Synopsis
When The Quiet Family was put on screen amid high expectations of a box-office hit, cinema magazines did special features on spooky films of korea. However, this film is far different from the horror movies of the 1960s and 1970s that usually dealt with a pre-modern ghost with a sharp shrill. If one has to find a previous production that inherited any hints of traditional Korean horror movie to TheQuiet Family, it would be Director Sang-ok Shin's Her Miserable Life. The Quiet Family appeals more to young spectators well accumstomed to the sentiment and sensitivity of modern cinema than to the older fans who are well-versed in the idiomatic expressions of the old Korean horror movies. The stylistic actions, simple shooting style, fast-developing episodes, and superficial approach to the many characters would be the attractive factors. Therefore, the spectators would better give up any expectations for a female ghost when the old woman appearing in the early part of the movie disappears. Another decisive difference between this film and other Korean horror movies is that, here, the spectators are encouraged to reserve their judgment on the reality of the episodes. In other words, this film, like the fantastic movies of the West, has the system of inducing the hesitation of the spectators concerning their judgment on whether the incidents in the film are real or just a fantasy. Mi-na who narrates and adjourns this film is watching television all the time. Then, is The Quiet Family a fantasy born from this quiet yet weird girl's boring life or the uninteresting TV dramas? (So-young Kim)