Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Hilarious!, 13 Oct 2005
This is a very funny comedy, revolving around the disasterous unfortunate family who own a hotel. You could say it is like a much darker version of faulty towers. If you are a fan of Korean cinema, you will laugh out loud as I did at every single line Choi Min Sik(Oldboy) delivers as a bumbling dimwit, and at Kang Ho Song's(Symapthy for Mr vengeance) daft actions as the Mischevious older brother. It's very rare to see usually very serious actors playing such idiots so well. This film truly shows off their acting skills.
The family interacts so well that it is easy to believe that they could be related, and not a single character did not make me laugh. The amusing situations, bizarre conversations and comical turn of events.
What makes this film so funny is that its so unique. We don't get this kind of comedy here in the West except in sitcoms, and that is still miles apart.
Director Kim Jee Woon went on to direct A Tale of Two Sisters and A bittersweet Life, two amazing films. So you can see here his dark nature of filmmaking is present even in comedy. I never knew murder could be so funny.
Overall, this film has a great story, brilliant cast and a great soundtrack. Buy it and watch again and again!
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Midnight burials, 6 Sep 2008
One of the worst things that can happen to a hotel is for someone to die there. But what if the deaths, suicides and possible murders just won't stop?
That's the dilemma facing the titular "Quiet Family," in a Korean dark comedy that gives new meaning to the phrase "sick sense of humour." While the movie starts off in a relatively relaxed, normal manner, Kim Ji-woon's first movie becomes more warped and frenetic as the death-count rises, and the deliciously complex plot becomes cleverer. You'll never look at a rural bed-and-breakfast in quite the same way again.
The Kang family recently moved from Seoul to a some remote rural area, where Dae Gu (Park In-hwa) has purchased a remote little hotel after being told that a major road is going to be run nearby. But nobody checks in until one rainy night, when a strange man appears -- and then stabs himself on a sharpened keychain. Terrified that the suicide will ruin their reputation, the family (except the two teen daughters) freaks out and buries the body in the woods.
For most people, that would be the end -- except the Kangs seem to be under a sort of curse. More people die in bizarre and gruesome ways, and end up buried in the woods. As if police investigations and road construction weren't causing enough stress, a local businessman makes Dae Gu a party to his own little plot -- he's going to order a hit on his sister. When THAT goes wrong, can the Quiet Family pull it together -- or will everything blow up in their faces?
Takashi Miike later remade this movie as the surreal musical "The Happiness of the Katakuris." But don't let that colour any opinions of the original film, because Miike's work is very different from "The Quiet Family."
This movie starts off pretty tamely, with the Kang family's problems getting any guests into their hotel. In fact, it's a bit dull watching them potter around the place, hoping that incoming phone calls will be for something other than Chinese food orders. But after the second round of suicides -- and the discovery that one about-to-be-buried corpse isn't quite dead -- the storyline starts to blossom. As the family's subterfuge spins out of control, the plot becomes more complex, more chaotic, and much weirder.
By the time the entire hit-man-on-the-premises subplot enters the scene, the entire family is spinning out of control -- literally nothing is going to go right for them. And the crazier it gets, the more hilarious it is. By the climax this little family has taken hostages, set fires, peeped in on couples having sex, buried a small crowd out in the woods, and a couple of them have chased ex-guests with axes and shovels... but with no ill intent.
The only really disturbing scene is one where Mina almost gets raped by one of the guests, only to be rescued by her bumbling brother in what is possibly the most pathetic fight scene ever, followed by a very undignified demise involving a clifftop and a swinging door.
But Kim Ji-Woon's greatest triumph is something most directors can't do -- subtle sick humor. Consider the bloody rapist lurching through the inn like a serial killer, or the gloriously gruesome spectacle of a mostly-dead, semi-nude man lunging around and roaring like a zombie... only to get whacked in the head with a shovel. The increasingly loopy, desensitized reactions to the deaths are simply sidesplitting, and it leaves you wondering if the Kangs will be found out.
Park In-hwa does an excellent job as the patriarch of this little clan, who appears to have severely stunted morals, while Na Moon-hee is good as his long-suffering wife. Song Kang Ho as the not-so-bright son and Lee Yun Sung as the flirtatious younger daughter are also excellent, but the cleverer, somewhat sarcastic Go Ho Kyun is the real standout among the assorted kids.
"The Quiet Family" is a deceptively peaceful title for a frenetic, hilariously sick little dark comedy. It may start slow, but as the bodies pile up, so does the humor.
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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not as good as remake., 30 Aug 2008
^The Quiet Family^ 1998 is the origional South Korean black comedy film. Set in a rural area, A new small family run bed and breakfast has an array of disasterous guests. The star is definately Kang-ho Song, who plays the son. It is a good comedy, But I am yet to find a good playable version of it on dvd. The ntsc tai seng version is a very poor 1.78 dark blured grainy picture which spoils the film. And this 2 disc prism version. (Maybe it was just my very faulty copy was unatchable.! A very loud buzzing throughout first 23 minutes of film , and throughout entire disc.) I did find the Japanese remake ^The happiness of the Katakuris^ 2003 far superior. It was alot more colourful, the story was even better, even more funny. Plus the Tartan dvd has an excellent quality 1.85 picture and sound.
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