5 out of 5

Director: Kim Ji-Woon

The dark comedy-of-errors is not a new spin, and many flicks have made use of this vibe with dashes of murder and mayhem, where error compounded upon error equals more and more death, but ‘The Quiet Family’ ends up being one of the most committed versions of this I have seen in a while.  Usually these things tumble apart under a poor resolution or suddenly switch gears to get overly comedic or overly serious.  Ji-Woon Kim has shown in almost every one of his movies that he is comfortable blending genres, but normally it’s just a tad off-putting – you’re not sure what you’re supposed to feel at certain points.  ‘Family’ – which is about a patron’s suicide at an inn leading the owners to commit murder after murder to keep the business alive – is not Kim’s most affecting picture, but it is the most thematically solid, as it settles on a level that is frequently funny but fraught with believable consequences.  Instead of doing the American thing and having subplots just to have several packaged resolutions, the film doesn’t really attempt to resolve anything, just following the story to a logical end.  It somehow succeeds in maintaining it’s vibe of laughs and gasps, even though it sticks with the formula of building up to a denouncement.  The look of Kim’s movies would become much more stylized over the years, but already here he is incredibly confident with his camera, capturing only what is needed.  I’d only seen the Miike “remake” of this previously, and watching the original gives me even more respect for the originality of both director’s visions and how it plays into their vastly different oeuvres.