A Tale of Two Sisters and Mise ene scene is the setting up of the stage and other objects to depict the setting of a play, and the key factors that make up the play scene are the lighting in the theatre room, the colors used, the location of the play, costumes won, characters, pros, and the dialogue. Several design components presented to the camera convey a feeling of time, location, mood, and a character’s implied state of mind. A Tale of Two Sisters in mise-en-scene enriches the story and the pervading dread that pervades the entire play (D’Arcy 20). Apart from being a fantastic horror film of its kind, viewers are kept at the forefront of their attention by A Tale of Two Sisters, where they fabricate a justification for the events that occur through clever use of the mise-en-scène. Red and blue colors are seen practically in every scene of the film due to their intense complementary nature; different shades of these colors are employed to produce image distortion. A tale of two sisters independently uses Mise-en-scene to explain play and the unconsciousness throughout the movie.
Because of these shades, the spectator is compelled to feel the same frenzied intensity as the character. To further eliminate specific people and their surroundings, each image will contain a variety of red, blue, and light brown tones (D’Arcy 23). The hues with which Su-mi is linked—red and blue—always imply the false world she has built through her shattered identity. A ghost haunts the house throughout the movie, but the viewer is never sure if the ghost is real or not. Mi-hee gets a significant seizure and suffocates during a dinner scene. Screams, violet color schemes, and quick cuts to various characters, including ones who are not there, make the situation chaotic. Suddenly, the camera position shifts, impersonating a ghost under the kitchen sink without actually showing the ghost. Mi-hee only discusses what she witnessed in the backseat of the car on the way home. In this play, the illumination is dark and gloomy, making the audience nervous because they cannot see much of the scene, thus assuming that something or a person is present.
Additionally, the shadows prevent the audience from seeing any specifics, which adds to the feeling of unease and potential invasion. For example, the Su-mi wearing a red dress probably identifies her as the elder sister to Eun-Joo. Due to the lighting, the spectators can also determine that the drama is set at nightfall, intensifying the tension. The intentional use of color was used purposefully to give some elements more prominence than others. For example, the red color may represent something about herself or her job, and the red dress suggests threat or sexiness, making the spectators focus on the background. Eun-Joo, the sister to Su-mi, is spotted by the audience wearing a blue skirt. The viewers are drawn to the more colorful character because of the disparity between their clothing’s dull and light colors, which indicates that they will be the scene’s most significant character.
Other, more subtle references to A Tale of Two Sisters‘ Korean heritage are also made. Eun-Joo cared for the girls’ sick mother while she was ill and eventually conned Moo-Hyeon into making her his second wife. In Korean cinema, Eun-Joo embodies the shrewd, deceitful female archetype of the contractually employed nurses, maids, mothers-in-law, and stepmothers, whose entrance is guaranteed by a marriage license or employment. The play is in the Korean kitchen area just after dinner and as night falls, depicting to the spectators that it is the character’s home. Because the film’s setting is in the kitchen area, this gives characters a reason to sit comfortably, and they have no reason to believe anything wrong would happen hence offering them a false sense of security.
Given that the movie is set in Korea, the fact that the room is so civilized and dated gives the audience the impression that the characters are pretty well-off. The blue cabinets are also quite crucial in this scenario since the moaning the woman hears is coming from the blue cabinets. Therefore, the director decided to make the cabinets in the scene stand out as well. An example of this about the popping hand is the appearance of a dead woman who wants to seek revenge in the horror film’ The Heritage of Horror in A Tale of Two Sisters.
The unique props in this play are the blue cabinet because it is everyone’s home household furniture, making the audience think that a theatre is a safe place while feeling insecure. The bright colors of the cabinet’s door and the freaking sounds draw the attention of the spectators. Using the cupboard, a normal daily prop, makes the spectators fit into the character’s roles in the play. Additionally, the hair clip picked from the ground by a woman is another prop used by the director as the clip is seen as a toddler’s hair rap since it is beautiful and floral. The spectator’s eyes are on the floral clip, suddenly when a hand stretches from the cabinet to grab the hand of the woman picking the floral clip.
The above act instills fear in the spectators since they focus on the floral clip, which is just an innocent extraordinary hair object. The horror film as an example shows this: as Fred Bann has pointed out, one of the major processes of Gothic narrative is the startling contrast between reality and appearance (Fisher Baldwin and Kilby 15). A Gothic influence in A Tales of Two Sisters horror film, where Su-mi and her sister reunite and Su-mi’s attitude towards her is cold, which further instills fear in fear the audience.
The man dressed in a dark line is not attracting the attention of the spectators. Thus, the Audience focus on the woman dressed in the red dress; hence, she is the one that matters to the spectators. The woman’s hair covers half of her face making it difficult for the audience to see her. The director’s actions were deliberate such that the audience would not be connected to this character. The scary woman is seen wearing a long shaggy dress as she is going to take a sit; this depicts to the audience the time this woman has been dead.
There is total silence between the stage woman and the man, and they appear to be in a union despite their cold attitude toward each other, and this relates to the palette of the theatre. Their physical characteristics do not show any signs of caring or love, and the woman has isolated herself. The quiet, weak man cannot acknowledge that his previous choices had severe repercussions that still influence the present. He travels aimlessly through this emotional turmoil. He is typical of the male protagonists in old-school Korean horror films: pitiful, zombie-like, and incapable of feeling empathy. The man is older than the woman, indicating his authority over the woman.
In addition, the girl appears lonely as she hides her face using her long hair. The woman continues to ignore; she continues to sit there even though there is only one little sentence of speech in this film, which is when the man says, “Go to sleep.” This is relevant to the two characters’ connection, which conveys to the audience that they are not particularly close. The way the local genre enjoys pairing these two monster types together in the same film is particularly unique to Korean horror. Natural and supernatural fear are intertwined; we constantly encounter ghosts.
There are spooky women all over these movies. The mother of the girl in A Tale of Two Sisters passes away while her husband shows off his nurse-mistress in their home. Moreover, at the same time, a woman is churning under the kitchen sink while another lurks in Su-Yeon’s wardrobe, its vertebrae snapping. A Tale of Two Sisters depicts a character’s plight and sadness through a terrifying tale. Many viewers find it difficult to handle the horror of being stuck in something strange at the first viewing (Porter 145). It is unpleasant, confining, and impossible to escape. When the truth of the matter is revealed, we better understand the characters’ behavior, suffering, and how their world has ended. The moral of A Tale of Two Sisters is that even though reasonable people may perish unfairly, evil people will always receive punishment.
Works Cited
D’Arcy, Geraint. “Mise En Scène and Décor.”Mise En Scène, Acting, and Space in Comics, 2020, pp. 17–56. Web.
Fisher Baldwin, Betty Kilby, and Phoebe Kilby. “24. A Tale of Two Sisters.”Slavery’s Descendants, 2019, pp. 212–224. Web.
Porter, Deborah Lynn. “Imperial Legacy, Aborted Mourning, and the Meaning of Horror in Kim Jee-Woon’s A Tale of Two Sisters.”Collective Trauma and the Psychology of Secrets in Transnational Film, 2018, pp. 138–188. Web.