The Kang family moves from Seoul to the isolated mountains where they have bought and operate the Misty Lodge. The family members are, the father Tae-gu, his crass wife, their daughters- the pretty but clueless Mi-soo and the sullen Mi-na, their dimwit but earnest son Yeong-min, and the kids horny uncle. After two weeks of absolutely no business the family is understandably tense and eager for anyone to stay, just to catch at least one customer to raise their spirits. When they do get that customer, things don't turn out for the better when he commits suicide in a manner that could implicate the family and further cast the lodge in a bad light. So, rather than suffer the embarrassment, they dump the body in a shallow grave in the woods and try to forget about it. But, unluckily, their next customers, a young couple, also commit suicide, and this time covering up the misfortune takes the family down the next step, making it more than just disposing of bodies. And so begins a comedy of errors for the Kangs. Business gets better but the bodies continue to pile up through accidental and not so accidental deaths, including kidnapping, attempted rape, and a hit man. As if things couldn't get any worse, a road is going to be constructed across their customer graveyard and the police begin to sniff around.

This is the darkest kind of comedy. One involving the most heartfelt sentiment along with copious amounts of black cruelty and perversely humorous events. I guess the niche it fits best into would be Heathers, Fargo, Arsenic and Old Lace and Happiness. It is little surprise that the film was remade as Happiness of the Katakuris by Japanese bizzarro style and shock god Takashi Miike, who made the similarly dark family comedy Visitor Q.

To give an example of the tone of the humor, the first laugh it got from me is an early scene. The Kangs sit down for a wordless dinner. Mi-na tells us in voice-over how the lack of customers has built up pressure on them, especially their father. The father stone faced, rises from the table, walks off screen, and proceeds to kick the family dog, venting his anger, before returning the table and resumes eating like nothing has happened... It reminded me of a scene in the classic samurai film The Gate to Hell where a frustrated samurai gets spurned by the women he's obsessed over, so he casuallay kicks a puppy that crosses his path. For those with a dark streak, those who know how funny it is when Otto is torturing poor Ka-Ka-Ken in A Fish Called Wanda, its just giggle inducing. It plays on a fragile, childlike side of human nature, the inability to solve a problem, to vent frustration in any other way than some misplaced act of cruelty and idiocy.

None of these elements would work if the actual family itself wasn't well-developed. And, like the best comedy of errors, I found I genuinely liked them. Despite the horrible things they do, they do it out of love, out of that basic need to prosper and protect, to support one another. Particularly standout is Yeong-min, who tries to defend his almost raped sister, yet he's completely incompetent as a fighter, bullishly trying to ram the horny hiker, and then screaming "Ouch, ouch, ouch, my neck!" like a kid when the guy gets him in a headlock.

Make no mistake, director Kim Ji-woon (who followed this debut with the offbeat The Foul King) doesn't really hold back on the grimness. Attempted rape, bashed in heads, poisoning, burning bodies, vicious hit men, all balanced out by the sheer ineptitude and sour luck of the clan. Now, while I did find it funny, I didn't think it was hilarious. Most of the film just struck me a chuckle worthy, but if you have an off-kilter taste in comedy and film, it will be right up your alley.

The DVD: Modern Audio International/ Tai Seng.

Picture: Widescreen, around 1.77.1. The film appears to have a pretty average transfer. Modern Korean films almost always have decent to great cinematography, and Quiet Family is no exception. Contrast could be much deeper, some scenes are a little soft and the color could possibly be punched up, like I said, less than perfect but average. Now, I tried the film on both of my players and it appeared, on my players, to be riddled with digital breakups like artifacts and pixellation. I double-checked other reviews of the disc, only found a couple, that don't state any digital transfer blemishes whatsoever. So, maybe I just got a fussy disc, maybe not. Just bear it in mind if you are using a Toshiba or Malata.

Sound: Korean, Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo with optional English or Chinese subtitles. Audio was fine and clear, dialogue nice and sharp, with a soundtrack that almost seamlessly, amazingly slides from rockabilly swing, to Love and Rockets, to psychedelic, to the end credits which use, I kid you not, a Partridge Family song. Unfortunately, just like on the visual side, I experience some glitches wit the audio in the form of a couple of spots where there is some audio dropoff. It wasnt frequent, just in a scene or two; the bulk of the film plays fine. The subtitles were relatively free of any glaring grammatical errors, but they did have the annoying habit of leaving off a word at the end of a

Extras: 6 Chapters--- Theatrical Trailer--- Also, two 3X5 inserts with film stills.

Conclusion: For those with offbeat comedic tastes, this is a really good movie. But... On the technical side, I don't know if the glitches I encountered are universal. Certainly if you are an Asian film/import buff such things are nothing new. So for those fans I'll give it a hesitant recommendation, for the rest of you out there approach with caution. Possible glitches aside, its a very entertaining slice of memorable morbid comedy.