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.
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.