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  A Tale of Two Sisters Reviewby Valarie Thorpe Now we’re talkin’ -- these are the ones we love! A Tale of Two Sisters is supernatural, spooky-ass Asian horror at its absolute best. And unlike a few other popular entries in this genre, this one actually makes sense. Based loosely on the Korean folk tale “Janghwa Heungryeonjeon,” A Tale of Two Sisters tells the story, predictably enough, of two sisters. They’ve spent some time in a mental institution, for reasons unknown, and return to the home of their father and somewhat nutty stepmother. We meet the two sisters, Su-mi and Su-yeon (Rose and Lotus) as they arrive back home. They appear apprehensive about leaving the car and immediately we’re given a sense of disconnect and possible foreboding. Their father, exasperated, finally goes inside. They later leave the car and go inside, only to be met by their shrill stepmother (Eun-joo) almost immediately. The two sisters are very close and Su-mi is highly protective of her younger sister. This may be the result of intimated abuse the younger one has received at the hands of the stepmother, or it may be linked to a sense of unearthly like goings-on in the home, or it could be connected to any number of eerie things we wander through as this movie slowly lets drop the pieces. Great pacing makes this movie work. While many movies reveal their mysteries in layers, similar to peeling an onion. We’re almost uncovering this film’s secrets by the layers of onion that get put back on. It’s not a backward narrative ala Memento but it is a two steps forward, one step back sort of unveiling – handled deftly by writer/director Ji-woon Kim There will be U.S. movies that you’ll draw parallels to when you’re done watching this one. And there are similarities but a unique narrative structure and fantastically vague character representations set this apart. Vague may not generally be used to positively compliment a movie but in this case it is. These characters are completely believable but also possess a sort of ethereal quality that makes everything in this movie just a little off balanced. There’s an intangibleness that creates a surreal quality that works really well. It isn’t possible to go into a great deal of plot without spoilers, so I’m stopping here. It’s not impossible to figure out where this movie’s going before it gets there, but it’s so damn good, that even if you do, you won’t care. This is a great flick from South Korea and stands up very well to the best of the Asian horror movies. It will unfortunately probably suffer from a more traditional, linear storytelling technique in the remake Dreamworks has scheduled. Make sure you catch the undiluted original. |
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