IHR induction #45: "A Tale of Two Sisters" (2003, Kim Ji-woon)

It may be hard to believe, but the guy typing these words has an everyday life. It may not be much of one, but it exists, I assure you. It's always a nonstop 24-hour cycle of booze, sex, and rock and roll...okay, that's a total lie. But in the time that I've spent on the midnight-eight factory shift, I've let it slip a few times just what my daily routine is AWAY from said midnight-eight factory shift. Namely, a few hours of computer cruising, followed by my daily ritual of falling asleep with horror movies on in the background. Pretty much everyone that I've ever told that to looks at me like I'm a goddamn serial killer...so judge away.

Anyway, while a lot of the movies in my moderate-sized horror collection have popped through the ol' DVD player at some point or another in my dalliances with the nocturnal lifestyle, there's a few that, for some reason or another, just don't lend themselves to early-afternoon-falling-asleep-whore digestion. Like this one right here. "A Tale of Two Sisters" is really a hard movie to watch, as well as review - not because it's especially violent or disgusting (it isn't), or not because it's a creepy, scary film (it is), but because it's a movie that's viewed best when given your full attention as opposed to fighting increasingly heavy eyelids.

First, a bit of background information. "A Tale of Two Sisters" is a Korean film, and a pretty damn important one historically speaking. For starters, it's based on a Korean folktale that's pretty well-known to pretty much everyone who saw the film in its original incarnation. As such, it was a highly publicized movie in Korea; it eventually became the highest-grossing horror movie in the country's cinematic history, and also became the first Korean horror film to be screened in American movie houses. As such, it - like a lot of awesome J and K-horror epics - was given the remake treatment. In 2009, to be exact, as "The Uninvited," starring the pretty ugly chick from "Grudge 2" and the upskirt machine from "Sucker Punch." And before anyone asks, no, I haven't seen the remake and have no plans on doing so.

[/slightly more annoying introduction than usual]

THE MOVIE!!

As already mentioned (I suppose one could say that it was AFOREMENTIONED), this is a flick that demands your full attention. Generally speaking, movies that exist outside the viewer's natural language require more attention anyway due to the effort of reading dialogue while also keeping track of action, but when you take into account that "A Tale of Two Sisters" is a multi-layered film with varying time frames, character iterations and plot shifts, you're in for a mental workout. In the good way, I assure you.

The film is a tragedy, of sorts, and our central characters are, of course, sisters: Su-mi (Im Soo Jung, in a dynamite performance), and her much more shy and reserved sibling Su-yeon (Moon Geun Young). It revolves around a situation that a great many people can relate to, and wastes little time framing the entire movie around this central premise - the sisters are being brought by their father (Kim Cap-su) to home to meet their new stepmother, Eun-joo (Yeom Jeong-ah, who is infinitely hatable in this role). As it so often happens with the situation, the close siblings aren't too fond of their new family member, and as the story progresses, it becomes clear that the feeling is mutual.

In between a few instances of story aspects that "creepy up" the proceedings (including a few nighttime scenes where Su-yeon sees a strange ghost-like figure standing on her bed), this is mostly a film about the inner workings of this family. The fairy tale aspect of the story is definitely apparent, as Eun-joo becomes every bit the "wicked stepmother" that we know and love from various Disney flicks. Her level of cruelty rivals many domestic villains from other movies; she is particularly nasty and abusive toward Su-yeon, verbally castigating her to no end and locking her in a closet. Throughout these early portions of the film, the struggle between Su-mi and Eun-joo is your central conflict, and we have no reason to believe that the movie is going to be anything other than a story about familial squabbles.

Then one revelation comes. Then another, and another, until "A Tale of Two Sisters" becomes a movie where not only is it made abundantly clear that everything is DEFINITELY not as it seems, but somehow, some way, it all unfolds in a logical manner with several very powerful moments where things become clear. Normally, movies made in this manner leave me inherently frustrated; this one, with its endlessly clever screenplay by director Ji-woon, is satisfying and emotional, with the various twists and turns serving as devices with the power to both shock the viewer and to tug on the heartstrings.

Reading this review, some of you may be wondering why "A Tale of Two Sisters" is considered a horror film. Throughout much of the flick's running time, we aren't given anything in the way of a villain, or killing, or any of the usual staples associated with the genre. It matters little. This is a movie entirely about darkness, tragedy and mood, and all three of those things come together with the skillful direction of Kim Ji-woon to form something that's quite unnerving to watch. Sure, there's the deliberate ways that movies attempt to scare audiences (a creepy musical score, for starters), but there are also plot developments that leave the audience empathizing with the two lead girls like few movies are able to, which makes some of the very real events that happen to them all the more horrific.

Parting words: You know, I don't think that a lot of you need to be told that a lot of the movies that have gained the IHR induction are technically not "good" movies. They may be memorable, or important, even revolting - but they're not "good." "A Tale of Two Sisters," by any criteria, is just a damn good film - the acting is top-notch, the direction and screenwriting by its creator is handled with plenty of reverence, and the endless series of surprises that it springs on the captive audience is always a sight to behold. If you're looking for a break from the usual assortment of American slasher films and ghost stories (not that there's anything wrong with those), give this movie a look-see. It's legitimately one of the all-time greats.