This is a 2003 South Korean film in form of a psychological horror. It was written and directed by Kim Ji-woon. This movie was as a result of a folktale entitled ‘Janghwa Hongryeon’ which was done by Joseon Dynasty. This folktale by Joseon has been adapted to several films, including that of ‘a tale of two sisters’. It is basically on two sisters who faced a lot of problems and challenges. This is because after returning from the hospital, they experience several disturbing events which involve them and their step mother. The superb acting of this movie has seen it win a price of the best picture of the year in 2004, at the Fantasporto Film Festival. It has been rated as the highest-watched Korean horror movie and became the first to be screened in the theatres of America.
The plot of the film is somehow tricky and to understand the events that transpire, one should be very keen and attentive.
When Su-Mi, her father and her sister, Su-Yeon return to their secluded estate that was near the lake, the two sisters become reluctant to enter the house where their stepmother was awaiting them. They however, decide to go down by the lake and decide to relax, enjoying the sunshine. They are however called to the house where their stepmother greets them forcefully with a stern welcome. She even goes on to chastise them for the reason that they made her wait for them for a longer period than she expected. The shocking characteristics and behavior of the stepmother become apparent from this scene onwards. After giving them a forced welcome, she starts taunting them by demanding to know whether they had felt any better after being away for some time. They however become unresponsive and hurry to the different parts of the house. It is thus evident that the relationship that was existing between these girls and their step mother was a very heated one, since at no single time did they entertain each other. They were always having heated arguments and it is enough to conclude that one was in for a shock should they decide to watch the film further.
Later during dinner, the stepmother reveals that she had invited visitors for the following day’s dinner. However, Su-Mi is not happy about it and proceeds to let her feelings about the same be known. She is not ready to eat with them. At this moment, we get to learn about the intense affair between the two ladies on one side and their step mother on the other hand. Su-Mi informs Su-Yeon that any time the step mother went close to Su-Yeon, she had to inform Su-Mi.
This film is characterized by the happenings that can only be described to be ghostly. Su-Yeon hears some noises as the door to her bedroom creakily opened. All this happen when Su-Yeon was going to sleep. Out of nowhere, a female hand sneaks around the door and as Su-Yeon tries to pull the covers over her head, the hands are pulled back mysteriously by an unseen force. St this time, she runs out to her sister’s room while terrified and informs of the events that had happened (Maxted et al, 66). However, Su-Mi finds nothing when she goes to investigate, only finding their father asleep. She further assures Su-Yeon that she will always be with her during the so called difficult times and we get to understand the sisterly love that existed between the two sisters to the extent that one was ready to do anything to protect the other.
On that night, however, Su-Mi has a scary dream in which she dreams about blood and a mysterious hand on the floor. This is after the hand had tried to hit her. Upon awakening, she sees a ghost moving in her room in the apparition of a woman with the face covered all over with black hair. The ghost, upon realizing that Su-Mi was watching her, floated over her top, with blood running down her leg. All over a sudden, a hand appears from under the ghost’s dream. Upon waking, Su-Mi realizes that all this had been a scary dream. Through these events, we get to learn of the author’s creativity in attracting the viewer’s attention. Everything seemed real to the time that we get to learn that it was all nothing but a dream. This, however, raises tension among the females who were in the house.
Several mechanisms of delivery have been employed in delivering the message of the movie and disclosing the events that took place at the early times. For instance, dreams have been used to let the viewer acknowledge that this is actually a horror movie. In almost all horror movies, the authors always try to differentiate the events that take place from those that happen in real world using several delivery styles. One of them is the use of dreams and nightmares.
The role of flashback cannot be underestimated either. Su-Mi gets to know that their stepmother was once a nurse who had been working with Su-Mi’s father. This, she learns through viewing the family photos. She also gets to learn that the step mother was the nurse-in for her (Su-Mi) mother (Schmais et al, 32). Su-Mi later discovers that the stepmother had bruised Su-Yeon. This leads to a very heated exchange of words between the two in which the step mother daunts her that since she was their stepmother, they had to accept the worst that life had to offer them. At the dinner with the uncle, the stepmother behaves exaggeratedly. This prompts Su-Mi to ask the uncle whether he still remembered some peculiar event that had happened early in their lives.
During the dinner, several strange things happen. First, the uncle’s wife convulses all of a sudden by having a violent attack. After she recovers, she informs him of the strange things that she saw during her convulsion, that she saw, under the kitchen sink, a small girl. Coincidentally, the stepmother had also seen this and informs the sister’s father. Apparently, she argues, since the two girls came back to the house, several weird things have been happening. The father, however, ignores her after being unconvinced by the explanation from the step mother.
Later, the stepmother goes into Su-Yeon’s room where she discovers that the girl had mutilated her photos and scratched out her face. It is at this time that she attacks Su-Yeon, closes her in the wardrobe and refuses to let her out. However, Su-Mi, suspecting that something was wrong, manages to enter the bedroom and releases Su-Yeon from the closet (Schmais et al, 54). Apparently when the father returns and asks her why all the weird things had been happening since she came back, she responds by putting the blame on her stepmother for constantly attacking Su-Yeon. The father’s statement that Su-Yeon is dead is not taken well by the sisters.
The following day, the stepmother is shown dragging something which was in a sack and apparently beats it using a stick. All this noise awakens Su-Mi who, upon waking up, manages to find a note that had been left by her father to the effect that he would return to the house in the afternoon. At this point, the events start becoming clearer to whomever who is watching the film. One can conclude that Su-Yeon and the stepmother are non-existent and that the film is all about ghosts as is a characteristic of most horror movies. However, the directors of the movie have successfully employed dramatic irony and the events have to run as normal for the effectiveness of the movie. When Su-Mi later sees the trail of blood on the floor, she becomes curious and apparently, she thinks that the sack that the grandmother had been beating contained Su-Yeon in it. However, in the events that follow this scene, the father comes back to the house. He finds Su-Mi unconscious and the stepmother injured. This is after they had confronted each other. It is at this time that the real stepmother enters the house. However, this scene raises many eyebrows and questions. How could this happen? How could the new person be the stepmother when the original stepmother was sitted there looking at herself? This is a trick that has been employed in this film that has left many people wondering. However, it is important to acknowledge the fact that the film is mostly based on dreams and flashbacks in order to make it relevant since it is almost impossible for such things and events to happen in real life circumstances.
The rather tricky happenings in the house, at this time start being clear. It is at this time that we get to understand that Su-Mi had been in the house all alone with her father. As such, the conversations and all the events that had been happening in the past few days were only as a result of the condition she had been suffering from (schizophrenic mind). As such, she had become a person with multiple personalities and it was sometimes difficult for her to understand herself. The father and the real stepmother then take her to the hospital. However, when the stepmother returns to the house later alone, she hears noises from upstairs in a room that was once used by Su-Yeon. She later encountered a ghost that was hiding in the wardrobe when she went to investigate (Lagonegro et al, 77).
As already argued above, flashback plays a very crucial role in this film. As such, the viewers get to learn that early on, the father had visited the house in question with the stepmother after a marriage with his mistress. During the argument that ensued by then, Su-Yeon’s real mother went to Su-Yeon’s room. She then hanged herself in the wardrobe and the apparition that the sister (Su-Mi) had dreamt about early was actually her hanged mother. When Su-Yeon tried to retrieve her body from the closet, she accidentally pulled the wardrobe closet on herself and suffocated to death as a result. As a result, Su-Mi’s life changed forever and she would never have an opportunity to make her past events go away from her.
A Tale of Two Sisters is tightly construed in the history of cinema. Quite literally, in every minute of the movie, something important occurs. Ji-woon Kim succeeded in making a movie that taunts the viewers to apply their deepest analytical skills to understand the movie. In several occasions, appearance of something may differ a lot from what is expected. For instance, in the movie, a drop of blood that emanates from a floor crack turns out to be something so much more than what is expected by the viewers. By employing the technique of suspense, the viewers will be glued to the screens eager to know what the next turn of events will be like. The content of the film is enough to make one look forward to any such future production if any. The movie requires a rather significant effort of puzzle-solving from the part of the viewer but if one achieves to put these pieces together, then what they would be having is one of the best movies in the industry.
With the initial intention being creating a psychological horror movie, the actors and directors succeeded to perfection in producing this masterpiece. The movie arguably holds a place in many people’s minds as the scariest movie ever watched. Majority of the movie’s scenes have a disturbing and frightening tone which creates disturbing ideas to the viewer’s thoughts. The scenes and the tones of the actors are very disturbing. Some of the scenes that make the movie a success certainly include when the young girl is locked in the closet and she screams and cries hysterically (Maxted et al, 87). This scene certainly attracts the attention of the viewers. During the dinner that was arranged, a woman, who was the uncle’s wife, develops a seizure and she horrifically screams and vomits. The bloody ghost of the young girl that is seen hiding under the kitchen sink and the canvas sacks with amounts of blood on them, the bags containing badly twisted body parts and many more scenes are basically the major scenes and events that qualify the film to be classified among the best psychological horror movies ever produced.
Visually, this movie is amazing. This is because its general outlook greatly resembles the fashion of its time. Characters such as Su-Mi and Su-Yeon have been given a perfect role to play because they would have actually looked sissy had they played a different role in the movie. They portrayed the sisterly love that should exist among sisters as they go to the extent of sacrificing their own happiness to ensure that the other is happy.
Generally, this film is a wonderful production, which owes a lot to Kim-Ji Woon. The kind of costumes that have been adopted set up the right tone to complement the otherwise perfect actors. It is a wonderful piece of art.
Works Cited
Lagonegro, Melissa, H C. Andersen, and Maria E. Naggi. A Tale of Two Sisters. New York: Random House, 2013. Print.
Maxted, Anna. A Tale of Two Sisters. London: Heinemann, 2006. Print.
Schmais, Libby. The Perfect Elizabeth: A Tale of Two Sisters. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2000. Print.
