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- THE QUIET FAMILY
- by Pierce Conran / Apr 09, 2019
1998 | 103 MIN | Drama, Mystery, ComedyDIRECTOR KIM Jee-woonCAST NA Moon-hee, PARK In-hwan, CHOI Min-sik, SONG Kang-hoRELEASE DATE April 25, 1998CONTACT Myung FilmsTel +82 31 930 6500Fax +82 31 930 6699Email woody0704@myungfilm.comThis month 21 years ago, as the Korean film industry was beginning to enter its modern era, one surprising work emerged that created a new paradigm for local genre cinema by reinventing the horror and comedy genres. That film was the modern classic The Quiet Family (1998), which was the film that introduced genre expert KIM Jee-woon to the world.A family decides to open an inn for hikers in the mountains near Seoul but despite all their investment and preparations, success is slow to come as days go by without any guests. Finally, their luck changes one day as they eagerly welcome their first client, yet when he doesn’t appear for breakfast the next morning they go up to his room and find him dead, the victim of self-inflicted stab wound to the heart. Given the suspicious nature of his death and his missing wallet, they decide they have no choice but to bury the body. Before long more clients come their way, but rather than good fortune this sets off a series of tragedies and accidents as the ditch they dug for their first client’s corpse grows deeper, wider and fuller with each passing day.Blending deadpan humor and a macabre storyline in a fashion that would become a trademark of modern Korean cinema through the works of director KIM, his contemporaries PARK Chan-wook and BONG Joon-ho, and others, The Quiet Family gave its debut director a hit as it ended the year as the sixth best-selling Korean film of 1998. It didn’t take long for the rest of the world to notice as well, with Japanese genre cineaste Takashi MIIKE remaking the film as The Happiness of the Katakuris, a work that takes KIM’s premise and genre mashup but adds even more ingredients to the pot, turning it into something akin to a horror-comedy version of The Sound of Music, with song, dance, death and delirium in the rolling hills.KIM amplified the natural humor of his script with a strong sense for visual language, as camera angles, judicious cuts and clever sound effects constantly pepper the film with sight gags and spine-tingling moments, turning The Quiet Family into the kind of sophisticated cinematic experience with a full stylistic package and emotional range that at the time was something of a novelty in the market. Of course, the film also features a panoply of future Korean stars, including SONG Kang-ho (Memories of Murder, 2003) and CHOI Min-shik (Old Boy, 2003), who were starting to be well known at the time, NA Moon-hee (Miss Granny, 2014), and smaller roles for JUNG Jae-young (Castaway on the Moon, 2009) and Hong Sangsoo stalwart KI Joo-bong.Director KIM would stay in the dark comedy-genre space for his next film, the wrestling title The Foul King (2000), once again with SONG Kang-ho. Following that film, KIM’s work, while retaining elements of comedy, became more concerned with stylistic elements, though he would deliver another more broadly comic work in 2008’s The Good, The Bad, And The Weird, once again a film that paired him with superstar SONG.
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