Kim Kap-soo (김갑수)

2007/09/02 | Source | Permalink |  Digg |  del.icio.us | Stumble It! | Share this news

Howard Schumann (howard16)`

To most of us, life is an unfolding process of love. For others like Soo-mi, however, it is dominated by darkness and fear. Based on the Korean folk tale Jangha and Hongryun, Kim Ji-woon's brilliant gothic horror story "A Tale of Two Sisters " revolves around two sisters, Soo-mi (Im Soo-jeong), and Soo-yeon (Moon Geun-yeong), who are part of a dysfunctional family that live together in a creepy Victorian-style mansion. Feeling alienated from the world, they cling to each other for survival with the older one, Soo-mi, obsessively protecting the younger against danger. For Soo-mi, however, not coming to terms with the circumstances surrounding her mother's death means mental illness and a mind at odds with reality.

While we may recognize staples such as haunted houses with apparitional sightings, doors that open and close on their own, a cruel and overbearing stepmother, and other events of high strangeness, "A Tale of Two Sisters" superbly explores deep...

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2006/09/10 | Source | Permalink |  Digg |  del.icio.us | Stumble It! | Share this news

[DVD Review] Listless spook show is a typical post-'Ring' Asian horror flick

Kyu Hyun Kim (qhyunkim)

"Cello" is a typical example of the lugubriously underwhelming horror films flooding Korean theaters every summer season. The first decade of 21st century has seen an out-and-out flourishing of Korean horror films, once a vilified and ignored genre. A few among them, like "A Tale of Two Sisters" and "Memento Mori", beautiful, mysterious and emotionally engaging, have attained the status of minor classics. Others, including "Into the Mirror", "The Uninvited", "R-Point" and "Voice" ("Voice Letter") have experimented with a mixture of genres, refinement in techniques and style, or infusion of art-house sensibilities, winning praise among critics and support among more patient viewers. And then there are the rest: the hopelessly cliched and listlessly non-frightening, which still constitute, unfortunately, the numerical majority.

There are many reasons for this state of affairs. Si...

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