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Movie Summary: The Fox Family
So instead of listening to all your music suggestions and telling you whether or not that's what I'm looking for, tonight I watched this strange little Korean comedy called The Fox Family. The setup is that there is a family of Korean spirit foxes (kumiho), who have been living for 1000 years. If they survive that long, then manage to eat a human liver during the 30-minute period of a lunar eclipse, they will become human.
The Fox Family, consisting of the father, the son, the older daughter, and the younger daughter - because they either never said each other's names or the translators didn't bother with them - have come down off of Kam Mountain one month before the lunar eclipse, in order to hunt down some humans for this.
Naturally, complications ensue. You see, there's a serial killer loose in the area, and a very suspicious detective wandering around asking questions of strange people. And the Fox Family has disguised themselves as a traveling circus, in order to lure people into their clutches.
Oh, and did I mention it was a musical?
Let's introduce you to the characters. Here is Father Fox.
Here is Son Fox. You can tell what a suave seducer he is.
Older Daughter Fox is bent on using her seductive charms in order to lure a man in. Her first attempt was to dance seductively in front of a man on the train. Unfortunately, he turned out to be blind, and so all her dancing was to no avail.
And we have Younger Daughter Fox, who could give Wednesday Addams a run for her money.
This would be the detective.
And then we have the only character whose name I know: Ki-Dong, a con man who manages to fall into the clutches of the Fox Family as he was running from some very large men to whom he owes a great deal of money.
Anyway. So the Fox Family disguise themselves as a traveling circus, doing things like magic tricks.
Only having lived isolated from humanity for a thousand years, they don't quite get the idea.
After the few kids who bothered to attend the show run, screaming and blood-covered, from the tent, we get Plot wherein the whole liver-1000 years-eclipse thing is explained, and the father sings a heartfelt song about becoming human. And we see that there still are a few anamalistic tendencies among them.
The scene changes to the con man, who currently makes salacious videos by hiding a camera and filming himself having sex with a good-looking woman. He gets surprised in the middle of making one by the people to whom he owes money, and so takes off with his camera, disguised as a tasteful nude statuette of a woman, and his underclothes. He stumbles into the circus tent, to find Older Daughter drunk and singing and swinging on the trapeze. Here is their meet cute:
naturally, Ki-Dong attempts to seduce her, and she willingly follows along. Her father and brother, who have utterly failed to meet women at a nightclub and gotten beaten up to boot, come home and discover them. Much to Ki-Dong's surprise, they toss both Older Daughter and Ki-Dong into Older Daughter's room and wish them luck.
later on, Ki-Dong makes an important discovery. If the woman you've jsut slept with has whiskers...
...and a tail...
...you're probably in a whole heap o'trouble. He starts talking fast, as they want to kill him to keep their secret. He figures if he can stay alive and get film of the family, he can sell it for a whole pot o'money, so he offers to help them get three more victims. And suggests that they recruit people for the circus.
Hence, the Homeless Person Recruitment Chorus.
And then the Protestors and Riot Cops Pas de Deux.
The family holds auditions...
...at which exactly three poeple show up. Who are hired. And then who are discovered to have either terminal diseases or suicidal ideation.
In order to keep these three alive until the lunar eclipse, they must pay medical bills somehow. Father explains why it's so important to become human, instead of staying foxes, using Brother as illustration:
They are all forced to take jobs, Father as an attendant in the baths, Brother as a construction worker, and Older Sister as a paid hostess. They all sing a song about how important money is to be human and how you can do anything with money.
Meanwhile, love is in the air, as Older Daughter's romantic tendencies get in the way and she falls in love with Ki-Dong.
The detective has been nosing around off and on, of course, and on the night of the lunar eclipse he wanders into the circus tent and gets killed by a shadowy figure.
Meanwhile, the Fox family throw a small party, during which the plan is to kill the humans. Father starts to get some second thoughts, as he did talk the suicidal woman down from a bridge the other day, so Brother sings a song about how good it'll be to be human in order to buck him up for the job.
Older Daughter wanders off and sings about love.
The eclipse starts! They have 30 minutes! Meanwhile, Ki-Dong is sneaking the humans outside to the van, to get them away from the Fox family. Suddenly there is a commotion! It turns out that Mr. Hong, one of the terminally ill humans, has kidnapped Older Daughter and driven away in the van! The others attack the hapless delivery man who's come to pick up the plates they rented for the party, and all hop on his scooter and give chase!
Mr. Hong is ... troubled, to say the least. And has a ... special persona.
He takes Older Daughter to the top of the Seoul Tower, along with a chainsaw. The others follow. Younger Daughter is the most feral of all the crew and her lithe acrobatics are too much for him, and she catches him. Father takes over, and kills Mr. Hong, ripping out his liver. He gives the liver to Older Daughter, so that she may be human and marry Ki-Dong. Brother is angry, saying that now one fox will have to be sacrificed and not turn human if they're not going to kill Ki-Dong. Father says that he has lived long enough, and will not partake. And with that, he attacks the other terminally ill human! And, because he is devout, he takes a moment to say grace before killing her and ripping out her liver:
Oh no! Too late! The eclipse is over and Father, Brother, and Younger Daughter all change back into foxes!
Cut to a TV news report about three foxes who were discovered living on Mount Kam. It's on a TV in a house in Seoul, inhabited by a man, a woman, and a young girl. And, in the backyard, three doghouses jsut the right size for three foxes. Turns out that Ki-Dong and Older Daughter got married and had a daughter of their own. Who turns out, as she's a half-breed, to have a few ... special athletic abilities that worry her dad...
So there you have it. It was actually an entertaining movie, for the most part, and I've left out about half of it, like the bits where Ki-Dong's film of the Fox family ends up only getting footage where it looks like they're selflessly taking in suicidal and terminally ill people and praying for their recovery and long life. :) And where he falls in love with Older Daughter. And the detective nosing around a bit more, and Younger Daughter's mysterious trips outside the home, as well as why she's carrying around a Chihuahua that belonged to the serial killer's last victim. But if I did that, this would be twice as long, and I see tha tyou got the basics of it, at least.
The Fox Family, consisting of the father, the son, the older daughter, and the younger daughter - because they either never said each other's names or the translators didn't bother with them - have come down off of Kam Mountain one month before the lunar eclipse, in order to hunt down some humans for this.
Naturally, complications ensue. You see, there's a serial killer loose in the area, and a very suspicious detective wandering around asking questions of strange people. And the Fox Family has disguised themselves as a traveling circus, in order to lure people into their clutches.
Oh, and did I mention it was a musical?
Let's introduce you to the characters. Here is Father Fox.
Here is Son Fox. You can tell what a suave seducer he is.
Older Daughter Fox is bent on using her seductive charms in order to lure a man in. Her first attempt was to dance seductively in front of a man on the train. Unfortunately, he turned out to be blind, and so all her dancing was to no avail.
And we have Younger Daughter Fox, who could give Wednesday Addams a run for her money.
This would be the detective.
And then we have the only character whose name I know: Ki-Dong, a con man who manages to fall into the clutches of the Fox Family as he was running from some very large men to whom he owes a great deal of money.
Anyway. So the Fox Family disguise themselves as a traveling circus, doing things like magic tricks.
Only having lived isolated from humanity for a thousand years, they don't quite get the idea.
After the few kids who bothered to attend the show run, screaming and blood-covered, from the tent, we get Plot wherein the whole liver-1000 years-eclipse thing is explained, and the father sings a heartfelt song about becoming human. And we see that there still are a few anamalistic tendencies among them.
The scene changes to the con man, who currently makes salacious videos by hiding a camera and filming himself having sex with a good-looking woman. He gets surprised in the middle of making one by the people to whom he owes money, and so takes off with his camera, disguised as a tasteful nude statuette of a woman, and his underclothes. He stumbles into the circus tent, to find Older Daughter drunk and singing and swinging on the trapeze. Here is their meet cute:
naturally, Ki-Dong attempts to seduce her, and she willingly follows along. Her father and brother, who have utterly failed to meet women at a nightclub and gotten beaten up to boot, come home and discover them. Much to Ki-Dong's surprise, they toss both Older Daughter and Ki-Dong into Older Daughter's room and wish them luck.
later on, Ki-Dong makes an important discovery. If the woman you've jsut slept with has whiskers...
...and a tail...
...you're probably in a whole heap o'trouble. He starts talking fast, as they want to kill him to keep their secret. He figures if he can stay alive and get film of the family, he can sell it for a whole pot o'money, so he offers to help them get three more victims. And suggests that they recruit people for the circus.
Hence, the Homeless Person Recruitment Chorus.
And then the Protestors and Riot Cops Pas de Deux.
The family holds auditions...
...at which exactly three poeple show up. Who are hired. And then who are discovered to have either terminal diseases or suicidal ideation.
In order to keep these three alive until the lunar eclipse, they must pay medical bills somehow. Father explains why it's so important to become human, instead of staying foxes, using Brother as illustration:
They are all forced to take jobs, Father as an attendant in the baths, Brother as a construction worker, and Older Sister as a paid hostess. They all sing a song about how important money is to be human and how you can do anything with money.
Meanwhile, love is in the air, as Older Daughter's romantic tendencies get in the way and she falls in love with Ki-Dong.
The detective has been nosing around off and on, of course, and on the night of the lunar eclipse he wanders into the circus tent and gets killed by a shadowy figure.
Meanwhile, the Fox family throw a small party, during which the plan is to kill the humans. Father starts to get some second thoughts, as he did talk the suicidal woman down from a bridge the other day, so Brother sings a song about how good it'll be to be human in order to buck him up for the job.
Older Daughter wanders off and sings about love.
The eclipse starts! They have 30 minutes! Meanwhile, Ki-Dong is sneaking the humans outside to the van, to get them away from the Fox family. Suddenly there is a commotion! It turns out that Mr. Hong, one of the terminally ill humans, has kidnapped Older Daughter and driven away in the van! The others attack the hapless delivery man who's come to pick up the plates they rented for the party, and all hop on his scooter and give chase!
Mr. Hong is ... troubled, to say the least. And has a ... special persona.
He takes Older Daughter to the top of the Seoul Tower, along with a chainsaw. The others follow. Younger Daughter is the most feral of all the crew and her lithe acrobatics are too much for him, and she catches him. Father takes over, and kills Mr. Hong, ripping out his liver. He gives the liver to Older Daughter, so that she may be human and marry Ki-Dong. Brother is angry, saying that now one fox will have to be sacrificed and not turn human if they're not going to kill Ki-Dong. Father says that he has lived long enough, and will not partake. And with that, he attacks the other terminally ill human! And, because he is devout, he takes a moment to say grace before killing her and ripping out her liver:
Oh no! Too late! The eclipse is over and Father, Brother, and Younger Daughter all change back into foxes!
Cut to a TV news report about three foxes who were discovered living on Mount Kam. It's on a TV in a house in Seoul, inhabited by a man, a woman, and a young girl. And, in the backyard, three doghouses jsut the right size for three foxes. Turns out that Ki-Dong and Older Daughter got married and had a daughter of their own. Who turns out, as she's a half-breed, to have a few ... special athletic abilities that worry her dad...
So there you have it. It was actually an entertaining movie, for the most part, and I've left out about half of it, like the bits where Ki-Dong's film of the Fox family ends up only getting footage where it looks like they're selflessly taking in suicidal and terminally ill people and praying for their recovery and long life. :) And where he falls in love with Older Daughter. And the detective nosing around a bit more, and Younger Daughter's mysterious trips outside the home, as well as why she's carrying around a Chihuahua that belonged to the serial killer's last victim. But if I did that, this would be twice as long, and I see tha tyou got the basics of it, at least.