One of the staples of this blog was to do one or more movie reviews of scary movies just before Halloween. Although I doubt I should call it a “tradition,” I thought I might take this opportunity to review a pretty intense horror film.
The film is A Tale of Two Sisters, which was made in South Korea in 2003. I only knew about this film because I have the DVD of the 2009 American remake entitled The Uninvited. (There is also a 1944 film of that same name, which stars Ray Milland. That is a fine vintage haunted house film, but discussion of that one should be left to another day.) The Uninvited is a pretty decent horror film. However, once I discovered that there was an earlier Asian version on which that film was based, I decided I needed to see it. Asian horror films are always superior to their American remakes, such as Ringu/The Ring, Dark Water, and Don’t Look Up.
I will get to the punch line first. This is a great horror film. The plot is very interesting albeit highly convoluted, the acting wonderful, the cinematography is fantastic, and the scares are pretty great. I highly recommend it, if you can find the DVD. As of this writing, this film is also in Comcast’s On Demand film selections for under three bucks. Do you like horror films that make you think? (Note: Slasher films involving a group of teens out by themselves terrorized by a scary wossname armed with all sorts of very sharp implements are NOT horror.) You should see this film.
Asian horror films are very non-linear compared to your standard American films. That is, they jump around a lot. They also tend not to explain very much to the audience in a way of a backstory or any explanations of things that you might actually need to know to understand what’s coming next. American films, at times, spoon-feed the audience with all sorts of forced revelations and expositions. Not so with Asian horror films. As a viewer of a film like A Tale of Two Sisters, you are expected to be fully alert and engaged.
Personally, this is a very difficult task for me, as I am a
very literal person. If I am
presented with a scene or a conversation, I almost always take it at face
value. This is a mistake when
watching this film. Some
scenes are flashbacks without really explaining they are flashbacks, and almost
ever scene involves some sort of subtle symbolism as to what is going on. With this film, once I watched
it, I went on the Internet Movie Database to read some
reviews there. A number of things
were explained to me, but many were still left unanswered. And then I watched it again. Now that I knew the ending and was
armed with some facts about the symbolism involved, I came away with a much
greater understanding, as well as a great admiration, of this film. But there are still a number of
scenes that are pretty bizarre and inexplicable, even when I knew the
ending. As an aside, if you have
seen the American version I discussed earlier, you will have at least a partial
knowledge of what is going on. But
there are many, many more twists and very shocking scenes that didn’t make it
into the Hollywood version. Even
with the plot twist at the end of The Uninvited, I suppose the filmmakers
decided that American audiences couldn’t process all the information that is in
Two Sisters.
I do not want to discuss the details of this film too
deeply. I am giving this film a
high recommendation for you to go find it (if you haven’t seen it already), so
I don’t want this review to be full of spoilers. And I can’t really figure out what to write about without
playing spoiler.
The basics of the plot, to begin with, are pretty
straightforward. There are two
teenage sisters, living with their obviously overwhelmed and emotionally
disengaged father and a pretty malevolent stepmother. One of the girls (you aren’t absolutely certain which one)
has just been released from some sort of mental institution and is coming home
for the first time in a long time.
Some dark incident in the past, referred to several times, was obviously
one of the triggers for this girl’s complete mental and emotional
breakdown. The girls seem very
attached to each other and united in dislike that borders on outright loathing
of the stepmother. Then, the strange events start occurring
that become more and more bizarre and inexplicable.
I will admit that a couple of the scary moments in the film
rely on the usual tricks of scary movies, such as a hand jumping out from a
dark place and grabbing you. I
look at those kinds of scary tricks as just that, a trick, and a cheap one at
that. But there are not that many
of those in this film. In fact,
there were a number of scenes where I was expecting one of those tricks to take
place, and they didn’t. That actually
had the effect of making those scenes that much more suspenseful. There are several sequences that are
just brutally difficult to watch, such as the scene where the evil step-mum
grabs the younger sister and locks her in the dark closet, of which the girl is
obviously terrified. The screams
and pounding on the door are pretty gut wrenching, as is the reaction of the
stepmother. How could someone hate
a child so much to do that to them?
There are several scenes that just come out of nowhere, such as the
young female dinner guest suddenly having a seizure or fit during a very, very
awkward conversation at the dinner table.
That was a very shocking scene to me.
But even though it appeared out of the blue, it is yet another clue as
to what is going on in the film.
Again, this is a highly recommended film, if you can find it
and don’t mind having to read the English subtitles along with simultaneously
watching the unfolding scene. I
would also plan on watching it more than once.
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