There’s a certain performance to family gatherings, a kind of unspoken agreement to keep things pleasant. Director Hur Jin-ho’s A Normal Family understands this social contract intimately, and its opening movements are dedicated to showing us the polished surface just before it shatters.
The film, whose title drips with irony, introduces us to two brothers living starkly different lives. Jae-wan is a high-powered, wealthy lawyer, the kind of man who smooths over ugly problems for his even wealthier clients. His younger brother, Jae-gyu, is a pediatrician, a man whose life is built around a rigid code of ethics. The film wastes no time in placing them on opposing sides of a crisis.
A shocking act of road rage leaves one man dead and his daughter fighting for her life in Jae-gyu’s hospital, while the perpetrator turns to Jae-wan for legal protection. This initial setup is perfectly calibrated, a clinical and tense examination of two conflicting worldviews bound by blood.
A Crack in the Moral Compass
Just as you get comfortable thinking this is a film about professional ethics, it pulls the rug out from under you. The central conflict isn’t the one playing out in the courtroom or the operating theater; it’s much closer to home.
The film pivots to the brothers’ teenage children, Hye-yoon and Si-ho, who we witness commit a truly awful, motiveless act of violence against a homeless man. There’s a chilling scene earlier where the two cousins watch footage of the road-rage crash with the detached glee of someone watching a video game, a stark commentary on a generation’s potential desensitization to real-world consequences.
Their own crime, captured by a discreet security camera, becomes a viral nightmare for their parents. The film masterfully shifts the stakes. The question is no longer about abstract right and wrong; it becomes a gut-wrenching, personal dilemma. Do you protect your child at all costs, even if it means destroying your own moral code? Or do you sacrifice them to the justice system you claim to respect?
A Masterclass in Quiet Desperation
What unfolds is a quiet, agonizing spectacle of hypocrisy and panic, driven by four incredible performances. The film’s structure gives its actors the space to convey years of resentment and shifting loyalties in a single glance. Sul Kyung-gu’s Jae-wan, the lawyer, begins a fascinating reversal; the man who defends the guilty for a living is suddenly confronted with a guilt that he can’t spin away.
Opposite him, Jang Dong-gun’s principled doctor, Jae-gyu, begins to fray as the instinct to protect his son corrodes his ethical foundation. But the film smartly avoids making this just about the men. Their wives are formidable forces in the debate.
Kim Hee-ae plays the doctor’s wife, Yeon-kyung, with a sharp edge of jealousy and pragmatism, while Claudia Kim, as the lawyer’s younger wife Ji-su, evolves from a quiet presence into a key player with her own surprising convictions. Their tense interactions are a drama in themselves, exposing the resentments simmering just beneath the family’s composed exterior.
Beauty in the Bleakness
Hur Jin-ho shoots this moral collapse with a stunning, surgical precision. The cinematography is slick and beautiful, but it carries a distinct chill. The camera often keeps its distance, framing these characters in their expensive, sterile environments, which makes them feel like specimens under a microscope.
This visual style is very much in conversation with the modern wave of South Korean cinema, which excels at packaging sharp social critique in a visually polished product. The story is anchored by a series of dinner scenes, formal gatherings that become battlegrounds for the family’s soul.
These meals are where politeness fails and the raw, ugly truth of their situation spills out. The film offers no comfort, driving toward an abrupt and unforgettable final moment that refuses to resolve the tension. It simply leaves you with the haunting image of what people are capable of when the idea of a “normal family” is the only thing they have left to protect.
A Normal Family premiered at TIFF in Toronto on September 14, 2023
Full Credits
Director: Hur Jin-ho
Writers: Park Eun‑kyo, Park Joon‑seok (based on the novel The Dinner by Herman Koch)
Producers & Executive Producers: Kim Won‑kuk
Cast: Sul Kyung‑gu, Jang Dong‑gun, Kim Hee‑ae, Claudia Kim, Hong Ye‑ji, Kim Jung‑chul, Choi Ri, Yoo Su‑bin, Byun Joong‑hee
Director of Photography (Cinematographer): Go Rak‑sun
Editor: Kim Hyung‑joo
Composer: Cho Sung‑woo
The Review
A Normal Family
A Normal Family is a masterfully crafted thriller that uses a simple, terrifying dilemma to dissect the complexities of wealth, hypocrisy, and parental instinct. It is an unflinching and bleak film, anchored by four outstanding performances that bring its moral decay to life with chilling precision. While its cold, methodical approach may be unsettling, it is a powerful and thought-provoking piece of cinema that lingers long after its abrupt, potent conclusion.
PROS
- Exceptional performances from the four main actors.
- Tense, precise direction that builds suspense effectively.
- A sharp and relevant critique of class, privilege, and morality.
- Polished, cold cinematography that enhances the film's themes.
CONS
- The relentlessly bleak tone can be emotionally taxing.
- Characters are intentionally difficult to empathize with.
- The deliberate pace may not appeal to all viewers.
