死不张扬离奇失魂事件

哈哈哈哈，感觉光是看到能年轻得被人称作“学生”的宋康昊，还有演绎浮夸蠢萌帅哥的崔岷植，就值回票价了。更别说还有皱纹尚未长满的罗文姬奶奶，红色披肩好耀眼。 至于剧情，是我看过的金知云作品中最喜欢的一部。一群看上去人畜无害的、仿佛是日日剧里才会出现的家长里短面孔，是如何做到杀人如麻埋尸不眨眼，结果，还在一场暴雨面前破了功的。 也是简直了。 一直觉得可以拍黑色幽默的导演最聪明。因为戏剧冲突真的不是那么好编排。一百个住客有一百种死法，旅馆老板一家实在是辛苦了。 是说来简单，一句话就能剧透的故事，因为整部戏只有一个关键动作就是抬尸抬尸抬尸。 但是也不好概括，因为语言不足以描绘它的精妙。一部成功的喜剧电影应该就是这样的了。 以及，罗奶奶一辈子最想演的电影，会不会是一部《末路狂花》？ p. s. 不知不觉，这竟然是我打卡的第500部韩国电影了。嘻嘻加油(´-ω-`)

Body counts are high in Kim Jee-woon’s THE QUIET FAMILY, a black comedy set in a rural lodge for hikers managed by the Kang Family: middle-aged Kang Dae-goo (Park) and his wife Jeong Soon-rye (Na), their three adult children Young-min (Song), Mina (Go) and Mi-soo (Lee Yung-seong), plus Dae-goo’s bachelor younger brother Chang-goo (Choi Min-sik). The sextet’s initial lassitude takes a morbid turn when the first three guests of their lodging business are suicidal-driven head cases.

Branded as a filmmaker with a partiality for horror and violence, in his first feature, Kim demonstrates his sophisticated knack of calibrating a sensible equilibrium between the dreadful (great ambient work from low-ceiling darkness, subdued decoration and an eerie score) and the comical (the golden rule is, however grisly things turn out, the family emanates no premeditated malice). And THE QUIET FAMILY consistently rides on a spine-tingling overtone while knowingly tickles our ribs, many plots are perversely counter to genre tropes, like a valiant brother’s attempt to save his sister being ravished by a horndog, its end result is well within our expectation, but the process is far more whimsical and diverting. That said, any attempt to seek even a tenuous rationale is futile as its genre enjoins that suspended disbelief is a prerequisite.

Courtesy to a rip-roaring cast, which includes two major Korean superstar in their salad days, Song Kang-ho and Choi Min-sik, both establish themselves as cracking comedians with proactive/reactive duality and prompt comical timing. Veteran players Park In-hwan and Na Moon-hee are more adept in deadpanning, whereas two young starlets Go Ho-kyung and Lee Yun-seong simply require to be either pretty or flirtatious.

Theme-wise, Kim marries a strangely amusing vibe of hysteria, that reaches an apt crescendo in the end, where they become “a quiet family”, with a faint political jab in the background (North Korean spies are at large). In the event, it is a wacky gore-fest even for the mildly squeamish, all’s well that end’s well, thankfully.

referential entries: Kim Jee-woon’s THE GOOD THE BAD THE WEIRD (2008, 6.9/10), A BITTER LIFE (2005, 5.4/10).