It is clear Tartan Video is going to have a cult classic on their hands in the form of Korean director Kim Jee-Woon’s horror film A Tale of Two Sisters. For the sake of keeping the viewing experience fresh, I will rather short on my plot summary. Based on a traditional Korean folktale, the story is quite simple. Two sisters return home after a stay in a hospital. Their father is burdened and their stepmother is overly friendly. At night, the house seems to be alive with the spirits of family secrets.
I may not be a psychic, but I predict that there will be a American bastardization within the next year. However, you do not have to wait that long to be both horrified and puzzled, this flick is definitely worth a rental.
Make that two rentals.
One of the most interesting and entertaining aspects of Woon’s film is that when it includes a cliché (say everything from a trick ending to various shock tactics) the film utilizes it to evolve the film into something unpredictable. Take, for example, the film’s “twist ending”.
In the genre of horror, twist endings often come at towards the end of the film (The Sixth Sense, Saw) but there are some films that use the twist ending not as a means of conclusion but as a means of a third act transition (Identity would be a decent example). A Tale of Two Sisters takes the second approach. However, unlike Identity or the other aforementioned films, Woon refuses to package the revelation up into a narrative that is easily digestible. Instead, he takes a purely subjective approach in his aesthetic, which makes a second viewing almost necessary to interpret the film. Memento is a paint by number compared to this flick, which is more reminiscent of Mulholland Drive or Primer.
Furthermore, Woon also makes a horror film that is extremely sensual without being overly graphic. His style is strongly reminiscent of the gothic fairy tale mise-en-scene of Tim Burton mixed with the visual utilization of the implication of horror that is scattered throughout Hitchcock films. Woon’s style is showcased to perfection by the video transfer. Moreover, the aural design for the film is incredibly effective. Listening to the DTS track, I thought at times that the doors were actually creaking in my apartment.
In the way of extras, Tartan has produced a two-disc set loading with two commentary tracks, deleted scenes, documentaries, interviews, and director’s analysis. For the most part, I have attempted to shy away from the special features because I wanted to keep the experience as reliant on the film as possible. However, allow me to assure you that the DVD is packed with some decent supplements.
As always, the feature is the main attraction here. It is refreshing that there are still some directors who like to push their audiences to draw their own conclusions rather than spoon feed them a epilogue. Granted, a viewer sometimes has to look beyond his or her own backyard to find some cinema of this quality, but Woon’s A Tale of Two Sisters is a prize worth the venture.
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