FNDF: The Host and A Tale of Two Sisters

The second installment of my Friday Night Double Feature series was Korean cinema, with one film I’d wanted to see for ages but had never had the chance and one film I love dearly and wanted to share with whoever happened to be around. The Host, surprise monster film hit from last year, was the former film, and the well-built psychological horror film A Tale of Two Sisters is a film that two years ago I watched twice in 24 hours–the second time just to follow along with an IMDB analysis of the plot.

I apologize for the delayed writeup, but please, read on and find pearls of wisdom.

Like I said, The Host had been high on my to-see list for some time now, but every time I had a chance to see it something came up. So, when I had a chance to show it at my double-feature…I was nearly foiled again. It turned out the one place I had hoped to rent a copy from was out, and it was only thanks to a last minute run to Best Buy by a friend of mine who wanted to own the movie himself that I was able to show it.

I was thrilled, and by the end of the film, I was also satisfied.

The Host is nothing like Cloverfield, really. It doesn’t try and use any fancy cinematography, and it’s not a one trick pony, more of a jack of all trades. The Host has a bit of comedy, a bit of thrills, some action, some drama, and a balanced mix of happy moments and sad ones which sum up to give the viewer a good deal of empathy for the characters. The one other big difference is that there’s no real suspense about what the monster is or what it can do–it starts eating people in broad daylight about fifteen minutes in to the film.

For what it’s worth, the creature is phenomenally weird. It swims, it climbs, it stumbles when it runs a whole bunch…you wouldn’t think it would be a particularly effective or terrifying beast, and frankly, it isn’t to a viewer. There’s not much awe because it’s just the size of a school bus. But still, for the characters–and more importantly, the government–the beast is a force to be reckoned with. And because of that same government, the woe begins.

A strong environmentalist theme is prominent in The Host, along with some anti-American sentiment (basically, the Americans are responsible for the whole thing and then bungle their management of it). The most wrenching part of the film is seeing an ordinary family–an out-of-college drunk uncle, the industrious grandfather, the olympic medalist archer sister, and the somewhat brain-dead father–trying to rescue the daughter who ties them together and having to do everything they possibly can just to get a shot at finding her. Discomfort is yet another one of the emotions the film brings to bear, and it proves over its course that it can bring them back again and again for increasing effect.

If you like monsters, films about families against the odds, or films that have universal appeal strictly by being dabblers in moods, The Host is worth a look.

A Tale of Two Sisters is a horror film which really does need to be experienced twice. When I first saw it, I didn’t see the ending twist coming, and then with the revelation that gives I simply had to watch it again to understand everything that was going on.
It’s a horror film that’s light on gore and big on mystery, or at least big on weirded-out sections. It was, simply put, right up my alley.

The plot’s a little on the simple side–two girls move back to their country residence with their father and stepmother, and pretty quickly things start getting weird. The film is tightly written, tightly acted, and keeps tipping just enough of its hand to keep you watching until the end. The first big revelation hits probably half an hour or forty five minutes from the end, and even after that things only keep getting stranger.

If you’re looking for hugely terrifying things, this is also probably not a film to rely on. There are a couple of chilling moments in the film that are never really explained in whole, but they probably won’t cater to a real thrill seeker. The pacing is mostly what does it–there’s a lot of points in the film where the dialog’s pretty light, and much of the rest of the time it doesn’t make sense to the viewer (and not in a bad way, but more of a spooky way).

I’m rather surprised I don’t have more to say about A Tale of Two Sisters other than to give it my recommendation. I’m not big on horror films–I despise most of the franchises in that genre put out from Hollywood today–but this film really struck a chord with me. It’s about psychology, loss, and fraternal bonds.

Next This week: Elvis! Showing Bubba Ho-Tep and Six-String Samurai.

TagsFNDF