Korean films, particularly Korean genre films, have gotten a lot of attention lately. It seems that, as the Japanese horror film industry was five years ago, so is the Korean horror film industry now. Korean horror films are known to be a cut above visually, but a bit empty-headed and obtuse when it comes to story and character development. Some Korean genre films, like Old Boy, for example, have reputations that are completely justified. They are visually stunning, thought-provoking, scary, inventive, and simply wondrous to behold on nearly all levels. Then, there are films like Kim Jee-Woon's A Tale of Two Sisters. Don't get me wrong...I loved this flick. Loved it. It's simply gorgeous, and the performances are low-key and pitch-perfect. Furthermore, it tries...oh how it tries...to be profound, to be existentialist, to be moving, and ultimately to be scary. Unfortunately, it doesn't quite hit the mark on all of those levels. It still stands as a remarkable cinematic achievement, but it's an achievement that will linger in your mind for its "purty pictures" long after any true emotional impact (or even fear) have vacated your memories. It's a tough nut, this one, and I'm going to try to explain it without totally ruining the film for those who haven't seen it, though this might be a challenge.
The synopsis...
The titular "two sisters", Su-yeon and Su-mi (Moon Geun-Young and Im Soo-Jung) return to their father's (Kim Kab-Su) palatial country home after an extended hospitalization following the premature and mysterious death of their mother. Father has since remarried to a shrill, overbearing, but beautiful younger woman named Eun-Joo (Yeom Jeong-A), who pretty much fits the mold of the traditional "wicked stepmother", and who seems to bear a particular dislike for Su-yeon, the meek younger sister. Su-mi does her best to protect her younger sibling from the stepmother's cruelty and taunting, but tempers between Su-mi and Eun-Joo constantly flare. The father seems either disinterested, powerless to do anything, or both, and views the proceedings with a fairly detached but still concerned eye. He always seems to come into the room after the stepmother has had a confrontation of one sort or another with the girls, and at first, it seems that he doesn't quite know who to believe, and to what extent he should get involved. Aside from the constant warring between the stepmother and the daughters, the girls have the expected grief, guilt, and confusion that comes along with the loss of a parent, so they don't exactly adjust to their new situation particularly well. The girls are plagued with nightmares...both waking and after dark...where they are visited by a terrifying presence, and they are forced to relive the circumstances under which their mother died...or some version of that event. Snippets of story are revealed, and with each revelation comes the ever-escalating feeling that something just ain't right in this household...something that goes far beyond the boundaries of typically rocky stepmother/stepchild relations. Father becomes more and more concerned, and more powerless to do anything about it. Finally, facts are revealed that send the whole family into a spiral of distrust, madness, utter confusion, and terror.
A Tale of Two Sisters is presented with the tagline, "Fairy Tales Have Never Been This Grimm". Frankly, I can see the relevance of that tagline, if only because this film is based on an oft-told Korean folktale. However, using the term "fairy tale" would suggest that the proceedings are somehow supernatural or otherworldly in origin. I hope I can make the following statement without giving away too much of the plot, but A Tale of Two Sisters has nothing to do with anything even remotely approching the "supernatural". Everything that happens can be...and is...explained through traditional scientific methodology. And there's the rub that makes A Tale of Two Sisters a less-than-perfect horror film. Certain events take place during the course of the film that fly in the face of what is revealed in the final movements. There are specific scenes that seem to exist solely for their perceived "shock value"...almost as if they were inserted as afterthoughts so that the film would share more obvious similarities to Ringu, The Eye, Ju-On, and other big Asian horror hits. To this reviewer, those scenes simply don't fit the overall tone of the rest of the film, and much of their impact is diminished by either too much buildup, or else simply being "discarded" as concepts later in the movie. So, what could have been a nearly perfect psychological horror film is muddied and marred by unnecessary and distracting "shock" sequences.
None of this, of course, is to say that A Tale of Two Sisters isn't scary...it is scary, but for different reasons than were perhaps originally conceived by the director. The story has emotional weight, and it's scary because it could really happen. Again, I can't go into specifics, but the crux behind the events portrayed here is a wholly realistic one, and that makes everything that happens (with the aforementioned exceptions) reverberate with eerie, gasping horror. None of this would be possible without capable...indeed, exemplary performances. The two sisters themselves, in particular, are simply amazing actresses, and they turn in nuanced, subtle performances that are completely believable. They react to their situation exactly as one would expect them to react, and Kim Jee-Woon deserves copious credit for wrangling such affecting, beautiful skills out of his two main actresses. Of course, Yeom Jeong-A and Kim Kab-Su are no slouches either. Jeong-A's performance as the wicked stepmother avoids the obvious pratfall of becoming too wicked...too unlikable. She's flawed, to be certain, and she's fairly devious in her own way, but she's still clearly a human being, subject to all the emotions and weaknesses that designation would imply. All told, the cast takes what might have been a ponderous potboiler and turned it into something, well, special and memorable. Likewise, Jee-Woon's direction is simply a wonder: such perfect scenes of lushness, beauty, terror, stark depravity, and eerie shadow haven't been seen in a horror film in a dog's age. Lee Mogae's cinematography is simply stunning, utlizing every scrap of set and lighting design to full effect. The ethereal musical score by Lee Byeong-Woo is simply one of the best motion picture scores ever, and no...I don't think I'm exaggerating in the slightest. No matter what one thinks of the final product, one cannot deny the combined visual, audible, and emotional power of all of these elements...so it's a shame that two or three scenes try to make the film something that it most decidedly is not.
This DVD release, a two-disc special edition from Tartan Video's "Asia Extreme" series, is a textbook example of just how to make a damned-near perfect DVD. Everything from the Anamorphic widescreen presentation, to the 5.1 sound, to the excellent and uncommonly well-translated subtitles, to the packaging...everything is simply stellar. The extensive extras include (but are not limited to) two commentary tracks (which are surprisingly fun to hear), behind-the-scenes footage, extensive post-production documentaries, photo galleries, and much more. But, the real "meat" of the extras, and the chief reason why I'm recommending this release so highly, comes in the in-depth and highly-personal interviews with the four major players in the film. One aspect of these sessions that makes them so wonderful to behold is that the interviews are conducted by Kim Jee-Woon himself. Believe me, I've seen cast interviews and I've seen cast interviews, but never before have I seen cast interviews that so perfectly encapsulate the personalities of those involved. One example that sticks out is when Jee-Woon is interviewing Moon Geun-Young. Among other things, he asks her to recollect some favorite memories during the filmmaking process. She thinks for a moment, and then recalls how the cast made her a cake and threw a little party for her for her birthday. Upon remembering this incident, Geun-Young breaks down into tears, and it's clear that her memories of making A Tale of Two Sisters are fond, if somewhat bittersweet. Clearly, making this film was a labor of love for all involved, and Jee-Woon should be congratulated for bringing a cast of superb quality together to make this engaging, if not quite scary enough, horror/fairy-tale/psychological drama. Highly recommended, but don't go into it expecting whiz-bang action.
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The Atrocities Cinema Scoreboard
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c o n t a c t / i n f o
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