Critical Essay on A Tale of Two Sisters: South Korean Drama of Sisters & Stepmother's Challenges

Introduction

The movie "A Tale of Two Sisters" is a fantastic film that is my favorite. It was released in 2003 and revolved around the life of the two sisters and their stepmother. The environment from which I watched the movie was silent and conducive, thereby enabling me to follow and understand each scene.

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The movie "A Tale of Two Sisters" is a South Korean movie that concentrates on the life of the two sisters and their stepmother. It also encompasses the challenges that they face living as a family. The two sisters are named Su-Yeon and Su-mi, who lived with their father, who had remarried, which means that they did not live with their biological mother (Jee-woon, 2003). The sisters are poorly treated by their stepmother, who does not like them because they are not her children. The sister faces psychological torture when asleep. One of the sisters experiences nightmares of their mother visiting them at night with a broken neck and limbs. The ordeal is terrifying to the sister because they fear that bad things might happen to them due to the nightmares that they got while sleeping.

The setting of the movie, "A Tale of Two Sisters", is where two sisters suffer in the hands of their stepmother. The setting of the movie describes a scenario where children are living in a hostile environment because of the conflict between children and their stepmother (Jee-woon, 2003). The stepmother commands the two sisters were making them fear her. The rejection of the two sisters leads to depression because they cannot understand why their biological father cannot protect them from the stepmother. I like the setting of the movie and the use of the two sisters to represent the challenges that children face in the community in the hands of stepmothers and other family members.

Technology has changed the film industry in terms of sound, size as well as the playback. The film run time is 110 minutes and is worthy of every audience's time (Jee-woon, 2003). The movie was interesting, so I was able to watch it while taking a break every 30 minutes. There were no distracting sounds or unnecessary music. The sounds were only introduced in the appropriate scenes, thereby making it easy to follow the storyline. The voices of the actors were captured, so I did not have to struggle to understand what the actors were saying. Also, there were instances when I could not hear due to minimizing distractions from the external environment, so the rewind button enabled me to watch the scene again. This is one of the technologies that I appreciate in the film industry because when watching a movie on platforms such as IMD. It is possible to playback, unlike when watching live on television.

The main characters in the movie are the two sisters, the stepmother and the father (Jee-woon, 2003). The choice of characters was exceptional, and they all played their roles differently in representing their character roles. The choice of Soo-mi Bae and Soo-Yeon Bae was well thought of, and they both played their roles despite being fictional as real sisters. They get out of the mental institution together, and the ghost of their mother haunts them.

The movie is full of horror based on the things that the ladies experience while sleeping because they believe that they see a ghost at night while sleeping hence the fear that the thing might become a reality. Su-Yeon confronts her father, to tell the truth of what had happened to their mother because they began to doubt that their mother had died based on the narrations of their father (Jee-woon, 2003). Su-Yeon tells the father about the hallucinations that she gets, and she starts to believe that their mother could be alive, and that's why they are getting hallucinations.

The central crisis in the movie is the disagreement between the family member where the two sisters, their father, and stepmother are in disagreement concerning the whereabouts of their mother (Jee-woon, 2003). The two sisters believe that the stepmother and the father had a role to play in the disappearance and the loss of their mother. The nightmares that they get is an indication that bad thing happened to their mother hence the revelation through the nightmares. The crisis in the film is never solved because the sister continues to get nightmares, and they never find their mother. The role of the protagonists in the film is to bring the element of conflict in the film where family members' conflict and they don't find the solution to their conflict.

The main stylistic element in the " A Tale of Two Sisters" movie includes the sound being used in the film, where the viewers keep glued to the screen from the start because they are eager to learn what will happen next (Jee-woon, 2003). The sound creates suspense because the viewers want to see what will happen next from the main protagonists. There is also a sequence of activities element that occurs in the movie where activities happen in sequential order; the happening of one thing leads to the happening of another thing. All the activities that take place in the film are well planned to achieve the desired outcome. Mise-en-scene is also used in the film to use the scene related to the theme of the movie.

The cinematographer for the movie is Lee Mo-gae, whose work (Jee-woon, 2003). The entire camerawork is nicely done, thereby making it appearing to the audience and facilitating understanding of the storyline. Cinematography plays a very critical role in appealing to the emotions of the audience. The director of camera work made use of colors, format as well as visual differentiation, which helped to distinguish different scenes and promote different themes in the film.

The Eyeline match technique is used in the movie, " A Tale of Two Sisters" severally to show the audience what different characters in the movie are thinking. The technique is shown where the mother in law thinks of the best punishment suitable for the two sisters (Jee-woon, 2003). Cutting on action technique is also applied in the production of the movie, where the editor cuts different parts of the movie to make the scenes relate to the viewers.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the movie, "A Tale of Two Sisters", incorporates various techniques that make the viewer's understand the theme of the theme as well as making the film interesting. The movie was interesting to watchmaking the viewers have suspense on what will happen to the two sisters. The environment that I was while watching the film made many scenes seem real.

References

Jee-woon, K. (2003). A Tale of Two Sisters [Film]. South Korea: Janghwa Hongryeon.