A Tale of Two Sisters
I think it’s been 6 or 7 years ago since I tried to watch “A Tale of Two Sisters” the first time, and I hated the cinematography back then. Why does it take 15 minutes to show two girls at a lake and their meeting with their stepmother? I was bored to hell and somehow the film put me into a bad mood. Obviously we didn’t go beyond that point in the film anymore.
Even if it takes that many years, I have a tendency to revisit films I haven’t liked before. “A Clockwork Orange” is such an example, and I ended up loving the movie. While my excitement for “A Tale of Two Sisters” is less strong, I definitely am glad that I have seen the film. It might not give you the creeps like “Ringu” does, but when it comes to its psychological horror qualities, it is rather close. There is something beautiful and scary about the whole film, and that impression only strengthens slowly until the shocking revelations at the end. This might be the way the whole horror genre works, but here we are dealing with an exceptionally well made example of a horror movie.
Another good point about the film is that the protagonists (mainly Su-mi’s actress and the stepmother) happen to be very good actresses, where acting tends to be amazingly flawed especially in horror films. I think Su-mi’s story would never have come off so strong if the girl wasn’t so good at playing the mad one.
Hailed as one of the best Korean horror films and a staple at the video stores (back then when I used to go to videotheques), I think that “A Tale of Two Sisters” is quite solid and I am glad to have seen it. I am still not a huge fan of the horror genre though.