A Tale Of Two Sisters.
Does anybody know any good programs for screen capturing from DVD's at all? Also, anybody got any idea how to make a region zoned DVD burner region free? I want to get screen cap's from Eyes Without A Face, Fast, Cheap And Out Of Control and Funny Games, but they're all region 1.
I just finished watching the completely obnoxious film A Tale Of Two Sisters. I'd heard many good things about it, and given that I have previously enjoyed a fair amount of Asian horror, I thought I'd give it a gander.
I slipped the DVD into the player and sat down for what I thought would be a good horror film - I've not seen a good chilling horror movie in a while and need something to keep me at bay until Wolf Creek arrives. The cover looked great, the production value of the film looks fantastic, and the write up's have all been positive. It seemed like I was set for a good afternoon in front of the box.
Boy was I wrong.
Following very closely to the less is more aspect of filmmaking, A Tale Of Two Sisters doesn't seem to have any storyline at all, well, that is until the last five minutes of the film where everything from the previous hour and a half is explained. I have no problem with films not revealing what is going on, just as long as there's something to keep you interested. Something that makes a little sense. With The Sixth Sense, you have a coherent storyline that works damn well for the duration of the film. With A Tale Of Two Sisters, you have a damn fine looking film which makes little to no sense at all.
Why is the step mother such a bitch? Well, just because. Why do the step daughters hate her so much? Well, just because. Why doesn't the husband do anything about it? Oh, just because. Why does one of the daughters have vivid violent nightmares? Just because, it's cool. Why is this film so fucking loud with pointless sound effects? Because, that's awesome.
What I don't understand about films that use rapid panning or zoom through objects is that they provide a sound effect for the rapid panning or zoom. Such as in Dirty Deeds when the camera insanely zooms through a bullet hole in a dead pig, we get the sound effect that the camera would make when it squishes through the pig's flesh. In A Tale Of Two Sisters, for some random reason, the camera quickly tracks down a hallway and provides the most out of place sound of a camera moving quickly down a hallway.
Or the fact that every time there's a "jump moment" the soundtrack decides to slam some hideous sounds out. Oh no, she's checking what's under the sink, it's all quiet, but, BAM! There's somebody sitting at the table behind her now! Oh no! It's as if the director has decided to nulify the viewers senses with quick shocks and loud bangs so that they don't realise there's no story.
Whilst I had read the back of the DVD cover before watching the film, I had an understanding of what was going on, but that shouldn't be the case with movies. You should be able to put the film in and watch it without having known anything about it beforehand. Sadly this film somehow expects you to know who the characters are, what their intentions are, and what the hell is going on throughout.
A Tale Of Two Sisters is superbly acted, there's no fault in that at all, and the cinematography is spot on, but everything else is a mish-mash of pointlessness. With a cover that haunts back to the twins in The Shining, and moments that reek of other films - specifically the bag scene's in Audition - A Tale Of Two Sisters tries to be a amalgamation of various other films and be unique at the same time. That's all well and good if you can pull it off properly - ala The Matrix.
The use of gore in the film is minimal as well, which is fine, but surely if you're going to show gore there's got to be a point - much like in relation to the Slant Magazine's review on Cannibal Holocaust that I read this morning which outlines how pointless the animal slaughtering is in the film. In this film, the gore is pointless. As are most of the shocks. There's flashes of a burnt girl under a sink, why is she burnt? Why is she under the sink? What is wrong with her? Who knows, it's not explained. Somebody loses a flap of skin in one of the nightmares, but it's so quick and pointless that it doesn't matter and only registers as shock value.
It may seem like I'm being overly harsh on this film, and I am - it does have a lot of redeeming values, you just have to be extremely patient for them - but it just seems that nowadays horror films can put anything in there and be successful, particularly if they're from Asia. I shouldn't be one to preach though, one of my favourite films has some of the most pointless and question worthy scene's in Asia horror - Suicide Club. Yet, films like A Tale Of Two Sisters and Ju-On feel as if they can merely show these shocking events and build pointless tension by using filmic elements which are tired and lame, and in the end get a good film out of it. Ju-On's repetition and lack of character development would be a great companion piece for A Tale Of Two Sisters which is void of character development and merely just shows events and expects you to understand what's going on. When will they realise that it's not enough to simply show what has happened in the last five minutes of the film and hope you're satisfied enough with the last two hours that you would want to waste them again with the knowledge of what's happened so you think you're watching a coherent and satisfying film.
I guess there won't be a time when Asian horror films will be like they used to and were hyped up to be. American horror has gone by the wayside lately, German/Russian horror tried to get off the ground but has turned into nothingness. Australian horror seems to be going well lately, and for the Spierig brothers sakes, I hope they do make another film and make it well. I hope that Neil Marshall continues to make his own films in the UK. And I hope that somewhere there is another horror revolution, because god knows we need it.
A Tale Of Two Sisters - **1/2