we learn that the girls’ mother had died and because of an affair Eun Joo was having with their father before the mother’s death, they hold her somewhat responsible.

To make matters worse, a series of odd happenings occurring in the house increases the mounting tension. At first it appears to be a childlike fear of the dark but it slowly becomes evident the house is infected with the ghostly presence of spirits that refuse to lay at rest. The two sisters are trapped in a haunted prison with no one to help them but each other as they cling to one another. Sumi acts as the protector while Suyeon is the innocent victim too young to understand why their lives have taken such a tragic turn.

As all of this is going on, Eunjoo is barely held together by a thin thread which at any moment is ready to snap. After one of the most intense scenes in the entire film, a dinner party from hell, the proverbial thread snaps and she lashes out at the two girls like a woman intent on destroying everything in her way. What began as heated verbal battles escalates to punishments that would make Mommie Dearest look like Mary Poppins.

At this, which is the mid point of the film, the story goes from a slow-paced, mystery unfolding before our very eyes to a frenetic free-for-all of lunacy that answers many questions from the first half but leaves the audience asking for more explanations.

It is not until the very end do we truly understand what drove Sumi to madness and what happened to the rest of her very dysfunctional family but even then we are left with an open-ended conclusion that can be interpreted in several different ways, depending on the viewer.

The only way I can adequately convey what it felt like to watch A Tale of Two Sisters is to compare to a bizarre nine course meal. The first five lackadaisical courses are served slowly leaving a detached curiosity as to what will come up next. However, the remaining four courses are rushed to the diner so fast that the palate has hardly enough time to finish one before being forced to digest the next.

This seems to be the method of many modern Korean filmmakers. Teasing the audience into the story until the verge of boredom and then flipping it around so that they are left to question how the whole story should actually be perceived. A real mindfuck…a total, thought-provoking mindfuck, which may not sit well with most viewers. This is the one major problem I had with the movie. Personally speaking, this is a cheap method of creating a thriller because it seems unnecessary to have to convey what the director was already trying to establish initially. In a way, it felt as if it was thrown into the loop just for the sake of generating shock value.

Surprisingly enough, though, the subtitles are very good. Usually with most foreign imports, much is left to be desired by the translation but both Eubin and I agreed that for those not fluent in Korean, nothing is lost.

However, it’s all about the visuals with this movie so the words take a second chair to what is being seen and how it is interpreted. In many ways, this is cinema in its truest form, allowing the viewer to watch and be a witness to a story that cannot be told in words. Because of this, the film can be fully understood by all audiences.

Much credit has to be given to Yeom Jeong A’s performance as Eunjoo the psycho stepmother. With her place already established as the Korean equivalent to Bette Davis from choice roles in H and Tell Me Something, her Eunjoo is like an icicle on the verge of cracking. Her portrayal of a jittery, high-strung woman who refuses to acknowledge a darkness that is slowly taking over the house adds the element of nervous schizophrenia to every scene she appears in. Just witnessing Eunjoo’s meltdown is enough of a reason to see this film. Even though all the performances are solid, Ms. Yeom’s is what will catapult A Tale of Two Sisters into cult status.

If you liked The Shining and The Others, this is a must-see. However, I strongly suggest watching A Tale of Two Sisters with a friend or at least a fellow movie enthusiast and to walk in not expecting anything that has been made in America. After my initial viewing, I wanted to re-watch and discuss it ad nauseum with someone in order to explore the various themes that the film touches upon. I can’t say it will ever be one of my top ten favorite films or even top twenty but it certainly is thought-provoking. One of the things a film like this has to offer is that after the main story is absorbed, you will want to see it again and again in order to understand it for what it truly is, an ambitious statement of the blurred lines of reality and what makes those lines blurred in the first place.

—underthebambootree@yahoo.com