Review of A Tale of Two Sisters (2003) by Paul B — 18 Jan 2013

I was pretty surprised by this movie. It's actually more of a drama than a horror movie. Actually, I think that though the little horror that is there is actually pretty tense, the movie doesn't even need them and story-wise, all they do is kind of muddle the plot.

The movie starts of incredibly slow, but at least does a good job of building the relationship between the two sisters. For a good hour or so, nothing much really happens. And what does happen just confuses the crap out of you. Slowly, though, things start to unfold, but the movie threatens to spiral out of control as more and more things are thrown at you, and it just makes less and less sense. I was 95% sure this would end like most Asian horror movies - leaving the viewer with a completely open, senseless, and idiotic ending. Near the end, this is a scene that I was absolutely SURE was the ending and I was ready to throw a fit. I checked the run time and saw that not much was left and thought to myself 'there is no way they can wrap this up and make it make sense.' But lo and behold! They do! Kim Ji-woon (who also directed the excelled 'I Saw the Devil' and the also surprisingly good t 'The Last Stand') manages to cram in a scene at the end of the movie that ties almost everything up with a nice bow. Now, there are still a few questions that remain, but the main plotlines do end up making sense. And that was a huge relief. Especially after the last Korean horror movie I saw (Yoga), which made no sense at all.

Though the last 20 minutes or so are pretty interesting, the build up is very slow, and very confusing. I think that as I was watching it, I was becoming increasingly annoyed with the movie because it just kept making no sense until the very end. And because of that, my I didn't enjoy it as much. If I knew that I just had to wait for the answers, I might have liked the movie more. Still, I stuck around and it kept me watching, mostly searching for answers. And I got them at the end. Good job!