This supernatural horror film from Kim Jee-woon is inspired by the ancient Korean folktale "Jangha and Hongryun." Set in an isolated lakeside house, it begins with two young girls, Su-mi (Im Su-jung) and Su-yeon (Mun Geun-yeong), returning home after a period of hospitalization following the death of their mother. In the meantime, their father Mu-Hyun (Kim Gab-su) has married Eun-joo (Yeom Jeong-ah), whom the girls obviously despise. Strange, violent visions begin to disturb Su-mi and she becomes convinced that Eun-joo is keeping a dark secret from the family. The American remake rights to A Tale of Two Sisters were sold to Dreamworks SKG in 2003. ~ Tom Vick, All Movie Guide
Review by All Movie Guide
All Movie Guide
is neutral about it.
Kim Jee-woon's chilling Korean gothic tale puts a modern spin on some of the standard elements of classic horror stories. Set in an appropriately gloomy old house in which even the floral wallpaper seems to ooze menace, it even features a wicked stepmother. Young, icily beautiful Eun-joo (Yeom Jeong-ah) is hardly the cackling old hag of fairy tales, but she takes no less delight in torturing her stepdaughters. Kim effectively brings out the hidden terrors that children's imaginations can bring to ordinary domestic objects like wardrobes and sinks, only in his film, some of those terrors are more than figments. Like fellow contemporary horror masters
Hideo Nakata (
The Ring) and M. Night Shyamalan (
The Sixth Sense), Kim gets the goose bumps going with a constant feeling of creeping dread and finishes with a satisfyingly macabre plot twist. A Tale of Two Sisters never deviates from the age-old conventions of horror movies, but it hits its marks exceedingly well. ~ Tom Vick, All Movie Guide