Directed by:
Kim Jee-Woon
After being institutionalized in a mental hospital, Korean teen Su-mi (Yum Jung-ah) reunites with her beloved sister, Su-yeon (Im Soo-Jung), and they return to live at their country home. The girls' widower father (Moon Geun-young) has remarried, and the siblings are immediately resentful of his new wife, Eun-joo (Kim Kap-soo). As Su-mi and Su-yeon try to resume their regular lives, strange events plague the house, and ghosts haunting their house- all of which are connected to a dark past in the family’s history.
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
Critical Response:
A Tale of Two Sisters garnered very positive reviews. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports an approval rating of 85% based on 60 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." Meanwhile, Metacritic scored the film 65 out of 100, meaning "generally favorable reviews" from 19 critics. 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."
Box Office:
It is the highest-grossing Korean horror film and the first to be screened in American theaters upon release. With a limited American release starting 3 December 2004, it grossed $72,541.
