#The Quiet Family

[lucrezcia]

The Quiet Family 조용한 가족 (1998, Kim Jee-woon)

[c6smic-angel]

the quiet family (1998) dir. kim jee-woon

[nitrateglow]

Favorite films discovered in 2022

I just noticed the immense amount of British films on the list and that’s the result of a deep dive into the British New Wave, a movement I had little experience with before. Also, the 1960s is prominent on this list in general. I didn’t realize just how many movies I watch from this decade until now.

Lawrence of Arabia (dir. David Lean, 1962)

An epic following the mysterious TE Lawrence, who served as a liasion between the Arab tribes and the British during WWI.

Until now, this film was the biggest omission in my viewing habits. I tried watching it in high school but gave up halfway through. In hindsight, that might have been for the best. At seventeen, I wasn’t mature enough to comprehend the film or knowledgeable enough about its WWI context to really get anything out of it. Now that I’ve seen it, I’m a believer-- this is a great film, perhaps the best of the cinematic epics that were so popular in the 1960s.

This is one I know I’ll be rewatching in the future. There’s just so much depth to the story and the characters. Peter O’Toole’s Lawrence is a wonderful enigma-- his performance is up there with Falconetti in The Passion of Joan of Arc. I like how the movie constantly questions the motives of its hero. We’re never force-fed the answers or told how to feel, and I absolutely relish that.

Ryan’s Daughter (dir. David Lean, 1970)

Trapped in an unfulfilling marriage, a passionate young Irish woman embarks on an affair with a traumatized English officer during WWI.

Ryan’s Daughter has a reputation as a total bomb. Every critic wailed that the film was indulgent, devoting way too much time to a slight Madame Bovary retelling. I absolutely disagree-- I thought this movie was outstanding. I was greatly moved by its beauty, by its graceful and compassionate attitude towards its flawed characters, by its cautiously hopeful finale despite all the tragedy that had gone on before. I was never bored nor did I ever feel that the film was overproduced despite the intimacy of the story.

I’m glad this one is getting re-evaluated in the years since. It deserves it.

The Black Phone (dir. Scott Derrickson, 2021)

Captured by a serial killer and locked in his basement with nothing but a disconnected phone, a young boy starts receiving otherworldly calls from the kliler’s former victims, all of whom want to help him escape their fate.

I feel like this taut little horror flick was designed to appeal to me. One-room location. A reliance on suspense and dread rather than gore and jump scares. A vulnerable but intelligent protagonist set against a ruthless villain. It’s just fantastic, a wonderful chiller of the old-school. A friend and I watched this around Halloween and we were spellbound. I wish I had seen it in a theater.

The Collector (dir. William Wyler, 1965)

After coming into a great sum of money, a bank teller kidnaps the girl of his dreams and keeps her in his basement, hoping she’ll fall in love with him.

The auteurists never gave William Wyler his due as a filmmaker. Not one to pursue the same genre, character types, and themes over and over again, all Wyler had was an eye for composition, acting, and solid storytelling-- you know, little insignificant things like that.

My sarcasm aside, The Collector is an underrated gem-- you would never guess this was directed by an old-timer at the end of his career. The most fascinating thing about it is the dynamic between the captor and his captive. The two manipulate one another constantly, keeping you guessing just how this scenario will turn out.

Darling ( dir. John Schlesinger, 1965)

An ambitious model sleeps her way to the top of the fashion world, only to encounter hollowness and ennui.

I did not expect to love the sharply satirical Darling as much as I did. Everything about the film is exceptional, but Julie Christie really shines in the lead role. Her Diana is greedy and ambitious, yet she is intelligent and sensitive enough to know how shallow her life really is despite all the money, sex, and success she encounters. She wants to be amoral, yet a repressed sense of morality and a desire for meaning haunt her incessantly. Her attempts to attain transcendence seem doomed to failure, especially since she cannot fully wean herself from the competitive, materialistic society the movie so mercilessly shreds.

Double Suicide (dir. Masahiro Shinoda, 1969)

Separated by class in feudal Japan, a paper merchant and a courtesan struggle to preserve their doomed love in spite of all odds.

This wonderful film is based on an eighteenth century puppet play. While the production uses live actors, director Masahiro Shinoda utilizes a metafictional conceit that both pays homage to the story’s theatrical origins and suggests the doomed lovers are being controlled by a fate they cannot escape-- he has black-clad stagehands “pose” the characters, put out props, and change scenery between scenes. It sounds gimmicky and pretentious, but it works beautifully, resulting in a chilling love tragedy.

Casanova (dir. Alexandre Volkoff, 1927)

The philandering Casanova gets into several scrapes across 1760s Europe, wooing beautiful women and infuriating the authorities at every turn.

Ivan Mosjoukine is one of the silent era’s most downright fascinating figures. A refugee of the Russian Revolution, he became a superstar of French cinema, appearing in a variety of projects and sometimes even directing and writing (check out the quirky as hell The Burning Crucible if you want to see just how out there his work can get). I’ve heard him described as a cross between John Barrymore, Buster Keaton, and Lon Chaney. but none of that does his unique presence much justice.

In Casanova, he plays an amorous yet mischievous and sensitive character who hops from one misadventure to the next. The movie is sumptuous, a gorgeous evocation of the 18th century. It’s the kind of movie that begs to be seen on a big screen, but even at home, the light as champagne bubbles story holds up well. Not groundbreaking-- but does every movie need to be? Hell no!

Lady in a Cage (dir.Walter Grauman, 1964)

A wealthy matron finds herself imprisoned in a home elevator when hoodlums break into her lavish house.

On one level, Lady in a Cage is pure sweaty camp, complete with a bosom heaving Olivia de Havilland and James Caan doing his best Brando impression. On another, it feels like a feverish nightmare in line with the social tensions of the 1960s, with an out of touch rich woman seeing herself as the last decent person on earth while frustrated criminals raid her house. The atmosphere is oppressive, even apocalyptic, and the ending is shockingly gory given the period this was made and the stars involved. It’s bizarre, its overheated, but it’s not easily forgotten.

Nightmare Alley (dir. Edmund Goulding, 1947)

Nightmare Alley might be the ultimate film noir. Its cynical to the very heart, yet undoubtedly poignant in its presentation of the tragedy of conman Stan Carlisle. I was reminded of another noir from the classic period, Ace in the Hole-- not necessarily from the subject matter, but from how uncompromisingly dark the story is. Even the studio-mandated happy ending actually isn’t that happy when you closely examine it. Beyond that, the cinematography is gorgeous, the acting immaculate, the direction strong-- what more could you want?

A Taste of Honey (dir. Tony Richardson, 1960)

After an interracial affair with a sailor leaves her pregnant, a young woman moves in with a fellow outsider.

I thoroughly enjoyed this kitchen sink drama despite its relentlessness. Some reviewers write it off as too miserable-- and it’s true that it doesn’t give the audience a rosy presentation of life. However, the film isn’t overly bleak in my opinion. It also takes the time to show how beauty can still exist amid sorrow and despair, particularly in the form of friendship.

I read that Audrey Hepburn was originally considered for the lead role, but as much as I love her, she would have been all wrong for the part. I cannot imagine anyone other than the wonderful Rita Tushingham-- she isn’t movie star gorgeous, and her gamine qualities uneasily mingle with suppressed anger and fear. When I think of this movie, I think of her big, troubled eyes, prominently displayed in so many close-ups. In her, I see the quiet unease of adolescence personified with a rare honesty.

The Lineup (dir. Don Siegel, 1958)

A trio of criminals track down heroin shipments smuggled into San Francisco by unsuspecting civilians. As the cops try to track the crooks down, the bodies pile up.

This is a fantastic film, among the last noirs of the classic era. Starring Eli Wallach as a psychopathic drug thug, it starts slow but really picks up by the fifteen minute mark. The whole thing was also shot on-location in San Francisco, giving it a sense of gritty authenticity.

The Blair Witch Project (dir. Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez, 1999)

Three young filmmakers go into the woods to make a documentary about a local supernatural legend. It doesn’t go well for them.

So-called supernatural horror does not tend to scare me, though there are exceptions. I find the best supernatural horror is presented amidst the trappings of the mundane. After all, the supernatural is most disruptive when surrounded by business as usual. That’s what makes The Blair Witch Project so unnerving-- it feels like genuine found footage of normal people. While watching it, I thought it wasn’t that scary. Then I went to bed that night and found myself nervous of what might be lurking in the dark corners of my room. Considering the amount of horror I consume, that’s nothing to shrug off!

Tol’able David (dir. Henry King, 1921)

A young man must defend his family and rural community from a trio of thugs out to cause trouble.

Tol’able David is much beloved by silent film enthusiasts and for good reason! The nostalgic atmosphere immortalizes a rural America that was vanishing even by the early 1920s and the story has a mythic, long-time-ago feel that suits the heightened reality inherent to silent cinema. Richard Barthelmess also gives one of the most sensitive and powerful performances of his career. It might even be his finest moment as an actor.

Morgan! A Suitable Case for Treatment (dir. Karel Reisz, 1965)

Angst-ridden over his recent divorce, a young gorilla-fixated Marxist aims to win his ex back.

Yes, you read that summary correctly. This movie is INSANE yet strangely poignant. At its heart, this is a story about a man trying to come to terms with the dissolution of his marriage and his disenchantment with his own ideals-- this tale just happens to be wrapped up in an off-the-wall farce.

Isadora (dir. Karel Reisz, 1968)

Aged dancer Isadora Duncan looks back on her revolutionary career and torrid love life.

This biopic of dancer Isadora Duncan is so odd that I wasn’t sure how to take it at first. It’s told in a loose, nonlinear style, with a Proustian sensibility regarding its use of flashbacks. I tend to dislike biopics so color me surprised when I ultimately ended up enjoying this one. Duncan is not presented as a saintly figure nor as the opposite, but as a woman whose free spirit and unwillingness to compromise make her both admirable and infuriating. The script and Vanessa Redgrave’s wonderful performance perfectly bring Duncan to life, resulting in a haunting work about art as an all-consuming vocation.

The Fan (dir. Otto Preminger, 1949)

A society woman suspects her husband of having an affair, a misconception that threatens disaster for everyone involved.

The Fan is a forgotten entry in Preminger’s filmography, which is a shame because it’s a fantastic piece of work. I was first turned onto it by critic Imogen Smith, who praised it as an unsung classic and as that rare film that surpasses its source material. Considering this is adapted from an Oscar Wilde play, that’s a bold claim!

The film is an elegant comedy of manners, suffused with a strong sense of melancholy. Preminger added a prologue set in a broken-down postwar London, with Miss Erlynn trying to retrieve the infamous fan from an auction. Far from pointless fluff, this element lends a sense of poignancy to the scenes set in Victorian London. As Smith says in her review, “The frame gives the costume-drama portion a wistful edge; instead of the usual Hollywood gloss, here the past gleams through nostalgia like a flower buried in a paperweight.”

The Quiet Family (dir. Jee-woon Kim, 1998)

A family opens a bed-and-breakfast in the mountains, only for every one of their guests to die horribly during their stays. Concerned about how this will affect business, they hide the corpses... but the corpses just keep piling up.

This movie was later remade in Japan as The Happiness of the Katakuris and until I came across The Quiet Family on Freevee, I was not aware there even was an earlier version. Katakuris is basically a live-action cartoon musical, making The Quiet Family seem more sedate by comparison, but don’t be fooled. This is still a bizarre dark comedy and in some ways, I actually prefer it to the later version. It’s very reminiscent of Hitchcock’s The Trouble with Harry, only with a far higher body count.

The Northman (dir. Robert Eggers, 2022)

A Viking prince seeks to avenge his father’s murder. Yeah, it’s basically Viking Hamlet.

After Hayao Miyazaki, Robert Eggers is easily my favorite living filmmaker. His films truly transport the audience to other times and cultures, embracing how alien such an experience would be. The Northman feels like an old legend brought to life, incorporating supernatural elements in a mysterious way, never overexplaining them, just as you would expect in an old story. The film’s universe is brutal yet beautiful, never relenting. I saw this one opening weekend in the theater and let me tell you, you could have heard a pin drop by the time it got to the finale. Easily the most intense experience I’ve had at the movies in a long time.

Night Must Fall (dir. Karel Reisz, 1964)

A psychotic killer works as a handyman for an elderly landlady and her estranged daughter, and ends up manipulating the affections of both.

I don’t care what the critics say-- I love this bonkers movie. It’s an uneasy combination of quaint, drawing room thriller and trendy, sociopolitical new wave character study, and not everything about it works, but it hasn’t left my mind since I first saw it. It’s what I think remakes should actually try to be-- not an exercise in “member berries” or a shallow modern day dress-up of old material, but a bold re-imagining.

Onibaba (dir. Kaneto Shindo, 1964)

Two peasant women who loot the corpses of samurai to get by are torn apart by an amorous man and a supernatural mask.

What a creepy film! It’s one that really puts the rug out from under the viewer: at first, it seems like a typical period drama, but the supernatural subtly invades the story, leading to a truly chilling conclusion. But this isn’t a story where shocks and blood make up the horror-- it all comes from the messed up dynamic between the characters.

What were your favorite film discoveries in 2022?

[sloshed-cinema]

The Happiness of the Katakuris [カタクリ家の幸福] (2001)

As greater minds have stated, the musical is a tool for heightened expression.  When emotions can’t be contained by dialogue, they must be sung.  When singing is insufficient, it must be expressed through dance.  But what happens when even dance falls short?  Apparently, claymation is the remedy, the more horrific the better.  Takashi Miike’s pure farce of a tale takes the black comedy foundations of the Korean original and elevates them to the point of absurdity.  The layabout ex-con son is no longer merely peeking at guests having sex through a door, he’s climbing ladders and falling off them to get his peeping tom kicks.  The depressive hiker is no longer merely just a strange loner, he borderline appears to think the world is ending.  The climax calls for no mere cremation but rather the pyroclastic flows of Fuji itself.  This is about excess and extravagance, insanity rendered on a shoestring budget and yet all the better for it.  You get to have your musical and make a karaoke number of it, too.  

Kim Jee-woon’s dark comedy of manners is a wonderfully off-kilter imagining of just how far dreams and aspirations can go wrong.  And yet somehow with his maximalist spin on the basic story, Takashi Miike finds further acerbic social commentary in its layers.  This is grind culture before there were shitty corporate listicles about side hustles, about just how foolhardy it is to try and get ahead.  Masao and Terue serenade one another in a brilliantly incisive karaoke sequence, at once mocking the absurd specificity of Japanese karaoke videos while taking the piss out of the blue collar success story of this couple: they thought they could retire to a quiet lodge lifestyle and spend their golden years running a sleepy if successful inn.  What do they get in return?  Bodies bodies bodies.

THE RULES

SIP

Whimsical Sound of Music adjacent music kicks in.

Animated element.

A new guest appears.

Stuttering jump cuts within a scene.

BIG DRINK

A song and/or dance sequence begins.

The Moon appears onscreen.

Someone names a British Royal.

You lose your goddamn mind.

[nine-frames]

조용한 가족 (Joyonghan Gajok - The Quiet Family), 1998.

Dir. & Writ. Kim Jee-woon | DOP Jeong Kwang-seok

[musubiki]

please save me star rail danmarch

[blueteller]

You guys ever think about how funny it is that the whole reason why Cale did not have try at all to impersonate the original Cale, was because no one actually knew anything about him, despite the fact that everybody knew about him? On an international scale, even??

Cale: (doing an absolutely terrible job at being trash) Everybody else: That doesn't sound right, but I don't know enough about Cale Henituse to dispute it

[sunnysunsins]

[demaparbat-hp]

Want to know what I believe, it's right here

Dig a little deeper and it's crystal clear.

Clear by Twenty One Pilots

[aerequets]

tv troubles (they're both invested)

[c6smic-angel]

the quiet family (1998) dir. kim jee-woon

[clonerightsagenda]

"what if you had a mutual aid network that occasionally told interdimensional monsters to fuck off": Discworld witches as a concept

[sloshed-cinema]

The Quiet Family [조용한 가족] (1998)

Remember when Tim Burton used to make actually good movies?  There’s something about the alchemy of Kim Jee-woon’s romp which has a very Burtonesque edge to it.  The intermingling of the macabre with the darkly funny in a very specifically off-kilter way, the hyperbolic performances and reactions make this in a similar vein to the likes of Ed Wood or Beetlejuice.  The Kang clan simply cannot catch a break: at first their newly opened mountain lodge can barely attract visitors.  But once guests do start to show up, their checkout is of the rather final sort.  Deciding that it’s easier to just dispose of the evidence themselves than to involve authorities, the family unwittingly weave for themselves a wild web of intrigue and mayhem, lining up dominoes to be knocked over one by one.  By the climax, it’s not a question of whether things will go awry but just rather how exquisitely terribly events will pan out.

While Song Kang-ho often picks roles that are rough around the edges personality-wise, it’s funny to see him here as an outright delinquent.  Seemingly stuck in some sort of state of arrested development, Young-min is content to wile away his days spying on guests, prank calling people in the middle of sex, and generally making a buffoon of himself.  

THE RULES

SIP

Voiceover narration begins.

Somebody falls.

The new road is mentioned.

Spitting noises.

BIG DRINK

A customer... checks out.  FOR GOOD.

The lodge loses a potential customer.

[texaschainsawmascara]

[omi-boshi]

thinking of little omi wanting a dog but his parents tell him he has to earn it because it's a big responsibility for someone as young as he is. so, he sets up a piggy bank to save up for adoption fees. he doesn't tell his parents about it because he wants to show them when he's saved up enough money.

surely if he has the money that means he's responsible enough right?

in the following months, omi sets aside a fraction of his daily allowance to put into his piggy bank.

it's slow-going until his siblings find the piggy bank labeled with "dog savings" in omi's messy scrawl. they're so charmed by their baby brother's antics that they slip in their own spare change behind omi's back.

they never tell him of course because knowing their brother —their sweet and earnest little brother — he would want to do this on his own.

by the time omi's 10th birthday comes, his piggy bank is practically bursting at the seams. he holds it tightly in his little hands as his family sings him a happy birthday.

when it's time to blow out the candles and he has to make a wish, he lifts up the piggy bank and tells his parents how he's been saving up the past few months. that he has enough to pay for the adoption fees. that he's 10, and he's a big boy now, ready for big boy responsibilities.

"i'm responsible enough for a dog now, right?" he would then ask, eyes bright with earnest hope he tries so hard to tamp down just in case they say no. his parents would exchange surprised looks followed immediately by shaking heads and laughter. lots of laughter. omi is rightfully confused. he frowns.

are they laughing at him? the thought makes him flush in embarrassment. his dad leaves the room, still laughing. when he comes back, it's with a box that's almost a little too big for omi. the birthday cake lays forgotten, candles melted, as omi looks curiously at the box in front of him, then to his parents, and then his siblings, and then back to the box.

his older brother nudges him to open it and when he does, omi doesn't know what to do with himself. the akita puppy yipping at him in the box was too much for 10-year-old omi to bear that he starts bawling.

he's hugging the puppy to hide his tears, and in the background he hears cooing and more birthday wishes from his family.

see, his parents had always intended to give omi a dog the moment he asked. omi rarely asked for anything so whenever he did, his parents were always more than ready and excited to give it to him. however, this time, they waited until his birthday because, admittedly, they had a hard time thinking of what to get him.

it seems they made the right decision watching their son pet the akita in quiet awe. they're happy that their little boy loved his birthday present but when they see his dejected little pout a little while later followed by a sad, "i saved for nothing then..." they knew they had to make right with him (not really but what is omi if not their precious youngest).

and that's how omi ends up with not one but two puppies for his 10th birthday.

[erinwantstowrite]

tim joins late au but it's inspired by saiki k. in that he knows the Bats' identities and he is actively avoiding them at every cost but they all think that he's their family friend and are trying to convince bruce to adopt him. he writes in a coded journal that's also kept under lock and key and it's basically an evolution from 9 years old like "i want to be their friend so bad" to 15 years old "these mfs will NOT leave me alone" and ends with 16 years old "okay so hey again journal. it's me. you'll never guess what happened." (he got adopted)