A tale of two sisters (2003)

"A tale of two sisters" is a skillfully directed and beautifully shot, complex psychological drama and horror movie directed by Kim-jee Woon whose latest feature "I saw the devil" is now available on DVD and VOD and worth checking out by the way.

What better way to start off than in a mental hospital where a young woman with her face covered in long black hair (once again) is asked to tell the doctor what she had experienced.

We are about to find out in yet another mysterious mansion. But this is not your usual "haunted house-" film. The two sisters, their father and the stepmother arrive on a sunny day.
But noone is quite in a good mood. There is a weird tension between the family members.
We realize that something happened in this house long ago and that this is the reason for this odd conflict within the family. The father hardly communicates at all. And of course the stepmother is presented evil and heavily disrespected by the children. And soon events occur that will challenge the group's mood and sanity and HOPEFULLY leave YOU at the edge of your seat.

Watch out for one scene when the family invites two friends for dinner that is really brillant and funny. As things get weirder and weirder the question is: Who is the most insane person in this house?

Be prepared for a couple of twists in the final chapter and even one twist too much. Of course we get the final revelation to the puzzle in several flashbacks and it is not too obvious and probably even too complicated for its own good.
If confusion is the final expression left on your face you might not be the only one ... and therefore you might not be satisfied at all. But (at least some of) it makes sense. Even though a psychological game like this implies kind of manipulative storytelling the problem with these kind of twisty tales is that it could be considered pointless in the first place. What is real here? What is not? And for what is not... why should we care?

Well here it's simply illustrating insanity and the mental state of the people. They leave logic at the door and so the audience should not try to find a connected line between everything that is depicted on screen but rather seek the source for the distorted reality going on.

Along with the story we naturally get quite a few creepy scenes and truly frightening images.
The shocks are very effective and evenly spread. They work even though most of them are borrowed from other horror classics such as "Ringu" or "Ju-on". We have seen many of these horror elements many times before but they still scare us when done properly like in this instance. But the film doesn't overexploit these moments. It is not overloaded with spooky images and they don't just play for their own sake. There is enough subtext, enough focus on the story and the actual drama to make this more than just a line up of sudden bursts of shocks.

The good pacing and the haunting cinematography add immensely to the atmosphere.
It is not all that original and maybe too disorienting and irresolute in the last act to be really great. Still I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it and for fans of (asian) horror this is probably a must see.