17. A Tale of Two Sisters (2003, Kim)
By Eivind Langdal
24th October 2009

Watching A Tale of Two Sisters was like running intervals for me. It was so scary I kept making up excuses for myself to pause the film (like going to the toilet, brushing my teeth, checking Facebook). At one point, I hid behind my pillow, and two seconds later, one of the characters hid behind her bed sheets. A freaky coincidence? Maybe, but I see it more as a symbol of exactly how much director Ji-woon Kim had me in his grip. It was like a taunt really. I would have been offended, if only I wasn’t so scared.

Soo-mi, a young girl, is sent home from the hospital to her family’s home, which is situated by a lake (no, Jason Voorhees doesn’t turn up later in the film). Accompanying Soo-mi on the way home is her sister, Soo-yeon, who is a few years younger than her. When the two arrive at home, they are greeted by their stepmother, Eun-joo, who is somewhat overeager in her display of those “Welcome back” emotions (there’s probably a term for that, but I have no idea what that would be). Both sisters figure something might be wrong, but is that really in case? As it turns out, the two sisters have quite a lot in store for them the coming days.

Things starts happening already in the first night. We’re just a few minutes into the film, and already we’re asked to devour some pretty frightening imagery. Don’t expect a gorefest, though, as A Tale of Two Sisters is a somewhat traditional horror film in its methods department. Doors squeak as they are slowly opened by unidentified characters in the hallway, and on the other side of the walls, we hear the running of small footsteps. Is the house haunted? Has something happened since Soo-mi left for the hospital?

For all of its traditions, A Tale of Two Sisters is frighteningly effective. On paper, it might not seem like the film should work, as the methods it uses to scare the viewer has long become clichés in other movies, but it does. When you’re watching the film, you’re too busy being shocked to realize how few new ways it finds it engage its audience, but, hey, I’m all for traditionalism if it works. In fact, it wasn’t until after I finished the film that I realized all of this.

As the film goes on, Kim tightens his grip on the audience to shocking effects. Hell, I actually found some parts of the film so unbearable I started to question why I’m actually doing this column at all. Sure, I get so easily scared watching horror films that this pretty much happens every time I watch a one in preparation for the Cult, but this time, I really considered quitting for real. I’m starting to wonder if this is really good for me.

Anyway, back to the film. It really saddened me to see that, the closer the narrative got to its conclusion, the more Kim lost his grip on me. As things started to get absurdly confusing in the middle of the film, I slowly began to realize that there was going to be some sort of big revelation at the end, as many of the scenes made so little sense that they couldn’t possible have any purpose than to be cleared up later. Uh oh, that’s not how you do big reveals it? I mean, you’re not supposed to know you’re not actually watching the real story. But Kim shoots so many scenes in such an ambiguous manner that anyone can predict he intends to use them for something else later in the film. But the problem isn’t that he signposts his ending, but that he does it in such a confusing way.

Now, I don’t mind being confused if I get some clarification later, but once things were supposed to get back in their place at the end of the film, I realized I didn’t understand a single thing even then. I tried reading explanations on the internet, but even that gave me little clarification. I warn you, though, that this might be one of those times where I’m just to blind to see the glasses on my nose (that’s a metaphor, by the way), but I still think that ending could have been done better.

I think I have a grudge against horror films that start out in a really frightening fashion and then abandon that for something deeper later in the story. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind depth in horror films, but when a horror film ends in a way that is supposed to be profound, but really is a mess, I sometimes wish they’d just end it off a more traditional climax instead. Now, I feel I should underline that I don’t mind a more serious approach to horror movie, but the shift from “fright flick” to “serious flick” that happens in some of them rarely sits well with me. It’s not that I feel cheated. It’s simply more that I’m annoyed.

Still, this is the kind of time where I might be completely off my mark. It is scary, that’s for sure, and some of you might like the actual story a lot more than me. So, all I can say is, “Try this one for yourself”. Maybe you’ll like it. But if you if do, don’t expect me to think any different of the film.