Supernatural tales of family tragedy have become commonplace on the cinematic landscape of many Asian countries over the past few years. Hybrid films like Dark Water have been quite successful in augmenting the emotional context of their subject matter through the use of familiar horror genre conventions. Following on the heels of modest attempts like Acacia, the Korean box-office hit A Tale of Two Sisters has become one of the most affecting family ghost stories ever to grace the screen. Hailed by some as one of the most beautiful Korean films ever made, Kim Ji-wun's marvelous masterwork is a sumptuous visual feast rife with subdued scares, haunting melodies and a labyrinth of complex plot twists that will likely require more than one viewing to digest completely.

This somber tale recounts the chilling events surrounding its titular siblings, Su-mi and her younger sister Su-yeon. The film opens to an elegant orchestral arrangement as the pair are brought home by their father after what seems to be a sizable absence. The girls are extremely close and spend much of their time together, holding hands and sharing secrets. After passing some time at the lake near the house, the sisters enter their father's house and are greeted by their stepmother Eun-joo. It is clear that their relationship is strained, and that Su-mi is resentful of her father for having remarried after her mother's death. Su-Mi is met with a handful of oddities as she settles in, but nothing that would initially hint at any otherworldly maleficence.

Yet something strange is definitely afoot in the house, as the sisters are beset by a number of unsettling events and freakish nightmares. Eun-joo continues to act coldly towards them, while Su-mi begins to suspect that their stepmother is abusing Su-yeon when she isn't around to protect her little sister. What starts out as a somewhat typical story of resentment between stepparent and child becomes much more surreal and engrossing as the film progresses. It resembles more of a family drama at first, but rest assured that A Tale of Two Sisters is very much a haunted house tale at heart. To discuss the plot in any more detail would be criminal, as the film undergoes a number of stunning twists that will undoubtedly cast previous events in an entirely different light.

While the basic storyline may be familiar to genre veterans (it is loosely based on a old chestnut from the Josean Dynasty called Janghwa, Hongryeon), Kim Ji-wun's treatment of the material is nonetheless something to behold. A Tale of Two Sisters is a visually stunning work in which the director weaves a rich tapestry of vibrant imagery through a masterful manipulation of color and texture. This breathtaking composition commands undivided attention with a carefully-controlled use of saturation and hue, as well as art direction so meticulous that it borders on obsessive. Every painstakingly-composed frame of the film is teeming with spellbinding minutiae that imprints a very tangible quality of life and character to the many nooks and crannies of the family's house. The exquisite combination of these elements results in a resplendent work that easily rivals the most visually appealing films of recent memory.

Kim Ji-wun brings an astounding cinematic knack to A Tale of Two Sisters that is most evident in a variety of intriguing reveal sequences and suspenseful creep-out setups, the latter of which are brimming with edge-of-your-seat tension. Though only a handful of characters participate in the proceedings, they are all a joy to watch, especially the dominant sister Su-mi (Im Su-jeong) and her menacing stepmother (Yeom Jung-ah). Completing this audiovisual tour-de-force is a wonderful soundscape that perfectly compliments the films' visual style. The director makes expert use of ambient sound effects to unseat the viewer throughout the length of the movie, and indeed some of the film's most hair-raising moments are the result of unexpectedly chilling noises. Supplementing the sound design is a wonderful orchestral score that befittingly reflects the melancholy tone of the sister's plight through a number of variations on a central piano-and-violin theme.

A Tale of Two Sisters is a haunting, beautiful film that stands as my favorite among the cerebral thrillers in this year's Danger After Dark lineup. Its superlative cinematography, art direction and sound design, combined with a host of slowly-developing scares and masterful pacing, make this one of the most accomplished genre films I've seen in recent years. Varying from somewhat familiar to wholly unexpected, the film's major plot wrinkles are so expertly portrayed and unexpected that they make for a truly memorable viewing experience. (Seeing the film a second time is strongly suggested in order to understand the plot fully.) Composed with magnificent care and thought, A Tale of Two Sisters is essential contemporary horror viewing that earns my highest recommendation. See it without delay.

Thumbs Up. With brilliant photography and arresting art direction, A Tale of Two Sisters delivers an engrossing twist-filled ghost story suffused with a tense, goose-bump-filled atmosphere.