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The Quiet Family, 1998
Mr. Kang (In-Hwan Park) and Mrs. Kang (Na Moon-hee) decide to turn their home into a lodge for travelers with the help of their adult children, Yeong-Min (Song Kang-ho), Mi-na (Ho-kyung Go), and Mi-Su (Yun-seong Lee). When their first visitor dies of a gruesome suicide, the family decides to cover up the death to avoid scandal. But that death is merely the first of what will become a series of deadly mishaps and confrontations featuring their guests.
More subdued than its remake, this is nonetheless a very funny comedy-horror with a game cast.
At first I was worried that this film, which takes a more subdued approach than Miike’s 2001 nutty-but-hilarious remake, wouldn’t land as well because it would feel more dialed down. And while it’s true that this film doesn’t hit the same outlandish notes as the remake---no pedophile sumo wrestlers here!--I ended up enjoying this more grounded version. I mean, I say more grounded, but this is still a very slapstick, over-the-top comedy/horror.
Part of the joy here is just seeing some familiar faces a few years before the films that put them on my radar. Song Kang-Ho, of course, on hand as the no-good son of the couple. But there’s also Choi Min-sik as Chang-ku, the uncle of the family who isn’t as much on board with all of the shenanigans. The cast of this film is very deep, and I found all of the actors to be very delightful in their roles. Lee Ki-young is very funny as a hired assassin who enters the plot late in the movie, and runs up against Yeong-Min who doesn’t realize the nature of their new guest.
The kills are not all that gruesome, but work because either they play on the terrible luck of the family or because of their slapstick nature. The first guest uses his room key to kill himself, something that feels very much like an omen. But as the film goes on, the deaths progress from accidental, to reactionary, to premeditated. It’s a fatal domino effect that all begins with the decision to cover up the first death and grows wildly, wildly out of hand. Mr. and Mrs. Kang frequently bemoan their bad luck, but in the manner of people who are totally oblivious to the way that they are in part contributing to that luck.
An interesting aspect of the film is the seemingly random nature of who ends up on the chopping block. There are bad people who die accidentally, good people who are killed, and everything else in between. As the family gets deeper and deeper into their coverups, their own sense of morality gets totally warped to the point that their priority is keeping the deaths a secret, no matter who gets hurt. Chang-ku and the two daughters are the only ones who seem hesitant about the many, many bodies that the family ends up burying in the backyard.
And this goes on with the general way that the morality of the family erodes. The first death is a catastrophe. But it’s not too long before, on finding a body, the father nonchalantly says, “Get the bags”. I think that it’s especially true in families that strange or immoral behavior can become normalized. In this film, murder quickly becomes a family value as long as it's in service of keeping the lodge open.
While the whole movie is pretty funny overall, it does manage to stick the landing in a particularly enjoyable last act. I’d definitely recommend this one, it was a good time.
The Quiet Family, 1998
Mr. Kang (In-Hwan Park) and Mrs. Kang (Na Moon-hee) decide to turn their home into a lodge for travelers with the help of their adult children, Yeong-Min (Song Kang-ho), Mi-na (Ho-kyung Go), and Mi-Su (Yun-seong Lee). When their first visitor dies of a gruesome suicide, the family decides to cover up the death to avoid scandal. But that death is merely the first of what will become a series of deadly mishaps and confrontations featuring their guests.
More subdued than its remake, this is nonetheless a very funny comedy-horror with a game cast.
At first I was worried that this film, which takes a more subdued approach than Miike’s 2001 nutty-but-hilarious remake, wouldn’t land as well because it would feel more dialed down. And while it’s true that this film doesn’t hit the same outlandish notes as the remake---no pedophile sumo wrestlers here!--I ended up enjoying this more grounded version. I mean, I say more grounded, but this is still a very slapstick, over-the-top comedy/horror.
Part of the joy here is just seeing some familiar faces a few years before the films that put them on my radar. Song Kang-Ho, of course, on hand as the no-good son of the couple. But there’s also Choi Min-sik as Chang-ku, the uncle of the family who isn’t as much on board with all of the shenanigans. The cast of this film is very deep, and I found all of the actors to be very delightful in their roles. Lee Ki-young is very funny as a hired assassin who enters the plot late in the movie, and runs up against Yeong-Min who doesn’t realize the nature of their new guest.
The kills are not all that gruesome, but work because either they play on the terrible luck of the family or because of their slapstick nature. The first guest uses his room key to kill himself, something that feels very much like an omen. But as the film goes on, the deaths progress from accidental, to reactionary, to premeditated. It’s a fatal domino effect that all begins with the decision to cover up the first death and grows wildly, wildly out of hand. Mr. and Mrs. Kang frequently bemoan their bad luck, but in the manner of people who are totally oblivious to the way that they are in part contributing to that luck.
An interesting aspect of the film is the seemingly random nature of who ends up on the chopping block. There are bad people who die accidentally, good people who are killed, and everything else in between. As the family gets deeper and deeper into their coverups, their own sense of morality gets totally warped to the point that their priority is keeping the deaths a secret, no matter who gets hurt. Chang-ku and the two daughters are the only ones who seem hesitant about the many, many bodies that the family ends up burying in the backyard.
And this goes on with the general way that the morality of the family erodes. The first death is a catastrophe. But it’s not too long before, on finding a body, the father nonchalantly says, “Get the bags”. I think that it’s especially true in families that strange or immoral behavior can become normalized. In this film, murder quickly becomes a family value as long as it's in service of keeping the lodge open.
While the whole movie is pretty funny overall, it does manage to stick the landing in a particularly enjoyable last act. I’d definitely recommend this one, it was a good time.