A Tale of Two Sisters

**Scarers, welcome to the new design of the MdS site. A depart from the previous hacksaw of a page, the new razor wire aims to sharpen visual clarity. -AC**

A Tale of Two Sisters (장화, 홍련)

South Korea. 2003.

In Korean.

Directed by Kim Ji-Woon

Starring Im Soo-jung and Moon Geun Young

Dear Scarers,

            This blog has always essayed to discover and review movies that would remain otherwise obscure to the average viewer. Voyaging through Japan, Thailand, France, Denmark, we’ve accumulated quite the passport of horror over the last year of MdS. Today we’ll add another stamp to our collection, from South Korea.

Now, if your first thought of Korea is of pop stars dancing in glittery stables, know this: the country’s spookiness might just be its most underrated “style.” A Tale of Two Sisters is a take on a traditional Korean ghost story (Janghwa, Hongryeon—the original Korean title of the movie) involving two sisters facing off against their evil stepmother.

The story is equal parts beautiful, frightening, and heartbreaking. After a visit to the psychiatrist, Su-mi returns home to her twin, Su-yeon, her father, and her stepmother, Eun-joo. A ghostly apparition visits the sisters as Sun-joo becomes increasingly violent towards Su-yeon. Su-mi becomes frantic trying to convince her oblivious father to stop the abuse, until the violence between the women hits its apex in the twisting finale.

Kim Ji-Woon expresses remarkable restraint in teasing out the film’s plot, compelling each turn and ambiguity to be slowly puzzled out by the viewer. A Tale of Two Sisters is sumptuously slow-paced and lusciously filmed. Although it shares these stylistic themes with Antichrist, Tale eschews the violent sexuality of von Trier’s work in favor of an atmospheric ghost-house vibe. The movie doesn’t just want to scare you; it lures you in with its gorgeous visuals before it shatters your heart. The chemistry between the sisters, played by Im Soo-jung and Moon Geun Young, is powerful and effective in driving the movie.

In regards to the ratings and Hollywood, I give the movie a 3/5 on the scare-o-meter, and a 2/5 on the gore-o-meter. It is reasonably scary, but not overwhelmingly so, and not very gory at all. Hollywood did feel the power of Tale and released a remake in 2009, The Uninvited, whose 33% score on Rotten Tomatoes wasn’t motivation enough to track it down and watch it.

All-in-all, A Tale of Two Sisters is a movie to wrap yourselves up in if you’re spending some time inside, due to, say, a blizzard. It is a beautiful, well-acted, and powerful story.

                                                            Stay warm, Scarers,

                                                              AC