A Tale Of Two Sisters (Unrated/2003/DVD
Set)
Picture: B
Sound: B Extras: B Film: A+
Directed by: Kim Jee-Woon
Tagline: Fairy Tales have never been this grimm
A Tale Of Two Sisters (2003, Japan) is creepy,
dark, daring, confusing, beautiful, and haunting. This dark tale of family
corruption, betrayal, and lies is the Asian equivalent of The Sixth Sense,
only better and an ending packed with a huge punch that leaves you with a black
eye it will make your head spin so much.
Unlike just about any American Horror Film that has come out in the past
few years, A Tale of Two Sisters is smart. Not only does it depict to you interesting, thought provoking
scenes, but characters that force you to suffer through every misfortune with
them. This film will stick in your head
for days, forcing itself around your brain until you figure out every strain of
hidden meaning in its carefully organized and fully satisfied plot. Nothing is as it seems in this world. The dead can come to life, ordinary
household items can become weapons of mass destruction, and two little girls
can become a source of symbolism for both evil and innocence.
Two sisters Su-mi and her younger sister Su-yeon come to
stay in their Father’s sinister home after a stay in the hospital. Also living with their Father is their
disapproved stepmother Eun-joo, who lumbers over them like a dark cloud
throughout the film. At one minute this
small innocent woman seems friendly and nice until the girls do something small
and trivial out of line where she snaps into a psycho bitch bent on abusing the
children or throwing at them belittled comments. Upon their visit to the house, strange things start happening
around nightfall. A specter visits them
in her bedroom, possesses those who enter the house, and a host of other great
scares that I’m not going to give away.
The 1.85 X 1 anamorphically enhanced transfer for this
film is dark and crisp, giving us deep oranges and most impressive – the
reds. The reds of the blood are bright
and stick out clearly from the dark creepiness of the house. The Dolby Digital 6.1 EX sound is good, but
the DTS ES 6.1 matrixed sound is stunning, with terrific surrounds that makes
it a great performer on any home theater system, especially with such a solid
transfer. This is not an all-time sound
design classic, but is very effective for its presence, though it cannot
surpass the use of surrounds in the new 5.1 DVD of Stanley Kubrick’s The
Shining (1980), despite that it is twenty five years old and only in Dolby
5.1. It is still better than most
Horror films we have heard lately. A
Dolby 2.0 Stereo track is here for simpler systems and has Pro Logic surrounds,
but is nothing as compared to the Dolby.
Video Red is not easy to reproduce, but this disc handles it better than
we usually see and cinematographer Mo-gae Lee’s camerawork is very specific,
adding to the visual experience.
This two-disc set offers us a host of great extras.
Commentary with the director, the cinematographer, and the stars, behind the
scenes, cast interviews, deleted scenes, post production documentaries, a
psychiatrist’s perspective, previews for some excellent looking upcoming Tartan
releases, and even a few hidden extras.
The menu screens are also fantastic - offering to us the haunting score
to the film and some great screen caps that really set the tone for the film.
Upon checking out this nicely done double disc of this
film, it doesn’t surprise me to see that this film was one of 2004’s top
grossing horror films worldwide. Not
only is it satisfying to watch but also it’s damn creepy and has plenty of
replayability. I don’t give A pluses to
many films but this one is an exception.
Since I saw this, I’ve been showing it to everyone that I can, trying to
force this upon my horror buff friends and showing it to my film teachers the
best I can. I even want to try to get a
screening of this arranged at my school I’m so impressed with this film. A Tale of Two Sisters will work for
both horror buffs and fans who only occasionally indulge in the horror
franchise.
- Jamie Lockhart
