The Quiet Family, or in it's native Korean, Choyonghan kajok, was the first film written and directed by Ji-woon Kim, the man responsible for 2003's chilling Janghwa, Hongryeon a.k.a. A Tale of Two Sisters. A combination of horror and comedy, looking a lot like an Asian Addams Family, and feeling like Poe's The Telltale Heart, The Quiet Family received three awards when released: the Fantasia Section Award at 1999's Fantasporto, and both Best Director and Best Film at the Malaga International Week of Fantastic Cinema 2000.

The Kang family has decided to get out of the city, to leave the rat race behind, and so, they buy a lodge off a hiking track in the mountains. Business is bad, as in non-existent, until a lone hiker turns up and takes a room for the night. The next day, the family discovers that he has committed suicide, and that his wallet has gone missing, so to avoid bad publicity or blame, they bury the body in the woods, and put it behind them…until the next body turns up…

Setting this film at a lodge gives the filmmaker an opportunity to drop in many weirdos and miscreants and you are constantly trying to figure out who is stranger, the family or the visitors, although in actual fact they are probably as strange as each other! The production values on this film are incredibly high and it is a delight to watch, a real 'feast for the eye', probably due to the director's ability to constantly contrast colors, and give some of the set pieces real personality. The Quiet Family was remade a few years later by Takahashi Miike as The Happiness of the Katakuris, although this doesn't have the characters breaking into song (although the eldest daughter does sing a bit to get attention) or acclamation. This film is a black comedy in the strain of Hollywood flicks such as Very Bad Things or American Psycho, not so much for the violence, but certainly the tongue in cheek irony.