Kim Jee-woon’s psychological thriller is an aesthetically perfect example of the genre and one of the first films of the Korean Wave.
Su-mi, along with her quiet younger sister Su-yeon and their father, returns to the family estate, where her stepmother greets them. Frightening events take place in the beautifully furnished rooms of the mansion at night, and Su-mi, who has just left a psychiatric hospital, deteriorates. She openly confronts her stepmother when she finds out that the latter has been mean to her sister. Su-mi’s father is distant and seems not to notice the tension between them. Later, during an argument, he tells Su-mi that Su-yeon has been dead for a long time. Who, then, lives in the family mansion?
This riddle-film, which cleverly mixes psychological and mystical elements, is based on the Korean folk tale «Rose Flower and Red Lotus» about sisters who die as a result their stepmother’s abuse. The names of the girls from the fairy tale are reflected in the design of the dresses and the Victorian house filled with William Morris patterns. The heavy gaze of the camera lingers on patterns and interior details, faces and body parts, which, together with jumpscares traditional for the genre, creates a truly disorienting experience.
The Joseon-era folktale had been adapted for the screen before Kim Jee-woon, but after the release of A Tale of Two Sisters it became a source of inspiration for filmmakers in Korea and beyond. The vengeful ghost of a little girl with long hair and a tragic story continues the line of ghost-girls from Kwaidan (1964) by Masaki Kobayashi, Ring (1998) by Hideo Nakata, and Ju-on: The Curse (2002) by Takashi Shimizu.
The film will be screened in Korean with Russian subtitles.
A Tale of Two Sisters
Director: Kim Jee-woon
South Korea, 2003, 118 min.
18+