Although A Tale of Two Sisters has some excellent suspense sequences, it falters badly during the dramatic parts.
A Tale of Two Sisters(장화, 홍련)
✭ ✭ ✭ Read critic reviews
Korea · 2003
Rated R · 1h 55m
Director Kim Jee-woon
Starring Im Soo-jung, Yum Jung-ah, Moon Geun-young, Kim Kap-soo
Genre Drama, Horror, Mystery
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A recently released patient from a mental institution returns home with her sister. Her father has remarried and the sisters dislike his new wife. As they attempt to settle into their routines despite this change, strange things start to happen around the house, and disturbing secrets are revealed.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
Chicago Tribune by Allison Benedikt
It's a stunningly creepy specimen of Asian horror.
Masterfully manipulative and bloody scary.
Christian Science Monitor by David Sterritt
Quite restrained for what's basically a horror movie, and very well acted.
It manages to suspend disbelief without over-taxing the viewer's patience, and boasts at least one terrific performance, by actress Yeom Jeong-ah as a scary stepmom.
No hack job. It has more impact than your Rings, Grudges, Eyes, Dark Waters…out there and it does it with a minimum of actual on-screen scares. Finally, a real filmmaker gives it like it should be given...and it hurts so good.
While all the pieces don't quite add up in the end, as memory, fantasy and delusion collide, the film succeeds again and again at pulling you to the edge of your seat and keeping you there.
Chicago Reader by Jonathan Rosenbaum
Awkward storytelling and spotty exposition reduce it to a string of rude shocks--not even the eventual denouement provides a lucid enough account of where this is all coming from.
Village Voice by Michael Atkinson
Either way, Kim's rather clumsily acted film remains monstrously effective ookiness, with crepuscular cinematography (by the Hollywood-destined Kim Byeong-il) that suggests a nightmare endured from inside a suffocating velvet pillowcase.
Kim weaves these clichés into effectively nerve-wracking setpieces, though between the jumps, A Tale Of Two Sisters becomes mired in ponderous melodrama.
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