Heaven only knows how many more Asian horror movies are out there, destined never to make it to these shores. The children of “The Ring” and “The Grudge” are many, and although those films were spawned in Japan they have inspired imitations (or rip-offs) across Asia.
South Korea, a country with an extremely busy film industry, has produced lots of horror flicks in recent years. A high-class example of the genre is “A Tale of Two Sisters,” which does its share of borrowing but is also a shivery little number in its own right.
In the opening sequence, two teenage girls arrive with their father at his country home. Something is “off” from the very beginning, but the movie takes its time to explain what is going on.
One thing is certain – the girls are hostile to their stepmother, a young, attractive, but hopelessly unsympathetic woman. The father, meanwhile, maintains a frosty distance from everybody.
Clearly something has happened to cause this unhappy atmosphere. Director Kim Jee-won roams around the big house as though looking for clues.
There are subtly unsettling touches. A bright shade of red links different people and places, for reasons we won’t understand until later. There’s something eerie about the sisters dangling their feet in the lake water.
Other touches are more lurid. The stepmother finds something awful wrapped in plastic in the refrigerator. At an uncomfortably tense dinner one night, a guest has a mysterious, violent attack – and is that a glimpse of someone hiding beneath the kitchen sink?
When director Kim gets around to revealing the hidden pieces of his plot, he does so with an elegance that is nevertheless marked by some wild and crazy violence. The whole picture is like that: a delicate style that flows along until something shocking happens.
Incidentally, one critic has suggested that the strange relationship of the two sisters, who are bonded but also mysteriously estranged, is a metaphor for the North-South split in Korea. An interesting possibility.
The ending gives us much-needed information, but I must admit I’m not entirely sure how to logically explain the plot. If you think hard enough, it probably all fits together. However, at 115 minutes the film is definitely too long for its guessing-game approach. Around the one-hour point it begins to feel like a sandwich with no middle.
Still, it’s a must for fans of the Asian-horror genre, who have made a cult out of these pictures. If nothing else, it does for a large wooden armoire what “Psycho” did for the shower.
“A Tale of Two Sisters” HHH
Korean thriller: An overlong but atmospheric horror picture that should intrigue fans of “The Ring.” Two teenage sisters go to stay at their father’s country house, but something is very wrong from the start. (In Korean, with English subtitles.)
Rated: Not rated; probably R for violence.
Now showing: tk
“A Tale of Two Sisters” HHH
Korean thriller: An overlong but atmospheric horror picture that should intrigue fans of “The Ring.” Two teenage sisters go to stay at their father’s country house, but something is very wrong from the start. (In Korean, with English subtitles.)
Rated: Not rated; probably R for violence.
Now showing: Varsity.
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