Starring: Kap-su Kim, Jung-ah Yum, Su-jeong Lim, Geun-yeong Mun, &
Seung-bi Lee.
Director: Ji-woon Kim
Synopsis: Upon there return from a mental hospital two sisters are aware that
something is not right in their house.
Review:
From the director of The Quiet family (which was remade in Japan by Takashii
Miike) is ‘A Tale of two sisters’ based on the Korean folk tale “Janghwa and
Hongryeon”. The movie starts off a doctor is talking to one of the girls then it
continues on with a car driving along a dirt road to a large beautiful house.
When their mother died the sisters were sent to stay at a mental hospital.
During that time their father remarried. The girls return and right away the
eldest of the two feel that something is not right in the house and their
stepmother is not to be trusted. Their father takes no notice of what is going
on. He gives his oldest daughter her pills and sleeps on the couch. The night of
their return the youngest sister is frightened by strange noises coming from
the closet vanity and under the bed. She runs to her sister’s room.
The oldest goes out to investigate and finds her father asleep on the couch she
finds a blanket to cover him and is interrupted by the stepmother. They speak
shortly but their conversation turns into an argument. Which leads them to
stomp away from each other. She returns to bed and tells her sister it was
their stepmother playing cruel jokes. Waking up from a nightmare she sees her
room is drowning in light but that ends up turning into another nightmare, she
wakes again this time for real. Strange things continue to happen throughout
birds dying, many more strange noises, nightmares, their step mother
continues her cruelty until it goes way to far.
But when you see movies previous to it (Phone and Nightmare) the only other
movie that huge popularity before it was ‘Whispering Corridors’. But this was
the one that definitely broke the box office for Korea. It is obvious why, it does
have that ghostly feel to it, but there are times where you may get confused
and the movie will have its slow moments. It had won several awards at foreign
film festivals and was set to be remade by Dream Works (but that currently is
in limbo because there has been no news about for a year now).
The movie has this very beautiful atmosphere that you do see turn dark and
unsettling. Part of me is also unsure what to say about the film because some
people were not as into this film as others. But the two question that sit in
your mind when you watch this are: Is it the ghost of their mother haunting
them? Or Are the girls having a relapse?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Overall: 8/10
Seung-bi Lee.
Director: Ji-woon Kim
Synopsis: Upon there return from a mental hospital two sisters are aware that
something is not right in their house.
Review:
From the director of The Quiet family (which was remade in Japan by Takashii
Miike) is ‘A Tale of two sisters’ based on the Korean folk tale “Janghwa and
Hongryeon”. The movie starts off a doctor is talking to one of the girls then it
continues on with a car driving along a dirt road to a large beautiful house.
When their mother died the sisters were sent to stay at a mental hospital.
During that time their father remarried. The girls return and right away the
eldest of the two feel that something is not right in the house and their
stepmother is not to be trusted. Their father takes no notice of what is going
on. He gives his oldest daughter her pills and sleeps on the couch. The night of
their return the youngest sister is frightened by strange noises coming from
the closet vanity and under the bed. She runs to her sister’s room.
The oldest goes out to investigate and finds her father asleep on the couch she
finds a blanket to cover him and is interrupted by the stepmother. They speak
shortly but their conversation turns into an argument. Which leads them to
stomp away from each other. She returns to bed and tells her sister it was
their stepmother playing cruel jokes. Waking up from a nightmare she sees her
room is drowning in light but that ends up turning into another nightmare, she
wakes again this time for real. Strange things continue to happen throughout
birds dying, many more strange noises, nightmares, their step mother
continues her cruelty until it goes way to far.
But when you see movies previous to it (Phone and Nightmare) the only other
movie that huge popularity before it was ‘Whispering Corridors’. But this was
the one that definitely broke the box office for Korea. It is obvious why, it does
have that ghostly feel to it, but there are times where you may get confused
and the movie will have its slow moments. It had won several awards at foreign
film festivals and was set to be remade by Dream Works (but that currently is
in limbo because there has been no news about for a year now).
The movie has this very beautiful atmosphere that you do see turn dark and
unsettling. Part of me is also unsure what to say about the film because some
people were not as into this film as others. But the two question that sit in
your mind when you watch this are: Is it the ghost of their mother haunting
them? Or Are the girls having a relapse?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Overall: 8/10
Genres: Horror, Drama,
Mystery, Thriller
Rated: R
Country: South Korea
Year: 2003
Runtime: 115 minutes
Studio: Tartan
IMDB Page
Amazon Page
Mystery, Thriller
Rated: R
Country: South Korea
Year: 2003
Runtime: 115 minutes
Studio: Tartan
IMDB Page
Amazon Page
Online since: February 20th, 2006
Review done by: Nekra
