The Fox Family (DVD) (UK Version) DVD Region 2

The Fox Family is a very borderline example of something that Korea does particularly well, although some of the flights of imagination may or may not work for people, especially since it shows this alongside an unsuccessful application of many elements. The film is a genre mash-up - a comedy (like early Steve Martin films - the comedy of ineptness, somewhat physical and sexual at times), a little horror (one moment is just like a sequence from Nicholas Roeg's Don't Look Now, though this could be a coincidence), and some drama (though not so melodramatic or sentimental this time around) - as is the generally expected trend.

You'll doubtless find your faith in the subtitles dented relatively quickly too (KD Media usually have great subtitles, but this time, they lack true structure and get confusing), and you'll also find the script lacks a subject matter and structure that transfers outside of Korea with complete success. This is, unfortunately, a film that's perhaps a little too localised to be clearly understood elsewhere, and that's fine - in fact it's what I expect to find, it's what I expect Korea to do, but it's an oddity in that regard also because most things do boil down to relatively universal aspects on enough levels to work more than they fail. I'll try a little clarification for you.

In Korea, it would seem the red fox (quite common and relatively easy to find in the UK suburbs) is considered mythical and surrounded by urban myths of various kinds. On their one-thousandth year, foxes travel down from Nam Mountain, under a spell that makes them appear human, and seek a human sacrifice to provide them with a liver. That liver must be removed and consumed within the short 30-minute period of a total lunar eclipse, and it will lead to the fox being reincarnated as a human for all eternity. They desire to become human because the life of a fox is unpleasant. Now, this took the entire film to construct, which has me thinking that the script lacks clarity and that's either incidental, cultural, or just bad scripting from the perspective of the translation to subtitles. And it's a shame.

Aside from this, the various members of The Fox Family - an ageing father, two twenty-something kids (one male, one most certainly incredibly female - she can have my liver, if that's how she goes about getting it...), and a young daughter - pose as circus performers within their own touring troupe. There may be prejudice played to comical effect here too, as the public holds stereotypical suspicions of circus performers. The general idea is that by running a circus there's a regular supply of human sacrifices to ensnare in preparation for the eclipse which is fast arriving within the next month or so. The circus also allows the family to remain hidden away with their own privacy and to introduce humans into their lives in a fairly controlled and predictable fashion, giving cover to the oddness of their behavior - something which is played as more like human eccentricity than foxes struggling to master human lifestyles. At times I found these parts very funny, especially the disco dancing early on.

Unfortunately, although the sets are fantastically produced and certainly as much of a feast for the eyes as we've seen Korean Cinema provide, it all feels a little too much like a stage, almost as though this were a play on film. The external shots are minimal across the duration as a whole, and things feel a little static, contrived. In essence, it makes it a little too clear that you're watching a film, breaking the illusion somewhat. Like many aspects of the film, it works just hard enough to leave a sense of disappointment for how it doesn't quite hit the mark.

As a production, the most fascinating misstep of the film is the sparing use of the most imaginative aspects of the visuals. There are loads of these moments, lots of times during the film when you're thinking that things are generally a little too plain, but still promising; times when you'll spot some visual flare, some activity, something on screen that could have been more regularly used to build a sense of fun. I won't point them out, because the film as a whole is so dangerously close to hitting the nail on the head, so close to being a genre mash-up classic like Save the Green Planet or a horror-comedy like The Quiet Family that it's worth seeing to take in the potential of the film and it's director.

There's just not quite enough imagination here, or what imagination there was wasn't applied effectively to beef-up the various elements that create the film as a whole. It's a real disappointment of a film, not because it's bad (which it really isn't) but because it's so nearly very good indeed. The filmmakers seemed to know what needed doing and still didn't manage to focus enough on doing it, even if it's nothing much more than a fairly disposable, solidly produced entertainment movie. This is a debut feature, and the cliche applies - it shows great promise, without doubt.

by logboy - Twitchfilm.net