A Tale of Two Sisters and The Uninvited Film Review
Patrick Riley
Issue date: 8/21/09 Section: Arts & Life
It's really amazing that two movies can use the same premise and differ so greatly in terms of quality.
The 2003 Korean horror movie A Tale of Two Sisters is a cinematic treasure, telling a frightening, beautiful, and fascinatingly complex story with deep themes of love, sin, and regret, and filled with visual images so jaw-droppingly lush that they alone make the movie worth viewing.
The 2009 remake The Uninvited, on the other hand, is a well-acted and sporadically creepy thriller. It's also one of the worst movies of the year.
A Tale of Two Sisters follows sisters Su-mi (Su-Jeong Lim) and Su-Yeon (Geun-Young Moon) as they return home from a mental hospital--both of them were traumatized by their mother's suicide--and are forced to deal with their wicked stepmother (Jung-ah Yum) as she grows aggresively hostile toward the two, especially the younger sister, Su-Yeon.
However, it seems as though the stepmother is the least of their worries, as there also lurks a sinister presence within the house that causes one house guest to have a violent seizure, kills the family bird, and all other sorts of ghastly stuff.
Is there a supernatural explanation for it all, or is it something else?
To continue with a synopsis would be very unfair, as A Tale of Two Sisters has so many layers to it that you literally have to watch the movie twice just to capture all the intricacies lurking beneath the surface.
Take for instance, the scene where Su-Mi finds her sister locked up in a wardrobe after a violent encounter with her stepmother. She hugs her, comforts her, and says something to her that is admittedly touching when you first see the movie, but is downright devastating once you look back on the scene, and you realize what is really happening.
I have to be honest, I was fighting back tears when I revisited the movie.
Director Ji-Woon Kim brings a lot of atmosphere to the movie, and creates a number of scenes so terrifying without throwing out buckets of gore or loud sound effects. In fact, his movie is all the more effective because of how quiet it is.
The 2003 Korean horror movie A Tale of Two Sisters is a cinematic treasure, telling a frightening, beautiful, and fascinatingly complex story with deep themes of love, sin, and regret, and filled with visual images so jaw-droppingly lush that they alone make the movie worth viewing.
The 2009 remake The Uninvited, on the other hand, is a well-acted and sporadically creepy thriller. It's also one of the worst movies of the year.
A Tale of Two Sisters follows sisters Su-mi (Su-Jeong Lim) and Su-Yeon (Geun-Young Moon) as they return home from a mental hospital--both of them were traumatized by their mother's suicide--and are forced to deal with their wicked stepmother (Jung-ah Yum) as she grows aggresively hostile toward the two, especially the younger sister, Su-Yeon.
However, it seems as though the stepmother is the least of their worries, as there also lurks a sinister presence within the house that causes one house guest to have a violent seizure, kills the family bird, and all other sorts of ghastly stuff.
Is there a supernatural explanation for it all, or is it something else?
To continue with a synopsis would be very unfair, as A Tale of Two Sisters has so many layers to it that you literally have to watch the movie twice just to capture all the intricacies lurking beneath the surface.
Take for instance, the scene where Su-Mi finds her sister locked up in a wardrobe after a violent encounter with her stepmother. She hugs her, comforts her, and says something to her that is admittedly touching when you first see the movie, but is downright devastating once you look back on the scene, and you realize what is really happening.
I have to be honest, I was fighting back tears when I revisited the movie.
Director Ji-Woon Kim brings a lot of atmosphere to the movie, and creates a number of scenes so terrifying without throwing out buckets of gore or loud sound effects. In fact, his movie is all the more effective because of how quiet it is.
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