Truly Inseparable Siblings.

90. A Tale of Two Sisters (Ji-woon Kim, 2003)

Another foreign film from 2003 to land on my 100 movies list is Ji-woon Kim's psychological horror film A Tale of Two Sisters. After a while someone just may notice the large number of Asian films that are to appear on this list, and even more specifically, films from Korea. There are at least four Korean directors to have work that appears on my list and Ji-woon Kim joins Chan-wook Park (Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, 2002) and Joon-ho Bong (The Host, 2006) among ones I've already mentioned. Unfortunately A Tale of Two Sisters is the only film I've yet to see from Kim but it leaves me eagerly anticipating more.

In the movie a pair of sisters with a strong bond between them clash with their stepmother's apparent cruelty as well as experience a series of seemingly paranormal hauntings within their home. I will refrain from saying more because there are a handful of things that are better left to the first viewing of the movie. The film relies on an in depth psychological twist that is the bulk of its emotional strength. But unlike the psychological twist in something like the end of 2003's French horror film High Tension, A Tale of Two Sister's revelation feels not only appropriate, it's one of the major strengths of the picture.

There are a handful of aspects of A Tale of Two Sisters that remind me of the godfather of psychological horror films, producer Val Lewton. The first and most obvious one is the way the movie centers on the turmoil churning within it's protagonist and how it uses these typical horror film elements to accentuate certain internal conflicts within the young girl. The other is the wonderful atmosphere of the picture. Accompanying and driving its sense of fear and tension is a score that is nearly as nerve wrecking as that from Hitchcock's Psycho (1960). It's a wonderfully frightening picture on many levels, both internally and atmospherically, and stakes its claim as one of the very best horror films of the decade.

10 Films of 2003:

Again, A Tale of Two Sisters is another film that just barely misses my list of favorite films from 2003. I think it's plain to see that this is one of my favorite years of the decade for movies.