A tale of two sisters.

 On the very first lesson of a Korean here, in Poznań, my professor asked each of us one particular question : “What made you fall into Korean language or culture?”. Because everyone of us has chosen this major for some reason, right? The first thing that came into my mind was “because I love to learn languages”. That’s kinda obvious, that’s why I’m on a language faculty… But there are a lot of different languages, so why Korean? At what point have I realized that I’m falling in love with that language and culture? The answer is : movies.

 I have to admit that I have a weakness for psychological stories and old tales. If you try to combine this two things, you’ll get a Korean movie. Most of them are really specific ones and to truly get to the core, you have to know a culture and reality of Korea, at least just a little bit of it. So I started reading, digging up tales, facts and information. I wanted to plunge deeper and understand more. And here I am, studying this language in which everything seem to be upside down.

 But going back to Korean movies and tales. When you watch or read them, the atmosphere around you is changing. It’s disturbing and a little suffocating but at the same time you don’t want to get away. At least that’s what I feel while I immerse myself in that unique world of Korean stories. Also, I love the feeling after watching a movie or reading a tale – it’s like you can’t get away from it. It stuck in your head, or rather in your soul, and doesn’t allow you to get back to you normal self.

 One of the first movies I saw and that I want to recommend you guys is “A tale of two sisters”. The plot is set in a modern times but the whole story is based on a Korean folk tale that I would like to present right now. It's called Janghwa Hongryeon Jon (장화홍련전) so literally "The story of Janghwa and Hongryeon".

  The story begins with a man and his kind wife. The woman has a dream one night that a gorgeous flower was given to her by an angel, and surely enough, nine months later she gives birth to a daughter they name Janghwa (Korean: 장화, which means Rose Flower). Then after two years pass, the wife gives birth again to a little girl that they name Hongryeon (Korean: 홍련, which means Red Lotus).

 Unfortunately, the mother died when Hongryeon was 5 years old and soon thereafter, the father remarried to continue his line. The new stepmother was cruel, jealous, vindictive, and selfish. She hated her stepdaughters, but hid those feelings, only to reveal them once she had three sons in a row, which gave her a good deal of power, and she abused the girls in every possible way. But Janghwa and Hongryeon never told their father about any of it.

 When Janghwa came of age she got engaged, and her father asked the stepmother to help her plan the wedding. This made her so angry, because not only does she had to help a beautiful girl, but also  did not want to waste her sons’ future fortune on a wedding. So she hatched a nasty plan to destroy the poor girl’s reputation, life, and future. So she came up with a cruel plan.

 One night when Janghwa was sleeping, Stepmother had her eldest son put a dead skinned rat in Janghwa's bed. Early the next morning, the stepmother told the father that she had had a terrible dream about his daughter and feared that something bad might have happened. So together they went to check on Janghwa and in her bed they found something that looked like a very bloody miscarriage. The stepmother accused poor girl of having been unchaste, and her father believed it all. Janghwa ran away crying into a forest, and the step mother told her eldest son to follow and drown Janghwa in a pond. As she drowned, suddenly came a huge tiger who attacked Stepmother's eldest son, taking one leg and one arm from him.

 The mother was furious at what happened to her son, so she treated Hongryeon more horribly than she ever had done before. Hongryeon suffered so much after and was unable to bear her sister’s death, her loneliness, and the stepmother’s cruelty, so she soon followed Janghwa - her body was found in the same pond in which her elder sister had drowned.

 After that, whenever a new mayor came to the village, he was found dead a day after his arrival. As this kept happening, mysterious rumors spread through the village, but no one knew for sure what had happened to the men or for what reason. One day, a very brave, fearless, and youthful man became the mayor. He was aware of the deaths of predecessors, but he was not afraid for his own life. When night came, he was sitting in his room when his candle was suddenly blown out and gruesome noises filled the air. The door opened to reveal no one, at first, but then the new mayor saw two young female ghosts. He asked them who they were and why they had killed the previous mayors. Weeping, the elder sister explained that all they wanted was to let people know the truth: the elder girl had not been an unchaste girl who committed suicide in shame. She had been framed by her stepmother and murdered by her eldest half-brother. The mayor asked the ghost of Janghwa for any evidence of this. Janghwa told him to examine the miscarried fetus which Stepmother had shown to the villagers.

 That next morning he did just that. He called forth the father, the stepmother, and her eldest son, and he cut open the body revealing it was a rat. The stepmother and her eldest son were sentenced to death, and the father released since he too was tricked by the stepmother.

 Many years later, the father got married for a third time. In the night he had a dream with his two dead daughters. They told him that they wished to be with him once more, and that they would soon return. Nine months later, his wife gave birth to twins, that they named them Janghwa and Hongryeon. The new wife, the father, the sisters, and their two remaining brothers lived happily together.

 While “A Tale of Two Sisters” is modernized and abstract, it does not lose the story that inspired it. I know it may sound horrific just judging by the plot, but not only the story is what attracts me so much in the movie. The visuals are important for me as well and that movie has artistic, moving… just really beautiful shots. And the music... think whatever you want but I cry every time I listen to it.

 Like almost every good Asian movie, also that one has a American remake, but for me it's just another horror-like piece of poor cinematography that has lost completely the essence of a story.

 If you have a spare minute, check "A tale of two sisters" out! Of course the Korean one.