Janghwa, Hongryeon / A Tale Of Two Sisters (2003) - Attention: This movie breaks your head like a nut - 9/10 (11/04/11)

This Korean movie is one of the roughest and most mind blowing flicks I have ever seen. It's complex and twisted with and plays a lot with illusions. Lynch and Cronenberg seem to be easy entertainment compared to this brilliant plot. This masterpiece absolutely requests multiple viewings if you are not just frustrated or angry after the first try and feel to throw the whole movie away. There is no path in between this extreme movie, you adore or hate this flick. Sometime sit can happen that you severely hate it in the beginning but you can't get away from that flick with that degree of in-satisfaction so that you try it out again and start to like it entirely in the end.

The particular problem is that all the twists, surprises and revelations are in the last thirty minutes or so of the movie. The amount of details is just too high and at first try you will get completely dumped and lost but that was the intentions of the makers. You really don't see this ending coming as the movie starts like an intriguing and dramatic suspense flick playing in an eerie and haunted house. I felt that the first two thirds of the movie showed us nothing new in the genre of haunted mansions but I still really adored it because of the authentic and intense acting of every single character and a very dark atmosphere that sent some shivers down my spine. All of this is nothing compared to the last third that feels like if you were inside a storm and intense spiral of mental illness. This movie is hard to digest and difficult to appreciate and almost impossible to get fully understood. In the end, you realize that this movie is way more than just a movie about a haunted house. It can be interpreted as a horror movie, as a psychological suspense or as a tragic drama and depending on the attitude and focus of the audition, the movie may completely change its character, its soul. This flick is rich of details and interpretations. It's like a labyrinth that leads to several and very different exits but where you could also get lost forever. I cut off one point from a very subjective point of view as this movie was really hard to watch and appreciate and cost me a lot of time to get familiar with it. I highly recommend the board discussions of this movie but suggest you to watch this movie several times all alone before looking for further interpretations and discussions with the experts that have seen this movie ten times or more.

I warn you! This intellectual movie is hard to digest. If you want to see an entertaining horror movie playing in an eerie mansion, go for "The Amityville Horror", "The orphanage" or "Rose Red". This movie will break your head like if it was a nut. It's absolutely anti mainstream, weird and unique and will haunt you for hours and days if you are willing to get into it. The movie demands your participation, you can't simply just watch it in order to get entertained. You must play the detective, analyze the scenes, spin backwards and forwards after a first coherent try. Even for experts and fans of Asian cinema like me, this is hard stuff. Nevertheless, this movie should get further attention as it is a unique masterpiece that can't and hopefully won't be remade. Congratulations to the genius that wrote the script and directed this weird stuff and to the amazing actors as well. This movie leads avantgarde cinema to a new level.