Director:  Kim Jee-woon 

Genre: Horror-Drama 

Run time: 1h 54m
 

An atmospheric, psychological horror which offers a subtle and dread-building reimagining of an often-told Korean folktale  

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By Trevor Treharne

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Restraint is sometimes a lesser used element in the horror genre, as the scares, jumps and gore are the currency which provides many of the big pay-outs. 

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Kim Jee-woon instead slowly builds the shuddersome atmosphere and cultivates the nerve-jangling through this film's duration. This more minimalistic approaches pays its dividend as we unpack the dynamics and effects of grief, fear and tragedy. 

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The story is a variation on a commonly told yarn as it is loosely based on the Korean folktale  ‘Janghwa Hongryeon jeon’, which has had several film versions across various decades since 1924.  

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In Kim's version, inside a mental institution, teenager Su-mi (Im Soo-jung) is being treated for shock and psychosis. She is then released, returning to her countryside family home to live with her younger sister Su-yeon (Moon Geun-young), their father (Kim Kap-soo) and their stepmother Eun-joo (Yum Jung-ah). 

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The tension between the sisters and their stepmother is instantly palpable and their shared hatred of her drives the sisters even closer together.  

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Su-mi has a nightmare featuring her deceased mother’s ghost, discovering the next day that Eun-joo was formerly their sick mother’s nurse.  

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The film then takes a supernatural turn, with visions of a ghost girl haunting the home, while conflict between Eun-joo and the sisters continues to fester and worsen. From here, the film’s surprising and often disorientating developments are best experienced first-hand.  

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It is a film which warrants close attention to fully immerse in that swelling tension and darkening atmosphere.  

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Alongside Kim’s superb direction are a range of brilliant performances and stunning cinematography.   

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Im and Moon combine to great effect to provide a believable sister combination, while Yum provides a truly maleficent stepmother. 

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Cinematographer Lee Mo-gae provides a flourish of masterful frames, a relationship with Director Kim that would go on to provide other fine films in The Good, the Bad, the Weird (2008) and I Saw the Devil (2010). 

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Do not expect to reach the film’s conclusion with every question answered. Some of the film’s more confusing element are left unresolved. It is about more than a neatly delivered parcel of narrative arcs. It is the thick smog of atmosphere that is built throughout that is the film’s focus instead.  

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After becoming the highest-grossing Korean horror ever at the time, including a release in US cinemas, it spawned another US remake of an Asian horror in 2009’s The Uninvited, a poor relation to Kim’s masterful original.  

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A Tale of Two Sisters was also an international awards success as its direction, cinematography and performances were all recognised.  

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Director Kim had already shown plenty of ability in his first two films – The Quiet Family (1998) and The Foul King (2000) – but announced himself as a filmmaker of serious pedigree with this dark, unique and suffocating view of bereavement and woe.  

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