After spending some time in a mental institution, two sisters return home to their father and their cruel stepmother who has ruled the house since the death of their mother. So the girls are not too happy about returning home, as their stepmother gives them both psychological and physical abuse, and the father won't listen to the girls when they complain about his wife. But after just being home for a short period of time, strange things starts to occur within the house. Is it the stepmother who's up to something or is there actually a spirit in the house seeking revenge?
Before watching A Tale of Two Sisters for the very first time, I had seen a lot of Asian horror flicks before and was a fan of the genre, but this movie actually blew everything I felt about the genre away and made me become an ever bigger fan. It looked beautiful, and while there are a lot of Asian flicks that look stunning, this one had more colours and managed to stand completely on its own. It wasn't just another Asian horror flick that featured a creepy long-haired ghost girl, it had so much more to it and on so many levels. I thought it was fantastic the first time I saw it, but had to watch it again and again later on to fully appreciate everything it had to offer.
While this movie didn't scare me half as much as Ringu did, it still had a lot of other things to offer, both looking at it as a horror movie and as more of a drama. The scares are actually few but once there, they're pretty effective, and even if they won't scare you till tears, the movie is unsettling from beginning to end, and stays with you long after it's over.
 
I don't wanna give too much of the plot away as it would ruin the whole experience of watching the movie. It's not a straight forward film, and it might take more than one viewing to fully understand what's going on. Although, impatient people be warned, it's never dull but moves slow and since it's nearly two hours long, it might be a lot to be able to sit through if you've a short attention span. But the thing with it moving somewhat slow, revealing little by little, asking questions and being somewhat confusing at times are all things that in the end makes this movie great. A fun thing when it comes to movies like this is that since everything is never fully explained, people will interpret it differently. Everyone has a different impressions of the movie itself, what it's trying to say and what really happened in it.
Now I'm not a big fan of kids in movies but I can't complain when it comes to these two sisters since they really deliver in every aspect of the movie. They are different from each other, but still remains to be very close together and seem very alike at times. Actually all the performances are awesome here, usually I find most actors in Korean movies to do a good to a very good job, but the performances here are truly excellent, especially from the sisters. And since the performances are so belivable, you never really see them as actors in a film and that helps you to get into it even more, that and of course the utterly intriguing story itself.
A Tale of Two Sisters is more of a psychological horror with supernatural elements rather than just your normal horror movie. The atmosphere is fantastic and the movie carries a lot of tension. Even though there are not too many actual scares, it manages to stay creepy all the way, and has this unsettling feeling that is very hard to shake off. Apart from all the horror elements, this is a very good drama and a thriller with beautiful cinematography and great acting. One of the best Asian flicks out there so of course it's highly recommended.
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ALTERNATIVE TITLE: Janghwa, Hongryeon
MOVIE YEAR: 2003
DIRECTOR: Ji-woon Kim
WRITING CREDITS: Ji-woon Kim
GENRE: Horror, Drama, Thriller, Mystery
CAST: Jung-ah Yum, Su-jeong Lim, Geun-yeong Mun
COUNTRY: South Korea
RUNTIME: 115 min
RATING: 10/10
Tale of Two Sisters, A Website/IMDB Click here
Tale of Two Sisters, A Trailer Click here
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