The Essentials: The Films Of ‘The Last Stand’ Director Kim Jee-Woon

“Memories” from “Three” (2002)
“Three” was a horror/thriller anthology from Asia whose initial directorial line-up was trumped by the talent assembled for its sequel, the more vicious “Three… Extremes.” But since “Three… Extremes” came out in America first (also featuring a segment by “Oldboy” director Park Chan-wook), the original “Three” was finally released here as “Three Extremes II.” But no matter how you catch up with it, it’s hard not to be dazzled by Kim Jee-woon’s segment, “Memories.” The short charts the parallel stories of a man (Jeong Bo-seok) whose wife (Kim Hye-soo) has recently disappeared (he’s starting to lose it), and the wife herself, who awakens on a strange, eerily deserted road. As the two characters slowly regain their memories of what happened, it leads to a genuinely shocking, deeply emotional climax that feels like the saddest ever ending of a “Twilight Zone” episode. Even more impressive is seeing the director thread a compelling, relatable portrait of how memory works (especially after the end of a relationship) amidst all the shock-show horror stuff. A minor triumph, for sure. [B+]

“A Tale of Two Sisters” (2003)
One of the all-time biggest South Korean box office heavyweights, “A Tale of Two Sisters” is a horror film inspired by a fourteenth-century Korean folktale (“Rose Flower and Red Lotus“), which, since it’s a piece of Korean cinema, is really violent and twisty and weird. Two young girls go to live with their father and his new wife at a house in the country (which looks, from certain angles, like the whacked-out abode from Japanese cult classic “House“) and, almost immediately after, are visited by a ghostly woman. Their father, of course, is resistant to any talk about his new wife or the otherworldly visitor that seems to be harming the girls (and scaring the hell out of their dinner guests). While as stylish as anything Kim has ever done (editorially, he had gained even more bravado), the film doesn’t quite work, mostly because the third act, which blends past, present, and future, as well as fantasy and reality, becomes incredibly difficult to untangle. This wouldn’t have been such an issue – it is based on a fairy tale and a certain amount of dream logic shouldn’t just be accepted but openly embraced – if it wasn’t for the emotional undercurrents that also run through that incredibly busy third act (up until this point the movie’s pacing could be conservatively be described as “glacial”). “A Tale of Two Sisters” could arguably be described as Kim’s first crossover hit, which included a brief but well-regarded run in the United States, complete with an unnecessary and totally watered down western remake by DreamWorks, unimaginatively retitled “The Uninvited.” [C+]