A Tale of Two Sisters (2003) Deluxe Edition
1.85:1 (16x9 Enhanced)
Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS 5.1
Tartan Video, $24.99

The South Korean film A Tale of Two Sisters is one of the great masterpieces of the new Asian horror cycle. It’s a very grim fairy tale that takes place in an isolated country home, where two teenaged sisters have been sent to live with their ineffectual father and wicked stepmother. The circumstances of their mother’s death are mysterious, and one of the girls appears to have been unusually close to the traumatic event. As the story progresses, the women in the house gradually drive each other crazy, and the intensely internal, psychological horrorshow that ensues invites comparison with the suspense classics Repulsion and Don’t Look Now.

Any further description of the plot is best avoided, because one of the pleasures of the film is its constant ability to surprise the audience. It delivers on every level a horror movie can: it contains the requisite shocks for the teen crowd and features plenty of suspense, but it also offers emotional resonance and psychological complexity. The precise relationship between composition, lighting and performance in the film is reminiscent of the best collaborations between Ingmar Bergman and Sven Nykvist, ASC.

Cinematographer Lee Mogae and lighting director Oh Seung-Chul create a remarkable visual palette that alternates between beautifully rendered earth tones and striking bursts of intense color. There’s also a floral-pattern motif that runs throughout the expertly designed film, and the filmmakers meticulously play the various elements in the frame off each other to clarify the characters’ emotional states. Director Kim Jee-Woon keeps all the visual and narrative elements in perfect balance, and the result is a terrifying and moving film that veers wildly between realism and hallucinatory expressionism without ever becoming confusing.

The picture’s intricate visual design is sumptuously presented in Tartan’s two-disc special-edition DVD, which offers a lush transfer that expertly captures the picture’s unique lighting and color design. The Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround mix is impressive, and vitally important for a film that uses sound as expressively as this one does; the effects go beyond the mere representation of reality to define character and theme, and add to the overall sense of tragedy and horror.

The DVD also provides a wealth of supplements that explore the movie from several perspectives. Disc one offers two subtitled audio commentaries, one of which is devoted entirely to visual style; Lee, Oh and Kim discuss their use of color, space, and light, as well as the technical challenges of the production. The other commentary features Kim and the two actresses who portray the sisters, Soo-jung Im and Geun-young Moon.

Disc two contains a number of documentaries and interviews that shed light on the filmmakers’ process. “The Story of A Tale of Two Sisters” presents behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with the cast and crew, and that segment is followed by instructive featurettes on the production design, music, CG effects and marketing. Also featured are interviews with the director, actors, and even a psychiatrist, who offers a psychoanalytic assessment of the film’s themes. Rounding out the package are some deleted scenes and promotional materials.

This edition of A Tale of Two Sisters is one of the best DVD releases of 2005, offering a beautiful transfer of a great movie and hours of incisive extras. (Note: This version of the film is unrated. The movie has also been released in an R-rated single-disc edition.)

— Jim Hemphill