The Quiet Family

The Quiet Family – Joyonghan Gajok – 1998

The construction of an important road on the mountains renders the hotel business very attractive for a family that decides to run an inn. But the road construction is postponed and customers do not show up. When finally luck appears to be changing, for some reason the guests have difficulty surviving the night. Their first guest commits suicide and so does the couple arriving the next night. Afraid of ruin, the family reaches the conclusion that it is better to keep some shovels around, and start burying one body after the other.

This is the debut film of beloved director Kim Ji-Woon (see also: A Tale Of Two Sisters)  and falls into a category that i admire particularly: dark comedy. That is not only because i’ve been a really goth teenager in my past, but mostly since it has the power to combine two of the best things in the world, horror and laughter. Kim Ji-Woon‘s style is at an early stage and yet already amusing, the set design, use of rich colors, and innovative camera-work are spectacular and largely responsible for the eerie atmosphere. Also, the family uncle is the one and only Choi Min-Sik(the protagonist of Oldboy).. which is only a plus. His presence would make any movie interesting by default.

Many of you oriental movie lovers already saw this movie without even knowing it. It was in fact remade by Takashi Miike (Ichi the Killer) as a stop animation/musical in 2001, under the name of The Happiness Of The Katakuris. This is one of the extremely rare times where i won’t bash a remake, and i have a very good reason to stop me. Just a few words about this remake: singing and dancing bloody zombies. Amazing!

All in all, The Quiet Family sets a peculiar balance between humor and suspense. It’s funny and tense all at the same time, from start to finish. Visually appealing, interesting characters, and lots of bloody corspes being buried at night.  What’s not to love?

…Ing

…Ing (2003)

more Valentine’s special! …Ing is a 2003 movie directed by Lee Eon-Hee and starring Im su-jeong of A tale of two sisters and I’m a cyborg but that’s ok.

Mina is a cute teenage girl with a deformed hand and a life threatening disease who lives with her single mother Mi-sook, who’s trying to teach her how to live life one day at a time. Altho Mina spent most of her life in and out of hospitals because of her conditions, she is unaware of her imminent death. She eventually embarks on a relationship with Young-Jae,  her new downstairs neighbor, in this humorous, charming, and ultimately heartfelt melodrama.

Im Su-Jeong is an outstading actress. …Ing is a classic romantic melodrama with the difference that this one has wit, its pace is not annoying, and there’s a lot of smart comical relief inbetween scenes. The entire movie revolves around these 3 characters, so the film’s success relies on the brilliance and amazing performance of the main actors. You will laugh when they laugh and cry when they cry. Guaranteed. I personally cried a river!!

Funny note: somehow Im Su-Jeong always ends up in a hospital and/or trying to commit suicide (you’ll find it in i’m a cyborg but that’s ok and a tale of two sisters, too).. At least she does it really, really well.

I’m a Cyborg But That’s Ok

I’m a Cyborg but that’s Ok – 2006

by Park Chan-Wook

Youn-Goon is working in a factory when the radio tells her she is a cyborg, thus unable to eat human food, and she must recharge herself like a machine. Suddenly she cuts her wrists and put wires in them.. and she is then brought to a mental institution for attempted suicide. Inside the insitution she meets an adorable handful of weird people, like the guy who is so polite he has to walk backwards not to offend you, the woman who thinks she can fly with knit socks, and the gorgeous Il-Soon, who wears odd masks and claims be to be able to steal everything, including people’s skills and personalities. Il-Soon finds himself rather taken with the bizarrely endearing Young-goon, and sets out to save her from her self-imposed starvation…

I’m a cyborg but that’s ok is usually categorized as romantic comedy, but if you look deeply you will find some of good old Park Chan-Wook‘s distinctive style traits: Young-goon is ultimately moved by vengeance, since her role as a cyborg is to revenge her grandmother, who was taken away by doctors and locked in a mental insitution.

Either way, this movie is adorable and weird and more adorable.

the perfect way to start my Zombie Cupcakes Valentine’s week!

Park Chan Wook gathers together A Tale of Two Sister‘s star Im Su-jeong and korean popstar Rain to take us into a very surreal and bright world full of weird people that are almost impossible not to fall in love with. Personally i have a crush on the girl who can “sing yodel but only look at the world thru a small hand mirror”.

Who is your favorite and why?

A Tale Of Two Sisters

If you like horror movies you must watch this 2003 Kim Ji-woon movie.

A Tale Of Two Sisters (Janghwa, Hongryeon)

connection with Park Chan-Wook and (remotely) Oldboy: Actress Im Su-jeong (aka Su-mi, the main girl in the movie) is the main charachter in Park’s I’m a Cyborg but that’s Ok

my heart stopped a little when i found out yet another shitty remake was out, for all of us true-at-heart fans’ disappointment. to me, it was a really really sad day. it will be the same to you when you’ll watch the original and instantly fall in love with it. it’s so good that it was the first korean movie to be screened in theaters in America.

Kim Ji-woon combines horror, drama, sentimentalism and amazingly detailed photography to tell you the story of Su-Mi and Su-Yeong, two inseparable sisters that come home from a mental institution and have to deal with their father and a spiteful and quite mean step mother, and are haunted at night by a mysterious ghost.

But not everything is quite what it seems and as the story goes by everything becomes more and more confusing..

please hurry and watch it before seeing “The Uninvited”, which i think is out now or is going to be soon.

I’m happily gonna skip it, and be faithful to Kim Ji-woon.

edit: ok i lied. i actually decided that i don’t wanna be one of those people who trash a flick without even knowing what they’re talking about and i gave “The Uninvited” a try. Afterall, that “The Ring” remake wasn’t all that bad, was it?

my bad, i was SO wrong.

first of all, let’s take a look at the poster for the movie:

looks an awful lot like Gothika, right?

that awful, awful movie with x-men Storm.

second, the very first line at all, like 10 seconds into the movie, is: “hey, i have a condom“

and you know it can’t get much worse than that. producers and writers of this garbage took something beautiful, innocent, and honestly quite deep in its imagery, and turned it into just another badly directed teenage horror. i am so disappointed i now wish i didn’t even look it up and stood in my ignorance.

for it is bliss, sometimes, afterall.