Edited by Hwang Hong Sun
Translated by Kim Hoyeun
Renowned for his mastery of melodrama, director Hur Jin Ho returns with a chilling absurdist drama. Featuring a star-studded cast, including Sul Kyung Gu, Kim Hee Ae, Jang Dong Gun, and Claudia Kim, A Normal Family draws from the novel by Herman Koch, weaving a story about parents’ contradictory reactions when they learn of their children’s crimes.
Watching A Normal Family feels like dining at a fine dining restaurant, with each actor serving up a distinct course. The cast expertly portrays the subtle differences in beliefs among their characters, who find themselves caught in complex moral dilemmas. As the stakes rise, the actors channel the characters’ shifts in emotions, creating an intense, suffocating atmosphere that elevates the film’s sophistication.
Each actor’s performance shines. Sul Kyung Gu tempers his emotions to embody a character with chilling composure, anchoring the film’s progression. Jang Dong Gun’s portrayal brings a gradual yet explosive escalation of tension, as his morally upright character grows increasingly agitated. “Kim Hee Ae, known for her calm, composed roles, captures a raw desperation that makes her character’s choices painfully relatable. In contrast, Claudia Kim plays the most objective figure in this ensemble, voicing the thoughts many in the audience might want to express.
Director Hur Jin Ho’s expertise, evident in his detail-oriented approach, truly shines again. Despite the genre shift from his previous films, Hur masterfully orchestrates pacing, the actors’ performances, and subtle shifts in camera angles to build an engrossing experience. The adaptation of this Dutch story into a Korean cultural context is also impressively seamless.
The movie leaves viewers with a haunting question: What choice would I make as a parent if I were in their shoes? The crisis that strikes this family serves as a vehicle for the film to confront the audience with a difficult question, urging us to watch it with a sense of personal reflection. Themes like parental obsession, the pressures of college admissions, school bullying, and the hypocrisy of the elite deepen the story’s realism and add layers of immersion. It’s been a long time since I’ve been this drawn into a story in theaters. (8/10)
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Editor Hwang Hong Sun: A Korean movie buff who wishes that the warm messages in good works will warm up this world at least by one degree Fahrenheit.
