A Tale of Two Sisters

2003 South Korean film

A Tale of Two Sisters
Theatrical release poster

Hangul	장화, 홍련
Hanja	薔花, 紅蓮
Revised Romanization	Janghwa, Hongryeon
McCune–Reischauer	Changhwa, Hongnyŏn

Directed by	Kim Jee-woon
Written by	Kim Jee-woon
Produced by	Oh Jeong-wan Oh Ki-min
Starring	Im Soo-jung Moon Geun-young Yum Jung-ah Kim Kap-soo
Cinematography	Lee Mo-gae
Edited by	Ko Im-pyo
Music by	Lee Byung-woo
Production company	B.O.M. Film Productions Co.
Distributed by	Cineclick Asia Big Blue Film
Release date	13 June 2003 (2003-06-13)
Running time	114 minutes^[1]
Country	South Korea
Language	Korean
Budget	$3.7 million^[2]
Box office	$1 million^[3]

A Tale of Two Sisters (Korean: 장화, 홍련; RR: Janghwa, Hongryeon; lit. "Rose Flower, Red Lotus") is a 2003 South Korean psychological horror film written and directed by Kim Jee-woon. The film is inspired by a Joseon dynasty-era folktale entitled "Janghwa Hongryeon jeon", which has been adapted to film several times. The plot focuses on a recently released patient from a mental institution who returns home with her sister, only to face disturbing events.

The film opened to very strong commercial and critical reception and won Best Picture at the 2004 Fantasporto Film Festival.^[4] It is the highest-grossing South Korean horror film and the first South Korean picture to be screened in American theatres.^[5] An English-language remake titled The Uninvited was released in 2009 to mixed reviews.

Plot

A teenage girl, Su-mi, is being treated for shock and psychosis in a mental institution. Soon after, she is returning home to her family's secluded estate in the countryside with her father and younger sister Su-yeon, whom she is protective of. The sisters have a cold reunion with their stepmother, Eun-joo, who constantly requires medication. Eun-joo also has a strained relationship with her husband, both of them enduring a sexless marriage.

Su-mi and Eun-joo clash with each other verbally multiple times. Her father is disinterested in Su-mi‘s complaints and also rejects Su-mi‘s request to remove a wardrobe in Su-yeon‘s room, as it seems to upset Su-yeon. One night, Su-yeon has a nightmare of her late mother's ghost, and flees into Su-mi‘s room for comforting. Afterwards, Su-mi also has a nightmare with a ghost while Su-yeon is sleeping next to her. The next day, Su-mi finds family photos which reveal that Eun-joo was formerly an in-home nurse for her then-terminally ill mother. She discovers bruises on her sister's arms and suspects Eun-joo to be responsible, which Su-yeon does not deny or confirm. Instead, she‘s just sobbing, and runs away when Su-mi gets angry about her silence. Su-mi confronts Eun-joo about the bruises but Eun-joo refuses to apologize for her actions, explaining that they were „retribution“.

That night, their uncle and aunt arrive for dinner, and Eun-joo tells bewildering stories involving the uncle, which he denies remembering. The aunt suddenly suffers a violent seizure and suffocates. After recovering on their way home, she tells her husband that she saw „a girl“ beneath the kitchen sink during her seizure. Eun-joo searches the kitchen when the cupboard below the sink opens by itself. She sees a hair clip on the ground, but the ghost girl violently grabs her arm when she tries to pick it up.

Eun-joo's bad relationship with her stepdaughters escalates after she finds her pet bird mutilated and killed and her personal photographs defaced. She believes either one or both girls are responsible for these actions and locks Su-yeon in the wardrobe. Su-mi releases her and tells her father, who had just found and buried another dead bird, about the abuse. He begs her to stop acting out and exasperatedly reveals that Su-yeon is dead. Su-mi refuses to believe it as she is sure her sister is right next to her, sobbing uncontrollably.

The next morning, Eun-joo drags a bloodied sack through the house, whipping it in anger. Su-mi believes that Su-yeon is inside the sack. Eun-joo and Su-mi get into a violent physical altercation. Su-mi's father arrives to find an unconscious Su-mi.

It is ultimately revealed that Su-mi and her father were alone in the house all along. Su-mi is suffering from dissociative identity disorder, possessing two personalities: herself and a ruder, more distant variation of her stepmother Eun-joo. The "body" in the sack that Su-mi was whipping was actually a porcelain doll, and she was also the one who killed the pet birds. Su-yeon is also revealed to be long dead, her presence implied to be a hallucination by Su-Mi.

The father and the real Eun-joo, who he had asked to come and help, send Su-mi back to the mental institution. Eun-joo tries to reconcile with Su-mi, promising to visit her as often as she can, but Su-mi rebuffs her and forcefully grabs her arm, mirroring the injury Su-mi had discovered on Su-yeon days earlier. That night, Eun-joo hears footsteps in Su-yeon's old bedroom, revealing that the ghost actually exists. Su-yeon's ghost crawls out of the wardrobe and kills Eun-joo. Meanwhile, Su-mi smiles with a rolling tear, peacefully.

A flashback reveals the day that led Su-mi to be institutionalized. While her terminally ill mother was still alive, her father engaged in an adulterous affair with Eun-joo, when she was still their in-home nurse. This upsets the sisters and, after comforting Su-yeon following a confrontation during a family dinner, drives their mother to kill herself in Su-yeon's bedroom wardrobe.

Finding her mother dead after waking up, Su-yeon grabs her corpse in shock. The wardrobe collapses on top of them, which everyone in the house and outside hears. Eun-joo comes in and sees Su-yeon thrashing and suffocating. She runs out, but turns back around in the hallway. However, Su-mi runs into her, asking about the noise, but quickly drops the question to accuse Eun-joo of interfering with her family. Lashing out at each other, the two have an argument while Su-yeon is shown to still be alive but in pain and slowly dying in her room. Angry, Eun-joo grabs Su-mi‘s arm and tells her that she will „regret this moment“. Su-mi storms out of the house, leaving Eun-joo visibly shaking in the hallway, while Su-yeon cries and struggles under the wardrobe. Su-mi walks away from the house in a quick, but decelerating stride, watched by Eun-joo from an upstairs window, while Su-yeon dies, begging her sister to help her with her last breath.

Cast

Im Soo-jung as Bae Su-mi
Moon Geun-young as Bae Su-yeon
Yum Jung-ah as Heo Eun-joo
Kim Kap-soo as Bae Moo-hyeon
Lee Seung-bi as Mi-hee (Eun-joo's sister in law)
Lee Dae-yeon as Su-mi's doctor
Park Mi-hyun as Mrs Bae (Moo-hyeon's first wife and Su-mi's and Su-yeon's mother)
Woo Ki-hong as Sun-kyu (Eun-joo's brother)

Production

The film is loosely based on a popular Korean fairy tale, "Janghwa Hongryeon jeon", which has been adapted into film versions^[6] in 1924, 1936, 1956, 1962, 1972, and 2009.

In the original Korean folktale, the sisters' names are Janghwa and Hongryeon (Rose Flower and Red Lotus). In the film, they are Su-mi and Su-yeon (though the names still hold the meaning, Rose and Lotus).

Im Soo-jung (Su-mi) originally auditioned for the role of Su-yeon (played by Moon Geun-young).

Kim Jee-woon originally wanted Jun Ji-hyun to play Su-mi, but she refused the role because she thought the script was too scary. Her next film was an unrelated horror film, The Uninvited.

Release

Home media

The film was released on DVD on March 29, 2005, by Palisades Tartan. The film was originally announced for a Blu-ray release for October 22, 2013, by Tartan but the disc was never released as the company ceased operations. The DVD is now out of print. The film eventually received a region-free Blu-ray in Korea on October 14, 2013. Though the disc also offers English subtitles, the extras are all in Korean.^[7]^[8]^[9]

In 2023, Umbrella Entertainment is scheduled to release the film on Blu-Ray in June 2023.

Reception

Box office

It is the highest-grossing Korean horror film and the first to be screened in American theaters upon release.^[5] With a limited American release starting 3 December 2004, it grossed $72,541.^[3]

Critical response

A Tale of Two Sisters garnered very positive reviews. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports an approval rating of 86% based on 63 reviews, with an average rating of 7.1/10. The site's critics' consensus reads: "Restrained but disturbing, A Tale of Two Sisters is a creepily effective, if at times confusing, horror movie."^[10] Meanwhile, Metacritic scored the film 65 out of 100, meaning "generally favorable reviews" from 19 critics.^[11]

Kevin Thomas of Los Angeles Times described A Tale of Two Sisters as "a triumph of stylish, darkly absurdist horror that even manages to strike a chord of Shakespearean tragedy – and evokes a sense of wonder anew at all the terrible things people do to themselves and each other."^[12]

Awards and nominations

2003 Sitges Film Festival^[13]

Nomination – Best Film

2003 Screamfest Horror Film Festival

Best Picture
Best Actress – Im Soo-jung

2003 Busan Film Critics Awards

Best New Actress – Im Soo-jung
Best Cinematography – Lee Mo-gae
Special Jury Prize – Kim Jee-woon

2003 Blue Dragon Film Awards

Best New Actress – Im Soo-jung
Nomination – Best New Actress – Moon Geun-young

2003 Korean Film Awards

Best New Actress – Im Soo-jung
Best Art Direction – Park Hee-jeong
Best Sound – Choi Tae-young

2003 Director's Cut Awards

Best Actress – Yum Jung-ah
Best New Actress – Im Soo-jung

2004 Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival

Silver Raven – Yum Jung-ah

2004 Fantasia Festival

Most Popular Film

2004 Fantasporto Film Festival

International Fantasy Film Best Actress – Im Soo-jung
International Fantasy Film Best Director – Kim Jee-woon
International Fantasy Film Best Film
Orient Express Section Special Jury Award

2004 Gérardmer Film Festival

Grand Prize
Prix 13ème Rue
Youth Jury Grand Prize

2004 Grand Bell Awards

Nomination – Best Actress – Yum Jung-ah
Nomination – Best New Actress – Im Soo-jung
Nomination – Best Cinematography – Lee Mo-gae
Nomination – Best Art Direction – Cho Geun-hyun
Nomination – Best Lighting – Oh Seung-chul
Nomination – Best Costume Design – Ok Su-gyeong
Nomination – Best Music – Lee Byung-woo
Nomination – Best Sound – Kim Kyung-taek, Choi Tae-young

Remake

DreamWorks announced the two lead actresses on 28 June, with Emily Browning as Anna Ivers (Su-mi) and Arielle Kebbel as Alex Ivers (Su-yeon). Although originally titled A Tale of Two Sisters like the original film, it was later renamed as The Uninvited.^{[citation needed]}

References

^ "A Tale of Two Sisters (15)". British Board of Film Classification. 25 June 2004. Archived from the original on 14 August 2020. Retrieved 4 September 2016.
^ http://www.hancinema.net/korean_movie_A_Tale_of_Two_Sisters.php Archived 30 April 2021 at the Wayback Machine Hancinema. Retrieved 2012-06-04
^ ^a ^b "A Tale Of Two Sisters (2003)". Box Office Mojo. Archived from the original on 12 July 2009. Retrieved 27 August 2009.
^ "Fantas Through Awards". Fantasporto. Archived from the original on 3 October 2011. Retrieved 27 August 2009.
^ ^a ^b Hajimirsadeghi, Ashley (4 September 2023), 12 Korean Movies That Changed Film History, archived from the original on 28 September 2023, retrieved 2 October 2023
^ Elley, Derek (3 July 2003). "A Tale of Two Sisters". Variety. Archived from the original on 27 July 2021. Retrieved 13 February 2021.
^ "A Tale of Two Sisters DVD (Janghwa, Hongryeon | Two-Disc Special Edition)". Archived from the original on 26 February 2022. Retrieved 26 February 2022.
^ "A Tale of Two Sisters Blu-ray". Archived from the original on 26 February 2022. Retrieved 26 February 2022.
^ "A Tale of Two Sisters Blu-ray (Yes24 Exclusive) (South Korea)". Archived from the original on 26 February 2022. Retrieved 26 February 2022.
^ "A Tale of Two Sisters (2003)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Archived from the original on 14 July 2020. Retrieved 6 June 2019.
^ "A Tale of Two Sisters Reviews". Metacritic. Archived from the original on 12 August 2009. Retrieved 27 August 2009.
^ Thomas, Keven (17 December 2004). "A stylish and creepy Korean 'Tale'". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 16 October 2012. Retrieved 27 August 2009.
^ "Janghwa, Hongryeon - IMDb". IMDb. Archived from the original on 31 August 2020. Retrieved 29 June 2018.