Janghwa, Hongryeon (2003)
Also known as "A Tale of Two Sisters"
Our sorrow was conceived long before our birth
Starring: Yeom Jeong-a, Im Soo-jung, Moon Geun-young, Kim Kab-su
Director: Kim Jee-woon
Running Time: 115 minutes
US MPAA rating: N/AUK BBFC rating: 15
Horror
On DVD Although his 'The Foul King' (2000) remained in number one position at South Korea's box office for a staggering six months, outside of the festival circuit director/screenwriter Kim Jee-woon seems destined to become best-known in the west not for his own films, but for other people's remakes of them. Although, for example, his excellent black comedy 'The Quiet Family' (1998) is seldom seen, it was the main source of inspiration for Takashi Miike's madcap musical 'The Happiness of the Katakuris' (2002) - and while his 'A Tale of Two Sisters' is unlikely to screen for long (if at all) in your average British or American cineplex, the English-language remake by Dreamworks, scheduled to begin production in mid-2004, will soon no doubt prove as popular with horror-fans as the Hollywood reworkings of recent Asian horror successes
DVD Extras: Tartan's two-disk edition is comprehensive, stimulating, and, despite the hyper-abundance of material, rarely repeats itself.
Disk One: scene selection; choice of Dolby digital 2.0/Dolby digital 5.1/dts; optional English subtitles; audio commentary one (subtitled), in which writer/director Kim Jee-woon gives an excellent breakdown of the motivations behind the mise-en-scène and plot construction, and young actresses Im Soo-jung and Moon Geun-young discuss the sisterly bond that developed between them on-set and their remaining difficulty in watching some of the scenes; audio commentary two (subtitled), in which Jee-woon, along with director of photography Lee Mogae and lighting director Oh Seung-Chul, analyse the film's complicated framing and lighting, emphasising that no aspect was left to chance ("we discussed a lot about this scene" being something of a mantra); original theatrical trailer; UK exclusive director's interview (28min, and conducted by Billy Chainsaw through an interpreter - subtitles would have been better for the final cut), in which Kim Jee-woon discusses the (far simpler) original Korean folk tale, his interest in all genres besides romantic comedy, and his refusal to be involved in the Hollywood remake.
Disk Two: (all subtitled) 'The Story of a Tale of two Sisters' (24min), nicely bundling behind-the-scenes material and interviews with director and cast; production design featurette (12min), interviewing production designer Jo Gyeun-hun on the film's meticulous artistry; music score featurette (6min) interviewing composer Lee Byoung-woo; CGI documentary featurette (6min) interviewing Uk-kim and Song Jung-min from Digital Tetra Incorporated on the film's unprecedentedly subtle incorporation of digital imaging; 'Creating the Poster' featurette (6min), interviewing poster photographer O Hyoung-geun on his love of the awkwardness visible in formal portraits; eleven high quality deleted scenes with a subtitled director's commentary (occasionally, alas, masking the subtitled dialogue) that gives the reasons for his decision to delete them (they are redundant, inappropriate in tone, over-complicating, over-expository, or reveal too much too soon), and a reel of alternative outtakes; interviews, all conducted unconventionally by the director himself, with cast members Kim Kab-su (11min), Yeom Jeong-a (10min), Im Soo-jung (13min) and Moon Geun-young (13min), all of whom discuss the difficulty of the shoot; two informal interviews with the director (10min and 16min), conducted by director Im Pil-sung in a cloud of cigarette smoke, on horror, critics, and South Korea's film industry; 'A Psychiatrist's Perspective' (5min), po-faced interview with psychiatrist Kim Jung-il who, in keeping with his name, offers a Jungian analysis of the film's "keen sense of psychological matters"; stills gallery.
It's Got: A creepily beautiful house, women on the verge of a nervous breakdown, a wicked stepmother, one dark twist after another, and the most hysterical dinner sequence since 'Eraserhead'.
It Needs: Ghostbusters, and a good psychiatrist.
Alternatives: Dark Water, 'The Phone', Ju-on: the Grudge, The Shining, The Sixth Sense, The Others, Identity
Summary: Immaculately designed, brooding story of ghosts, madness, and a family with a few too many skeletons in its closet.
Review Date: 9th August 2004
Image Gallery
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External Links
Official Web Site
Janghwa, Hongryeon at the IMDB
Comments5 Comments |
| i watched the janghwa hongryeon movie last yr. i found it very confusing. i didnt get wht the movie was telling me. i found it very scary but i didnt get if the stepmom was really an abusive woman. or was it just sumi's imagination that the stepmom abuses her dead sister. and why the stepmom can see the dead sister when the father didnt. and if the stepmom was dead then how come the father can see the stepmom and not soo yeon.im so confused. please write me back answering all my questions. i got more but ican think riten ow. thank you |
| Comment by:- | | 14 September 2004 | ip: logged |
| Actually the stepmom, for the most part of the film, is Su mi, the elder sister. She's crazy and she acts as herself and as the stepmom. That's why the father sometimes stares at the stepmom sadly, and he gives her a pill once. that's sumi's medication. That's why only Su mi and the stepmom see the dead sister. Again, the dead sister is not a ghost for the most part of the film. Su mi is only imagining she's there, prabably out of her sense of guilt for her sister. |
| Comment by:- | | 17 September 2004 | ip: logged |
| this film was superb, and it borrows a lot of from others. Tends to drag on a little. But anyway, the film is pretty simple to explain. The pills are ONLY given to the daughter Su Mi, not to the step mother, as the step mother is not actually there. Su Yeon doesn't actually exist, and the Step mother is never at the house, or real until the very end. I don't want to get into a long winded explanation abou tit, but the reality is that Su Mi is the only female in that house, and the father is looking after her only. She has multiple personality disorder which is pretty obvious from the get go. Still it was an ok movie, if rather predictable. |
| Comment by:- | | 29 November 2004 | ip: logged |
| i loved this movie but i didnt get the storyline. it was very depressing for me for some reason. not alot of ghosts in this movie. the mood was very melancholy. i dont know its just very different from any of the other korean horror films. t he actin was great. yea. well all i can say is that through the whole movie i was confused. but through the movie you find out unexpected answers to some questions. its good. i recommend it. |
| Comment by:- | | 21 December 2004 | ip: logged |
| the sets and everything is beautiful. although the story is kinda,... predictable. but i had good shock, from that thing under the sink. try watch it at 3am, alone, in a dark room. |
| Comment by:- | | 18 April 2005 | ip: logged |
