Ok-sil (Lee Jung-eun) and her three adult daughters (Kong Hyo-jin, Park So-dam, Lee Yeon) may seem merely to be out on a family pilgrimage to commemorate the birthday of Ok-sil’s long-deceased youngest daughter Gyeong-ju, but in fact this is a journey of revenge.

The yellow combi van in which these characters are travelling points to both the similar vehicle (and similar dysfunctional family comedy) of Little Miss Sunshine (2006), and to the similarly colour-coded female revenge of the Kill Bill films (2003-4). Both intertexts prove relevant in Kim Mi-jo’s feature, where the absurdity of this eccentric, clashing clan is offset by a rather serious engagement with the nature and morality of vendetta. This begins by looking for laughs, and ends by raising questions — and the resulting blend of eccentric characters and mismatched genres is never less than engaging and compelling.

Content Warning: depiction of violence