An entertaining, funny, and wholly original take on the zombie genre.
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In zombie comedy ‘The Odd Family: Zombie on Sale’, first-time director Lee Min-jae pushes the boundary of the zombie genre. With recent zombie movies such as ‘Train to Busan’, the rate at which the bitten human turns into a zombie is almost instantaneous. But in ‘The Odd Family’, the virus takes much, much longer to take effect. But in the meantime, those bitten not only do not suffer any negative effect, they are actually physically better off.
After 70-year-old Man-deok (Park In-hwan) is bitten by a lone zombie (Jung Ga-Ram), whom he and the rest of the villagers assume is a drug addict delinquent, he finds out that he has regained his virility. This gives Man-deok the idea to start a family business with his two sons and daughter-in-law, using the zombie, whom his granddaughter, Hae-Gul (Lee Soo-Kyung), nicknames Zzongbie, to reinvigorate the village’s elderly men. All it takes is a bite from Zzongbie. The family business proves popular, attracting scores of elderly men hoping for a second lease of life.
The business’ success also gives a second lease of life to the impoverished family comprising the elder son Joon-Gul (Jung Jae-Young), his pregnant wife Nam-Joo (Uhm Ji-Won), their adopted daughter Hae-Gul and the recently retrenched second son Min-Gul (Kim Nam-Gil). All is fine, until the virus starts to take effect, turning those who have been bitten by Zzongbie into zombies. The first half of the movie can be seen as a family comedy-drama that happens to have a zombie and the second half is a more regular kind of zombie movie.
Despite some inconsistencies, ‘The Odd Family’, with its unpredictable plot and quirky characters, is an entertaining and fun movie - and, without a doubt, a wholly original take on the zombie genre.
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