Janghwa, Hongryeon (2003)

Director:

Ji-woon Kim

Writer:

Ji-woon Kim (screenplay)

Release Date:

13 June 2003 (South Korea)

Genre:

Horror | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

Tagline:

Our sorrow was conceived long before our birth

Plot:

Two sisters who, after spending time in a mental institution, return to the home of their father and cruel stepmother...

Plot Keywords:

Surreal | Evil Stepmother | Dead Child | Delusion | Sister Sister Relationship

Awards:

12 wins & 3 nominations

Cast

Kap-su Kim	...	Bae Moo-hyeon (Father)
Jung-ah Yum	...	Eun-joo (Stepmother)
Su-jeong Lim	...	Bae Soo-mi (Janghwa)
Geun-yeong Mun	...	Bae Soo-yeon (Hongryeon)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Seung-bi Lee	...	Mi-hee

Directed by
Ji-woon Kim

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Ji-woon Kim		screenplay

Produced by
Jeong-wan Oh	....	producer
Ki-min Oh	....	producer (as Oh Gi-Min)

Original Music by
Byung-woo Lee

Cinematography by
Mo-gae Lee

Film Editing by
Hyeon-mi Lee

Art Direction by
Geun-hyeon Jo

Production Companies

• Masulpiri Films

Distributors

• Chungeorahm Film (2003) (South Korea) (theatrical)
• Bir Film (????) (Turkey) (theatrical)
• 3L Filmverleih (2005) (Germany) (theatrical)
• Arti Film (2005) (Netherlands) (theatrical)
• Aztec International Entertainment (2005) (Australia) (DVD)
• Bac Films (????) (France) (theatrical)
• CDK Entertainment (2008) (Greece) (all media)
• Cineclick Asia (worldwide)
• Comstock (2004) (Japan) (theatrical)
• Europa Filmes (2007) (Brazil) (DVD)
• Future Film (2005) (Finland) (DVD)
• Karma Films (2004) (Spain) (theatrical)
• Medusa Distribuzione (2004) (Italy) (theatrical)
• Metro DVD (????) (South Korea) (DVD)
• TLA Releasing (2005) (USA) (DVD)
• Tartan Films (2004) (USA) (theatrical) (subtitled)
• Tartan USA (2005) (USA) (theatrical)
• Tartan Video USA (????) (USA) (DVD)
• Tartan Video (2004) (UK) (DVD)
• Tartan (2004) (UK) (theatrical)
• Visionary Thinking (2004) (Bosnia-Herzegovina) (all media)
• Visionary Thinking (2004) (Serbia and Montenegro) (all media)
• Zima Entertainment (2005) (Mexico) (theatrical)
• e-m-s the DVD-Company (2005) (Germany) (DVD)

Other Companies

• Dominion3 Public Relations  unit publicity

Also Known As:

A Tale of Two Sisters (International: English title)

MPAA:

Rated R for some violence and disturbing images.

Runtime:

Korea:115 min

Country:

South Korea

Language:

Korean

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital EX

Certification:

Ireland:18 (re-rating) (2005) | Malaysia:U (re-rating) | Portugal:M/16 | Ireland:16 (original rating) | Peru:18 | Malaysia:18SG (uncut version) | France:-12 | Germany:16 | Hong Kong:IIB | Japan:PG-12 | Philippines:PG-13 | Singapore:PG | South Korea:12 | Spain:13 | UK:15 | USA:R | Sweden:15 | Australia:MA | Finland:K-18

Filming Locations:

Yuler-Myun, Bosung, Jeollanamdo, South Korea

Company:

Masulpiri Films

Trivia:

In the original story, the sisters' names are Janghwa and Hongryeon (Rose Flower and Red Lotus). In the movie, they are Su-mi and Su-yeon (still mean Rose and Lotus).

Goofs:

Continuity: In the hospital scenes, there is no scar on the back of Su-mi's hand.

Quotes:

Bae Soo-mi: Shall we kill them?
Bae Soo-yeon: Let's set them free.
Bae Soo-mi: She'll have a cow if we mess with her precious. I'd hate to see that.

Movie Connections:

References Ringu (1998)

Guilt Complex

I watch many movies, but presently my genre number one is Asian horror. I have just bought this DVD and I initially found "Janghwa, Hongryeon" an intriguing but confused film, since I had not understood many parts of the story. But I saw in IMDb Board a message titled "Explanation of a Masterpiece (all your questions answered) Faster load", written by opiemar, and I was really impressed with the high quality of the explanations this user provided to viewers like me that missed points of the story. I would like to congratulate opiemar for his excellent work and suggest him to write a correct summary of this movie in IMDb to help and guide other viewers.

In the end, I agree that "Janghwa, Hongryeon" is a great Korean film, but I do not give ten in my vote because very few people can afford to see the same movie more than once, like this film demands, and without the great support of opiemar, I would not be able to understand the story as a whole. I intend to see this movie again in a near future. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Medo" ("Fear")