Kim Jee-woon's film takes its title and its frame from the Joseon-era folk tale, one of the most retold stories in Korea, and the two sisters are named for its two sisters. From the tale: two devoted sisters, a dead mother, a stepmother who destroys them, a father who fails to intervene, and the dead returning because an injustice has not been settled. The story had been filmed several times before 2003, which is part of why the title alone tells a Korean audience what kind of story they are in. Filed MEDIUM because the tale gives the film its frame and its iconography rather than its engine. The folk tale's stepmother is straightforwardly guilty and the resolution is a magistrate's judgement; the film keeps the setup and replaces the mechanism, making the question of who did what to whom its subject and settling it inside one character's mind instead of in a court.
