Prolific South Korean director Hur Jin-ho’s latest, A Normal Family, stays true to the name while coming up with an engaging tale of morality with the darkest possible climax. While it borrows its central plot from Herman Koch’s best-selling Dutch novel “The Dinner,” Jin-ho adds several layers to the narrative, which makes the cinematic experience anxiety-inducing. For most of its runtime, A Normal Family keeps you conflicted over whom (or what) to support and whom to oppose. Even then you don’t see the ending coming your way, which in my book, makes this movie a triumph. We’re going to dissect that, of course, while taking all the perspectives into account.
Spoilers Ahead
What Happens In The Movie?
A Normal Family begins with a random road rage incident, where a young man in his twenties ends up killing another man and badly hurting the victim’s daughter. Though in the young man’s defense, the other man was very much interested in teaching him a lesson with a baseball bat and charging towards his car. In a moment of fitting rage, the young man drives the car towards the other man, resulting in the baseball player (it gets revealed later) being run over. What’s even worse is the baseballer’s daughter—Na-rae—getting terribly injured and subsequently slipping into a coma, all thanks to the young man’s car crashing into theirs at full speed.
A regular narrative would build its plot around this, but that’s not the case with A Normal Family. The young man turns out to be rich enough to hire a great lawyer—Jae-wan—to defend him. Jae-wan is a pragmatic man who would go any distance to win a case. His moralistic brother, Jae-gyu, is a doctor who, as a matter of coincidence, attends to Na-rae and gets concerned about the child’s condition. Even after knowing Na-rae’s family is in no financial position to afford a surgery, Jae-gyu goes ahead and asks his interns to set a date. Clearly he’s a man who only cares about his patient’s well-being and nothing else.
What Is The Movie Really About?
Once it’s established that the two brothers are standing on opposite sides regarding the accident, the story gets them together for dinner. Jae-wan tries to explain to his brother why saving the patient—Na-rae—is important for his client, who’s already looking at a manslaughter charge for killing Na-rae’s father. Jae-gyu, as you would expect, promises to do everything for the little girl, but doesn’t hide his displeasure with his brother. Clearly at this point, rooting for Jae-gyu is quite easy, and Jae-wan’s insensitivity towards the case makes him the obvious choice for a bad guy.
There are other issues brewing in the family as well. Jae-wan and Jae-gyu’s ailing mother, who’s bipolar and staying at Jae-gyu’s, has become increasingly difficult to handle, even with a 24/7 caregiver at home. Especially for Jae-gyu’s college professor wife, Yeon-Kyung, it’s been a nightmare. Jae-wan, on the other hand, recently had a newborn with his much younger wife, Ji-soo, so it’s practically impossible for him to tend their mother at his place. Probably that’s why he floats the suggestion of taking their mother to a high-end senior care facility, which seems quite logical if you ask me. But Jae-gyu curtly refuses the proposal, even though it would be good for his wife. He eventually comes on board, though, but this storyline doesn’t have much relevance in the larger scheme.
Jae-wan also has a teenage daughter, Hye-yoon, from his first wife, who’s passed away. Hye-yoon and her timid cousin, Si-ho— Jae-gyu and Yeon-Kyung’s son—go to the same school, where Si-ho gets constantly bullied by other kids. On the night their parents are busy having their all-important dinner, Hye-yoon takes Si-ho for a night out. While it starts out as teenagers doing what they usually do—a bit of drinking, playing beer pong, etc.—the cousins somehow end up on the street and beat a homeless man. Their parents find out about it from a viral video, thanks to a security camera in that area. I should also mention that the road rage video also went viral, which practically indicates we live in a technology-heavy time where no (good or bad) deed goes unseen.
The Kids are (not) Alright
Yeon-Kyung, being the first one to stumble onto the video, tries to confront her son, indirectly, by saying the boy in the video is wearing the same jacket as Si-ho. Si-ho flatly denies any involvement in the crime, which is the kind of response you can expect from kids that age. We need to take Si-ho’s relationship with his parents into account here. Jae-gyu can’t give him much time due to his work, and then Yeon-Kyung, despite loving the boy to the moon and back, is clueless about how to deal with him. While the parents do everything in their power to make sure Si-ho gets a great education, they fail in terms of actually taking care of their son—his mental health, to be specific. Given he’s a shy, awkward kid, it was a given that Si-ho would be subjected to bullying, especially after transferring schools in the middle of the year. Despite knowing all about it, Yeon-Kyung didn’t do much about it, and Jae-gyu never had the time to look into matters like this. However, that in no way warrants beating up an innocent man—Si-ho did say the man attacked them, but considering everything, that’s probably a lie. Point being, there’s nothing wrong with Jae-gyu wanting to take his son to the police—that’s what every parent should do.
Hye-yoon is smarter than her cousin, though. She spills the beans to her lawyer father, perfectly knowing he would do everything in his power to save her. I have a feeling that knowledge has also given her the audacity to literally do anything, as she knows she’s going to get away with it—at least that’s what she believes. We need to remember that we’re not discussing a villain here; this is a girl who’s just about seventeen or eighteen. Unfortunately, she’s the epitome of what we’d consider a brat, and it’s entirely on Jae-wan. It can be assumed that after the death of Hye-yoon’s mother, Jae-wan spoiled the girl a bit too much. Also, Hye-yoon doesn’t seem to acknowledge Ji-soo as family, which only means she was not too thrilled with her father remarrying. Ji-soo, though, turns out to be a perfectly nice person who’s rational enough to consider every single perspective here—be it her husband or Jae-gyu and Yeon-Kyung.
Jae-wan wanting to wrap this up by not taking the kids to the law and hoping nothing happens is understandable. It’s hard to actually prove who was in the video anyway. Although the homeless man could still identify the kids, which would cause a problem. But if the man dies, then there’s no problem for the kids to get away. It’s an impossible situation for the parents, but for Jae-wan and Yeon-Kyung, nothing matters more than their kids not ending up in jail. Jae-gyu, on the other hand, couldn’t possibly wish for someone’s death, especially as a doctor. He also gets into a huge fight with both his brother and his wife regarding taking the matter to the police. Eventually, he is unable to actually go through with it, though; Si-ho is still his son after all.
Why Does Jae-wan Change His Mind?
Jae-wan’s change of heart has to be the turning point in the movie. Even though he doesn’t want his daughter to pay for what she did, he wishes for her to realize the gravity of her action and be careful in the future. Sadly, Hye-yoon doesn’t show any sign of remorse. She’s even unaffected by the news of the homeless man’s death and doesn’t hesitate to ask for an expensive car from her father at the very same moment. This bothers Jae-wan so much that he privately takes the matter to a prosecutor, and only after that does he make a decision. What further helps is him seeing Hye-yoon and Si-ho casually joking about the man they assaulted and killed on the baby monitor.
The problem is, Jae-gyu, by now, has completely shifted. That has a lot to do with a heart-to-heart he had with Si Ho, where he apologized for what he had done and even ended up saying he had no right to live. The thing is, though, the baby monitor video also reveals that Si-ho was faking it only, and he actually doesn’t care about the man he and his cousin killed. Jae-wan can’t accept his daughter and nephew being like this, and that’s where he draws the line. Jae-gyu and Yeon-Kyung, unfortunately, are not on board, and they refuse to see the bigger picture. This leads to another dinner between the four—the brothers and their wives—ending in chaos and the younger one storming off.
I should also mention here that Ji-soo plays an important part in Jae-wan changing his decision. While the character initially seems like one of those young and beautiful women who marry rich for a life of comfort, as the story progresses, you realize she genuinely cares for this family. Whether it’s trying to befriend Yeon-Kyung—who’s clearly jealous of Ji-soo’s youth and beauty—or attempting to have a conversation with Hye-yoon regarding what happened, Ji-soo puts in so much effort that ultimately goes in vain.
Does Jae-Gyu Kill Jae-Wan?
It’s one thing to argue and have a fight with your brother. It’s another to have the guts to actually run him over. I can say this with certainty: Jae-gyu didn’t come to dinner with the intention of murdering his brother. Given the kind of man he actually is, he would never have considered that. But at this point, he also can’t accept anyone harming his son. My theory here is Jae-gyu actually feels responsible for how Si-ho has turned out, and he intends to fix that. That’s the reason he continues to utter the phrase ‘second chance’ while pleading with his brother not to hand the kids over. His spur-of-the-moment impulse—of randomly driving the car over Jae-wan—is the result of the fear he has for his son. What he fails to realize is this ruins the foundation of the family, his reputation, and everything that matters for him. Because there’s no way Jae-gyu is going to get away after doing that. I would even say he might walk up to the police station and surrender himself. If he doesn’t take the high road, Ji-soo is still there as a witness who wouldn’t let Jae-gyu walk free. Jae-gyu’s action might save his son from spending some years behind bars, but the boy, for sure, is going to be forever doomed. As far as Hye-yoon is concerned, it’s difficult to say how she would react to her uncle killing her father— she would either take a lesson and set everything right or live a life filled with money (inheritance) but of no value.
Is the ending justified?
I’m sure many of you had this question pop up in your head after watching A Normal Family. See, a director can end a movie as they please—there’s no manual or guide about what they should or shouldn’t do. That said, we have the right to be opinionated about it as well. The main argument here has to be that, by choosing to end in this manner, the movie is practically announcing the death of righteousness and good values. While that is true, a movie (or any piece of art) doesn’t have the responsibility of giving you what you want to see, i.e., anything approaching a happy ending. Sure, it could have ended with Jae-wan taking the kids to the police and his brother coming around, but there wouldn’t be much of a conversation after that. The reason I’m writing this paragraph is because of how the movie actually ended—it’s grim to the core but can also serve as a life lesson of what not to do or what not to be. In my humble opinion, the fact that the ending continues to brew inside my head is what makes A Normal Family a truly great movie. Do you also feel the same? I hope you let me know in the comments.
