
Two siblings, a successful but unprincipled lawyer (Sul Kyung-gu) and his conscientious pediatrician brother (Jang Dong-gun), lead prosperous lives and get along well despite their divergent moral beliefs. But things come to a head during one of their regular monthly dinners with their wives, where they learn of a disturbing situation involving both their teenage kids. As the consequences of this dreadful discovery spiral out of control, the families are confronted with an unimaginable choice. Adapted from Dutch author Herman Koch’s controversial bestselling novel The Dinner, A Normal Family transposes the story action to the cultural specifics of present-day South Korea, but maintains the original’s darkly suspenseful core. No stranger to thorny material, having helmed a 2012 adaptation of Dangerous Liaisons, Korean director Hur Jin-ho directs this drama of privilege and moral decay with clockwork precision. Tense and absorbing, this thriller puts a sinister, unforgettable twist on the notion that blood ties are the ties that bind.
Supported by
Community Partner
Sul Kyung-gu, Jang Dong-gun, Kim Hee-ae, Claudia Kim
South Korea
2023
In Korean with English subtitles
Violence
Indigenous & Community Access
Credits
Producer
Kim Won-kuk
Cinematography
Go Rak-sun
Editor
Kim Hyung-joo
Production Design
Mo so-ra
Original Music
Cho Sung-woo
Director

Hur Jin-ho
In 1993, Hur Jin-ho’s first short film premiered at VIFF. His feature debut followed five years later: Christmas In August which won many best director awards. Since then, he has produced a distinctive brand: “Hur Jin-ho’s romance”. Love is his favourite theme. With a record of 5.6M admissions for The Last Princess in 2016, he became a director with box office credibility.
Filmography: Christmas In August (1998); A Good Rain Knows (2009); Dangerous Liaisons (2012); The Last Princess (2016); Forbidden Dream (2019)
Showcase
See more films in this series:
Creature
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The Royal Hotel
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Green Border
In her seventies Agnieszka Holland has made a ferocious, emotionally charged film about the brutal treatment of refugees arriving over the Polish land border from Belarus. This is a vehement denunciation of resurgent fascism and utterly compelling cinema.
They Shot the Piano Player
The fate of a prodigious Brazilian samba pianist murdered in Argentina in 1976 fuels this animated docu-fiction from the team who gave us the Academy Award-nominee Chico & Rita. Jeff Goldblum voices the writer who digs into Francisco Tenório Jr's story.
I Am Sirat
I Am Sirat is a personal documentary about Sirat, a transwoman in India, who lives a dual life. While supported by a queer network of friends in Delhi, Sirat reverts to the closet at home as she’s forced to maintain a son’s familial and cultural responsibilities.
The Teachers' Lounge
When a grade 6 student is accused of theft, idealistic young math teacher Ms Nowak decides to set up a sting to find the true culprit... with disastrous results. This buzzy Berlin film festival title is an ethics master class.
Evil Does Not Exist
After the international success of Drive My Car, Ryusuke Hamaguchi quietly made this small-scale independent film, a work of simplicity and grace about a rural community and the developers who want to built a "glamping" retreat in the woods.
Four Little Adults
Upon learning of her husband's year long affair, Juulia proposes an open marriage free of secrets. As a polyamory guide becomes their bible, Juulia falls in love with someone new, filling their journey in polyamory with love, compassion, and compromise.
Just the Two of Us
Beginning as a sunny romance, this film slowly, subtly becomes a defiant feminist drama. When Blanche meets Greg at a seaside party, she’s quickly won over by his confidence and charm, but once they’re married, he reveals a much darker side.
Close to You
In his first feature film role since 2017, Elliot Page delivers a deeply felt and nuanced performance as a young man reuniting with his family for the first time since his transition, four years earlier.
Tótem
During the chaotic preparations for the birthday of her terminally ill father, a seven-year-old girl finds herself caught amid a complex adult world interspersed with a sense of change. A Buñuelian class study keyed to the interior life of a child.
Four Daughters
A stimulating and cathartic docu-drama from Academy-Award nominee, Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania, about a mother who lost two teenage daughters when they fled to Libya to fight for ISIS.
How to Have Sex
Sixteen-year-old Tara and her two best friends arrive to a Greek party town ready to let their hair down. But while Tara is indeed down for some summer fun, her boundaries keep getting trampled on by those closest to her.
Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World
Radu Jude takes two days in the life of a stressed Romanian p.a. and gives us an urgent, pissed off, sourly funny polemic on the state of late capitalism. Exploitation, discrimination and hypocrisy are his targets; dialectics are his dynamite.