The Quiet Family (1998) User Reviews

The Quiet Movie

[BrandtSponseller · 8/10 · 9 May 2005]

Maybe this should become my mantra: "The property of 'originality' is based not so much on actual properties of the art object in question as it is based on the knowledge of the person ascribing the property to the art object in question". In other words, when we deem an artwork "original", it doesn't so much mean that the work _is_ original as it means that we're just not familiar with the works that have had a significant influence on it, or we do not remember the precursors (for those of us with less than perfect memories . . . what was I saying?)

The Quiet Family has already had a significant influence on films such as Jaume Balagueró's The Darkness (2002), and it has already been remade, by wacky Japanese director Takashi Miike, as The Happiness of the Katakuris (Katakuri-ke no kôfuku, 2001). I didn't realize that Happiness of the Katakuris was a remake of this film until I watched Happiness and looked it up on IMDb. I had never heard of this film before. South Korean films do not exactly get a great amount of publicity in the U.S., unfortunately.

Unlike Miike's remake, which is a very good film in its own right, The Quiet Family doesn't have bizarre claymation, it's not a musical, there aren't singing and "dancing" zombie-corpses, and there isn't some karmic disturbance of an equivalent to Mt. Fuji. This is a much quieter and understated film, but it's still a "black" (morbid or macabre) comedy-drama about a horrific, bad situation that just keeps getting worse.

The story concerns Tae-gu Kang, who has bought a small hotel (unlike Happiness of the Katakuris' much simpler bed & breakfast) in a relatively remote hiking area. He moves his family--his wife, son, two daughters and his brother--to the hotel, where they wait for guests to arrive. No one shows up. When they eventually do get a guest, it's a strange, solitary, older man who ends up committing suicide with his hotel key chain. The man's wallet, which seemed to contain a substantial sum of cash, is missing. Worried that the authorities will never believe them that it was a suicide, especially given their son's troubled past, and worried that the situation will create bad publicity for their hotel, they decide to bury the body on their property. Other guests begin trickling in, but for some reason or another, they all meet less than favorable fates. Just how much bad luck will the Kangs have, and just how far will they go to surmount it?

Even though this is a morbid comedy, director Ji-woon Kim employs very deliberate "art-house drama" pacing and tonalities. The cinematography is interesting throughout, and recurrent motifs include sustained, almost motionless shots of daughter Mi-na Kang (Ho-kyung Go), who is implied as an emotional "center" for the family (and indeed, she's the only one who remains relatively even-keeled throughout the bizarre occurrences). There are also many slow tracking or zoom shots of the beautifully decorated and colored hallways of the hotel (this is one of the conspicuous influences on the film Darkness, which has similar color and decoration schemes).

Another "center" for the Kangs is mealtime. We see them eating many times throughout the film--it's a way for them to gather their bearings, if possible, and figure out their "plan of attack". One nicely symbolic scene shows everyone refraining from eating at the table except for Mi-na and her sister Mi-su (Yun-seong Lee), as the family initially keeps the girls in the dark about the macabre goings-on.

Kim, who also wrote The Quiet Family in addition to directing, even spoofs the typical art-house drama romance, with a man who courts Mi-su a little too fervently and of course meets a twisted fate. This sets off a chain of events that lead to a very funny climax.

The crux of the film is the ever-escalating occurrences and humorous attempts to cover them up. This provides amusing subtexts about how good intentions can lead to severely immoral actions (and the guests even get in on this subtext a bit), but at the same time, we empathize with the protagonists, as the Kangs, at least, may be making bad judgments, but if they don't, they could face worse consequences. This is a quiet family that wants to remain quiet. While I prefer the bizarreness of Happiness of the Katakuris, at least slightly, The Quiet Family is still a very good film, and you just might prefer it if your tastes lean more towards art-house dramas than the surreal and over-the-top.

Highly amusing and dark.

[ThrownMuse · 7/10 · 11 May 2005]

A South Korean family (dad, mom, uncle, son, and two teen daughters) moves to the woods to open up a lodge in a hiking area. They find themselves restless, anxiously awaiting their first customer. When they finally get one, he is later found dead in his room. The family covers it up to avoid bad publicity. Soon the business finally starts booming--and so does the body count! This story probably sounds familiar to fans of Asian horror. That's because Takashi Miike remade this into "Happiness of the Katakuris," with song and dance sequences, zombies and claymation. "The Quiet Family" contains none of these elements, but it is almost as delightful with its wicked sense of humor. Each family member (my favorite being Mom) has their own amusing quirks, and I found myself chuckling out loud for the first half hour. Even when the story delves into morbid territory, the silly characters still manage to provide the laughs. Watching a "normal" family react to very abnormal situations proves to be very funny. The pace is excellent, though a few of the subplots almost push the story into a ridiculous place.

Ji-woon Kim is also the director of the instant classic "A Tale of Two Sisters." As with that film, the set design, use of rich colors, and innovative camera-work are spectacular and largely responsible for the eerie atmosphere.

"The Quiet Family" borders on absurd, but it never fails to entertain. Despite its over-the-top comedy and ridiculous scenarios, it has a serious overall tone that sets it apart from most other horror/comedies.

My Rating: 7/10.

Dark and Morbid Fun

[mindless_junk · 7/10 · 24 May 2003]

The storyline: A Korean family bought a lodging hotel for bargain basement prices in a desolated location. Hotel guests were hard to come by but when the first guest finally arrived, he committed suicide. More guests started to show up... but things did not turn out the way they were hoping... A classic case of be careful what you wish for, because it may actually come true in unexpected ways...

Think of this as Korean version of the "Addams Family". This movie is a showcase of dark humor while several parallel subplots are going on. I especially like the acting of the youngest daughter Mi-na, her looks and mannerism epitomize the dark humor of the entire movie.

Not the funniest movie to come out from the Korea movie industry in recent years, but nonetheless quite enjoyable for those who like dark humor movies like Beetlejuice or Addams Family.

Amusing black comedy

[PaulB-6 · 7/10 · 26 August 1999]

A very amusing and very black comedy, that plays on the failings of different family members, all trying to run a lodge in the middle of nowhere. A good amount of suspense is combined with the laughs, the film mixing a comedy of errors with slapstick and (many) bloody corpses. Wicked fun definitely not for the whole family.

Fun, absurd black comedy

[breadandhammers · 28 March 2021]

A black comedy Korean film about a family that owns a mountain lodge where their guests keep dying. When the first guest commits suicide, the story tumbles into a chain of events of guest after guest, dying one after another, with the family having to bury the bodies and hide the evidence. It's a fun film and I really enjoyed that parts with the hitman/cop mix-up. The humor is quite dark and absurd, but was very funny.

Firmly directed and delicately balancing both its premise and content with some decent situational comedy, The Quiet Family is close to something to shout about.

[johnnyboyz · 7/10 · 21 August 2010]

Death, in some form, was always going to worm its way to the secluded motel the Kang family run in 1998 South Korean film The Quiet Family. Where bloody situational comedy rules the roost for the best part of about an hour or so in Ji-woon Kim's film about a luckless family, stylised neo noir takes over, shoving the film onto a higher realm of cause and effect whilst effectively further involving an even larger number of parties, when the inclusion of hit men and organised killings on those staying at said place of rest. The film treads a fine line between effective black comedy and grossly misguided misfire, the crucial difference being that the deaths are not the focal point of whatever laughs you'll garner out of it; rather, the resulting actions that the innocents caught up in the middle of it all undertake, in order to try and rectify said situations. Importantly, we're on the Kang family's side; a large group of people running a new motel in a secluded woodland area trying to get by in their new business venture and succeed at a sort of American Dream. When tenants turn up, and more often than not need to be carried out rather than anything else, the film has fun with its premise of this rag tag bunch of people completely ill attuned to death or murder, just wanting to get by with this new business acquisition being plunged into a scenario far grimmer.

Mi-Soo (Lee Yoon-Seong) appears to be out guide, beginning as our narrator as the figure of her lounging on a sofa the subject of the first instance of an eerie, swooping camera composition which will periodically litter the rest of the film. She's restless of the Americanised hip-hop music that plays, informs us of the supposedly cursed rest place the lodge is and ever so fleetingly glances at the camera in a slight instance of the fourth wall being broken. The rest of the Kangs wait impatiently for a lodger of any kind to christen the place of business; and when a hiker arrives, they fawn over the signing of his name in the register in a close to all but eerily leering manner. The discovery of his dead body the following morning as a result of a suicide kicks off a string of deaths of guests which leave the family floundering as to what they ought to do and why what's happening to them is happening.

In what would be seen as quite daft in most other films, but here delivered with a knowing nod, a wondering and rambling elderly woman claims to be able to see a sort of angel of death figure perched on the roof of the lodging premises, invisible, of course, to everyone else. The angel of death claim provides a mythical and unseen element to proceedings, the film's reoccurring use of that long; tracking composition might be seen as this supposed angel's perspective, an escalated point of view on proceedings which allows an outsider to observe what is happening to the Kang family whilst remaining entirely invisible, mirroring the audience's own point of spectatorship on the happenings. Indeed, a while into the piece a number of characters set up a camp fire beside a tree; the camera slowly coming back down from an oddly positioned angle on a tree branch down to ground level so as to form a more normalised composition on the ground, and cover the ensuing chaos that is born out of the result of this camp fire exchange. As if a strange casting of a spell on those involved in the scene has been completed and then a moving down to ground level so as to observe the chaos, as perpetrated by this so called angel, which then plays out.

Oddly, most of the early deaths are linked in some shape or form to sexual escapades. Certainly, of those that die so early on are in some form linked to sexual encounters. There is a couple whom stay there and make love before killing themselves by way of pills and later on, an attempted rape on Mi-Soo is thwarted by a family member resulting in the death of the perpetrator. Much has been written of sexual escapades in certain films of the horror genre ultimately leading to a character's demise in what is an almost ritualistic procession of skin and flesh followed by blood and guts. Here, Kim has a couple that make love prior to killing themselves but it sees him render the sex itself the ritualistic act – a final action in each of their lives before a death they brought upon themselves.

From here, the imprisonment of the rapist's travelling partner takes the idea of being lumbered with the body of somebody you don't want, and spins it so that the person this time is still alive, but unable to alert the authorities, thus effectively escalating the chaos without veering too far away from its foundations. There can be little doubt that the writer/director Kim realises running the film on the off beat premise isn't enough, and suddenly decides to throw in a plot to do with the organised murdering of someone which would greatly benefit a certain Mr. Park, the lodge benefactor, within the field of insurance. The tale to do with an assassin; a police officer and a case of mistaken identity isn't exactly of the Coen brothers mould, but it isn't far off. This, as a nearby construction site allows the film to further inflict pain on its leads as it forces the family to reverse the agonising process of burying the dead bodies in excavating them so as not to allow the builders to find them. From its early tale of extraordinary things happening to ordinary people to its comedic content running on a catalyst of mistaken identity, The Quiet Family is a rare off-beat film which doesn't annoy nor outstay its welcome.

A rare case where the remake IS better...a lot better.

[planktonrules · 6/10 · 5 August 2014]

I previously reviewed "The Happiness of the Katakuris" and have recommended it to all my friends. It's a wonderfully strange concoction from Takashi Miike--the Japanese director who seems quite adept in many genres. The film is a wacky fantasy musical--complete with dancing zombies, significant portions done in claymation as well as a Japanese man who claims to be Queen Elizabeth's unknown child who ALSO works for the CIA! It's strange beyond belief, but it also manages to be a heartfelt family movie that strongly advocates traditional values...and LOTS of accidental deaths. Imagine my surprise, then, when he told me that this film is NOT an original but was first made in South Korea as "The Quiet Family"! Naturally I HAD to see this original and fortunately he sent me a copy! I was so excited to see this film that I could practically burst!

When the film begins, you might also think this South Korean film is a musical--as it begins with a weird hip-hop version of an old Herb Alpert song from the 1960s! And, oddly, throughout the film there are a lot of odd American tunes--including one from the Partridge Family. BUT, and this is important, it was NOT a musical--and this was very disappointing. In the Miike film, there were dancing zombies and other wondrous musical delights. But none of this is in The Quiet Family. I could live with this...though I missed the zombies. But what I couldn't believe was that this dark comedy really wasn't all that funny. Yes, it had an original idea but it clearly did NOT make the most of it. Miike and his writers clearly were able to transform a rather average comedy into gold--and often that meant significantly changing the original script.

Like the remake, the film is about a family that owns a small hotel in the middle of nowhere. Because of this, their business is failing--as the long-promised new highway has yet to be built and they have no customers for the longest time. Then, out of the blue, comes the first customer and the family is ecstatic. However, when they check on their guest the next morning, they find that the man had killed himself in the room...and he'd used his room key to do the deed! Fearing that this awful exposure would kill any chance at making the business a success, they decide to bury the body. Guess what happens with the hotel's next guests? Yep...they die as well. And, since they've already buried one guest, burying a couple more won't be so bad...right?!

At this point, the plot of the two films are very, very similar--though the deaths of the guests in "The Quiet Family" aren't really that funny- -but they sure are in "The Happiness of the Katakuris". This sort of trend continues through the film, as often the South Korean film fails to capitalize on potentially darkly funny situations. Additionally, the film makes a huge mistake later--it does not keep the viewer liking the innocent family who just want to make a go of their new business. Instead, some of the family members are pretty awful and so loses its charm and slowly fizzles. While "The Quiet Family" is not a bad film, it is a definite disappointment considering that I first saw the PERFECT remake. The bottom line is that this is just a very rare case of a film where the remake is much, much better--funnier and actually much more original because of all the insane things they interject into the old plot. I almost always prefer the originals unless there is a serious flaw in it. In the case of "The Quiet Family", there were several serious flaws.

A Black Comic Classic

[poikkeus · 10/10 · 4 December 2000]

When a family reluctantly becomes proprietors of an inn deep in the woods, it seems doubtful anyone could find their way there. It doesn't help that the family ends up killing nearly all of their guests -- usually under cover of night (and the blackest possible humor). Imagine Hitchcock's "The Trouble with Harry" steered by a gruesomely dysfunctional family, and you have some idea of what this deadpan South Korean film offers. Still more evidence of that country's continuing film renaissance, and easily up to the standard of the best American films.

Not a Bad Movie...

[ichimaru · 6/10 · 12 May 2006]

Well, I just finished watching this film and my feelings toward it are a little mixed. I had been told to expect dark humor and I wasn't let down. There is a lot of dark humor in this movie about a dysfunctional family trying to make a living in an old inn out on a not-so-well-traversed mountain where a major road is expected to be built. Of course, this family ends up going from mishap to mishap, and throughout most of it, the two daughters are quite oblivious of what the rest of their family is doing.

The first sense of foreboding comes from a blabbering old woman the youngest daughter and uncle assume to be crazy. Then after that, things start to happen, starting with a possible suicide in one of the rooms that leads into more mishaps, misunderstandings, and murder. But throughout all this, the comedy is definitely there.

However, my main problem with it was the youngest daughter and her strange attitude throughout the movie. She seemed completely disconnected throughout most of the film, and while for some parts this may have been funny, for others it was just downright awful. I suppose that's why she was considered to be weird (well, the whole family is very weird!).

Not the best comedy ever, but certainly good to watch.

Black Comic Treat!

[poikkeus · 10/10 · 8 May 2001]

I can't account for the lackluster ratings for this on IMDB (though its primary domestic distribution right now is bootleg video, which might account for something.) I saw it at the movies, and it rates as one of the great South Korean black comedies. A bit like Hitchcock, this tells the story of a family that takes over an inn deep, deep in the country - only realizing when they get there it was a big mistake. For one thing, they're miles from any human being. Things take a turn for the macabre when their visitors and guests end up dying under ambiguous circumstances, and the family has to find some way of disposing of the bodies before the cops roll in. Of course, they eventually do come to investigate, making the tale even more twisted than it was before.

Don't let any prejudices against South Korean cinema keep you away; at its best, their film output is second to none, and attracts international favor from film festivals and critics. This film is one of the unequivocal winners.

A lot of fun

[zetes · 9/10 · 21 June 2011]

This is Kim Ji-woon's debut film. He would go on to direct A Tale of Two Sisters, The Good, The Bad, the Weird and I Saw the Devil. The Quiet Family is probably most famous for being remade by Takashi Miike a few years later as The Happiness of the Katakuris. Miike's film is far more zany, and it's a ton of fun. Kim's film is probably a little bit better. It doesn't contain any musical numbers, zombies or sequences animated in clay. It's quite well directed, though there are some plot holes and loose threads. Kang-ho Song (Thirst, The Host) and Min-sik Choi (Oldboy, Failan) are the most recognizable of the five family members who own a remote mountain inn. Their business is doing poorly. After a few weeks, their first customer shows up. He dies. Probably a suicide, but it looks like murder. The family decides to bury them. More bad luck follows as nearly each and every guest who shows up at the inn dies under horrific circumstances. The family just keeps burying the bodies. The film is morbidly hilarious. It kind of gets sloppy around the end, but it's hugely amusing the whole way through. Probably my favorite of Kim's films that I've seen so far.

Hilarious black comedy

[pcsarkar · 7/10 · 1 January 2012]

I chanced upon this gem of a movie while Googling for Asian horror classics. By no stretch of imagination can this be described as a horror movie. It is a black comedy, which becomes truly hilarious as it progresses. Each character is unique, dead-pan and allegorical. The film is fast paced, suspenseful and full of sudden twists and turns, which leave the viewer baffled. The cast is perfect - from the landlord, to the landlady, the daughters, the son, uncle and the guests, which include a professional killer, an under-cover policeman, North Korean 'spies' and such-like, all of whom met bizarre ends, due to twists of fate. I do not blame North Korea, envying South Korea, for producing such gems :-)

Highly recommended.

Black slapstick comedy

[Atavisten · 5/10 · 5 April 2006]

This is probably one of the reasons why the new wave of Korean cinema got so popular, it is funny and the production values are high, it is also quite bizarre.

A family buys a lodging facility in the mountains, but are struck with bad luck and bad business. A depressed man comes and suicides in the room, and when they don't find his wallet they decide, to not be suspected themselves of killing him, to just bury him. Wise choice. Soon problems heap up way over what they can handle.

Choi Min-shik definitely matured from this and on to 'Failan', but all actors does a reasonably good job here.

A slick, entertaining horror sit-com.

[Lagomorph · 10/10 · 29 February 2000]

This film manages to strike a very tricky balance between humor and suspense. It's funny and tense all at the same time, from start to finish.

It's visually appealing, with interesting characters, and high production values. The acting is uniformly superb, and the plot manages to incorporate good, old fashioned suspense traditions and tropes while remaining fresh and interesting.

If you get a chance to see this, do.

It's scary it's comedy it's a really bad day in an inn!!

[t-d-t-m82 · 8/10 · 22 May 2008]

This film is incredibly dynamic. There are multiple concepts at once. It's a horror film yet it's a tragic-comedy. It's a drama yet it's almost a documentary. It's a great film concept and the cinematography is second to none.

It's very slow yet instantly jerks into action. It's got great casting. The actors are flawless. Even down to 5minute appearances. The score is first class and diverse. Rock-glam from the Stray Cats to hip hop. The setting is also a little interesting.

It's based in a remote area outside some woods. There is scheduled yet delayed construction for a "road" which will provide transportation for guests to the inn. However during the film the inn guests are mainly hikers and scenic people.

The opening of the film involves this new family moving into a little run down house. They prepare the house and botch it up ready for guests. They have minimum advertising which is a sign. Literally. They wait for the guests to arrive. This opening scene is lighthearted and slow.

Then the guests eventually arrive. All hell breaks loose. There is a moment of continuous bad luck from the moment the first guest arrives. This is when the film turns to film noir. All in all the film goes from an easy melodrama to something completely insane. It's a marvelous script and the slowness is rewarded by great tense sequences and various dilemmas for the unfortunate home owners.

The film is superb. The casting spot on. The cinematography is awesome. A lot of different shots and slow camera movement to mimic the pace of the film. Then the unfortunate sequences occur the camera shots become more rapid and quick snappy close ups. I'm a big fan of this director and this film has to be his benchmark with the diverse range on offer.

All in all a great film worth tracking down. Comedy; film noir, suspense, horror, isolation and deprivation. Superb acting and direction to match. I recommend it fully. 8 out of 10.

One Of South Korean Cinema's Funniest Offerings.

[CinemaClown · 23 July 2018]

A genuinely impressive start to director Kim Jee-woon's filmmaking career and featuring both Choi Min-sik & Song Kang-ho before their stardom, The Quiet Family is a morbidly humoured horror comedy that comes jam-packed with plenty of thrills & laughs, and remains one of the funniest films to come out of South Korea.

Fantastic dark comedy

[I_Ailurophile · 10/10 · 24 June 2021]

From the very beginning 'The quiet family' adopts a humorous air. It's unquestionably dark, given the thrust of the narrative, and only grows more so - very quickly - as the story progresses. There's an element of horror-comedy, and of screwball comedy, an air heightened by the uncharacteristic, playful music composed or collected for the soundtrack.

This is such great fun!

The chief cast is swell, all bringing strong, distinct personalities to their characters in this extended family. It's especially enjoyable seeing Song Kang-ho here, in one of his earliest film roles, but all involved are clearly just as capable. Everyone brings a certain measure of madcap energy to the picture that grows with the body count, and one begins to wonder just where it's going to end up.

Writer-director Kim Jee-woon focuses quite decidedly on the comedy in his feature, and in drawing out the farfetched performances from his cast to match the exaggerated characterizations. There's not a great deal of attention on artistry in the camerawork, but he still captures more than a few eye-catching shots all the same. The story Kim has concocted is very engaging, with a balance of twists and bombast that escalates into quite the climax.

Even with the devious turns the plot takes, 'The quiet family' is relatively straightforward, declining a broad or complex tale that branches out far beyond the basic premise. That simplicity further bolsters the light if morbid approach taken here, emphasizing uncomplicated entertainment over thrills or flair. It never tries to be acutely shocking, and handily avoids the sort of gross-out humor one could easily imagine being overused in a similar picture. It's ultimately just a solid, no-frills comedy, and that's a bit refreshing.

The violence in the film means this won't necessarily be for everyone, but 'The quiet family' is just so enjoyable generally that I'm hard-pressed not to recommend it for most viewers. This is a blast, well worth checking out!

more dark than humorous

[cherold · 3/10 · 3 September 2019]

The Quiet Family is a dark comedy in which a family opens a bed and breakfast and the guests keep dying. It's an amusing premise, and I kind of liked it at first, but ultimately I didn't think it worked.

To me, this premise would work best if the family seemed innocent but trapped by fate, but this family is actually kind of awful and it doesn't feel like they're so much forced into bad things as that they are taking the path of least resistance. The premise could also work if they were just all ridiculously terrible, but ultimately they're just not very good people. Nor are they very interesting people.

The movie relies on a continual build. Something bad happens, is dealt with, something else bad happens, is dealt with, and the bad things begin to build on and clash with each other into a crescendo of hilarity. It's like a series of jokes that build on the first. And this movie is like a comedian tries to build a whole routine on one joke that fell flat.

Director Jee-woon Kim went on to make better movies, like The Good, The Bad, and the Weird, and the screenplay was loosely remade as the vastly superior Japanese movie The Happiness of the Katakuris. But somehow this director with this script did not make magic.

Theeeeee BEST Korean Dark Comedy!!!

[SleuthoundSeburo · 10/10 · 7 January 2022]

TQF is my Korean Dark Comedy. It has a cast of actors who are now big time in Korean cinema. So funny and clever. I've watched it several times because I enjoyed everything about it. A must see for fans of great Korean cinema.

Wonderful black comedy-- arguably better than the more well-known remake

[MissSimonetta · 8/10 · 16 September 2022]

Years ago, I saw the Japanese horror-comedy THE HAPPINESS OF THE KATAKURIS at a college screening, so color me shocked to learn all these years later that that movie was a remake of an earlier Korean picture called THE QUIET FAMILY. Compared to the remake, this is a far more sedate movie, though that is not to say it isn't odd. There is a great deal of comedy here, only it's played with a more comparatively deadpan style.

By and large, this movie feels quite episodic. I did think it started floundering a bit pacing-wise at the hour-mark, but never to the point where I was bored. The whole thing was funny and suspenseful, and I would highly recommend it to those who liked the premise of KATAKURIS but found the manic high energy a bit too much to handle.

"The Quiet Family"

[actualbookworm · 8/10 · 17 October 2020]

Very funny and entertaining because of its absurdities plus a movie with two of the most amazing actors ever.

Suicide Hotel !

[Jack_Coen · 13 February 2012]

Directed by Jee-woon Kim A family decides to buy a lodge in a remote hiking area. Their first customer commits suicide and the distraught family buries his body to avoid the bad publicity. But their luck gets worse, the bodies start piling up, and the family becomes frantic to rectify the situation (plot).

A dark comedy?, First thing before i write anything I really enjoyed it, and great start for director/screenwriter Jee-woon Kim (A Tale of Two Sisters, I Saw the Devil, A Bittersweet Life and The Good, the Bad, the Weird).

Comedy | Crime | Horror, oki maybe a really Crime/Comedy but I didn't think it was really that scary, but fans of thrillers would probably like this if they want a laugh along with the gore, there are some goofy/silly scenes and unrealistic decisions made by the characters sometimes, but hey, it's a typical "comedy of errors" that many people enjoy, the character's chemistry was good as well as the acting, this film casted many great actors first Min-sik Choi (OLDBOY) and Kang-ho Song both of them was great in this film and all what they present to the audience, and finally there is one thing i really love it THE MUSIC!.

4/5

Disappointment for Korean Cinema

[jmverville · 5/10 · 21 October 2004]

Lately, a lot of people have been getting into Korean cinema and enjoying the fact that they have made some absolutely amazing films as recently (Chingoo, JSA, Failan, etc.). However, this film is definitely not one of them.

I was sorely disappointed; it did not seem to have the wit and spunk that was injected into Korean film as of late. You can definitely tell that the real foundation for this film is not Korean, but rather ... Koreans copying the Japanese. That is why I would like to pose the question to those involved in the production of this film -- why did you make this mistake? The story, the portrayal, the acting, the cinematography... All of it... Not worthy of watching. A poor job all-around, and poor results only to show for it. The Korean-style that you normally see in Korean cinema is obviously missing, and nothing in the film even begins to make up for it.

If you want to see Korean film, and enjoy Korean cinema, this is not the film for you to watch. I would tell all people to happily skip over it -- this is not Korean cinema, this is something else.

Death after death in a distant hotel

[Killer-40 · 8/10 · 28 October 1999]

First they have no customers, than they all die. And how to get rid of them when you are not used to it? In the end, the family which runs a hotel in the woods is threatened by itself. For some, those funny and horrifying events are just too much. From the distributor of THE SOUL GUARDIANS, a clear must for all phantasy genre fans and friends of SCREAM(s). I saw the movie on Mailand's MIFED (the film fair), my colleague Ivo was quite interested to buy it for the German DVD-market. Besides, we were both attached by Ilshin Investment Co.'s female representative Lady Suh who taught me how to hand over a business card correctly: with both hands. Believe me, the killing in THE QUIET FAMILY was much more western style ;-)

Kim Ji-woon's Finest Black Comedy Film .

[Vivekmaru45 · 6 October 2011]

South Korea is Rank #1 in the black comedy genre, and this superb film proves this point.

The setting of the film, a picturesque countryside setting, the homely looking lodge and the average South Korean family struggling to make ends meet in a new venture, is superb.

Add to this a terrific script by writer-director Kim Ji-woon. And incidentally this was his FIRST FEATURE FILM DEBUT.

The acting is top notch, all the characters have their own quirky traits and the incidences in the film just continue to get magnanimous...

Is there a moral to this film? I think there is! Its for you to find out dear viewer.

Plot: An extended family has moved from the city (presumably Seoul) to live in a large house out in the mountains, which they convert into a lodge for hikers. Consisting of a middle aged father Kang Dae-Goo (Park In-Hwan), mother Jeong Soon-Ryae (Na Moon-Hee), Dae-Goo's younger brother Kang Chang-Goo (played by Choi Min-sik), and their adult children Kang Young-Min (played by Song Kang-ho), Kang Mi-Soo (Lee Yoon-Seong) and Kang Mina (played by Go Ho-Kyung) they suffer a string of misfortunes as various patrons come to stay.

Their first guest, a hiker, asks for a room and three beers. Left to himself, he spends the night forging his room key holder to be sharp enough to stab himself and is found dead the next morning. The father of the family decides on burying the body in the woods, under the assumption that no one would believe this to be a suicide. Later, a young couple drops in for a stay to have sex in the privacy of their room and end up dead together the next morning. A pair of friends from town stop by for drinks until one of the men falls for Mi-Soo and subsequently attempts to rape her, but she is saved by Young-Min, who accidentally ends up pushing the man off a cliff, while his friend is taken captive by the family to prevent him from calling the police.

Mr. Park, the benefactor of the family (providing them the house) later asks for their lodging for his younger (and illegitimate) half sister to have a hit-man check into the neighboring room at midnight and murder her so he can be the only successor to claim inheritance of the soon profitable land. Uninformed of the plan, Uncle Kang senses foul play and sends the half sister home to Seoul when she is found to be restless. The plan goes further awry when the hit-man arrives fifteen minutes late, and the room had been taken by an undercover cop investigating the recent string of missing people, mistaken to be the hit-man. The hit-man thus ends up killing the cop instead, and later gets killed by a suspicious Young-Min.

A heavy rainstorm overnight nearly uncovers the buried corpses by morning, leaving the family no choice but to incinerate them. When uncle returns from the trip to Seoul, he angers Dae-Goo who had hoped to settle Mr. Park's plot without any trouble. A fight ensues as uncle is beaten senseless but is saved from a blow to the head by Young-Min who then trips, hitting his head on the stairs, he is whisked to the hospital, leaving the elderly parents the only ones left to finish the job. The local man, having been imprisoned, bound and gagged, tries to make his escape but gets his ropes tangled in several trees as he escapes the lodge.

Soon enough, Mr. Park drops in unannounced to check if his sister-in-law has been terminated as planned, but is in complete shock when he sees Mr. Kang and Mrs. Jeong carrying the corpse of the undercover cop, knowing that he wasn't the hit-man. A brief struggle begins when Mr. Park tries to escape without trying to figure out just what exactly has happened, and ends after he accidentally falls to his death down the stairs, adding yet another body to be done away with for the family.

To drive away attention, Mrs. Jeong switches off the circuits throughout the lodge and outside storage where she and her husband are piling the corpses, dousing them in gasoline. Mina, trying to watch TV, asks for Uncle Kang to switch the circuits back on, inadvertently causing a socket in the storage to burst in flames, triggering the cremation fire prematurely, trapping the parents inside. Meanwhile, Young-Min is in the hospital recovering from his concussion and laughing insanely over a news report on the shooting of a North Korean agent wandering through the forest.

After an uncertain amount of time later, Uncle Kang, Young-Min, Mi-Soo, and Mina are preparing to serve dinner, totally unaware of the fire in the storage building. The parents return, in bandages, having survived the fire. Without a single word, the family quietly has dinner until there is a sudden knock at the door. Unsure of what to do, they all stand quietly in the doorway of the dining room, waiting for whoever is at the door to go away. When the dog starts barking at the knocking, the family, in unison hushes the dog; they have become the quiet family.

The film ends with a wide shot of the lodge in winter, with Mina outside, looking at it, and then to the camera with an uncertain look on her face; all to the sound of The Partridge Family's "I Think I Love You".

Verdict: Just BUY IT!!! P.S: I also recommend you see I Saw The Devil(2010) and A Tale of Two Sisters(2003) both directed by Kim Ji-woon.