Kim Jee-Woon is an extraordinarily accomplished Korean filmmaker who has belted out classics in the past, including A Tale of Two Sisters (2003) and I Saw The Devil (2010). Naturally, expectations would be sky-high with any new offering from him. However, his latest, “Cobweb,” is so sorely patchy that it feels like a confused, scatterbrained work of a director unsure of both story beats and character motivation. Shot entirely on a soundstage, the film is filled with opportunities to lean into exquisite production design, all spectacularly brought to life by DP Kim Ji-young.
“Cobweb” is loaded with visual promise. In fact, the film-within-the-film outmatches the overlying narrative by leaps and bounds. Ji-Young shoots the black-and-white sections with staggering, moody beauty as its story lurches into moments of delusionally heightened, campy drama. It’s outrageous in its narrative register. However, “Cobweb” finds potential for rich, hysterical drama in these sequences and their juxtaposition with the directorial counterpoint.
In such moments, the film lands, but whenever the screenplay is stodgily unable to stitch it all together into a solidly sustained, holistically compelling whole. Parts of it are intriguing and mounted with indubitable conviction, but the sum of it is peculiarly limited. This is unfortunate because “Cobweb” does have some stuff in it worth checking out, especially the nestled film, which admittedly does get a significant chunk of Cobweb’s runtime and often turns into such delightfully deranged, manic directions it’s something to relish.
Cobweb (2024) Korean Movie Cast
Cobweb boasts a stellar cast of South Korean acting powerhouses. Song Kang-ho, renowned for his roles in Parasite and The Host, delivers a mesmerizing performance as the tormented director. Lim Soo-jung, known for her work in A Tale of Two Sisters, shines as the leading lady, while Oh Jung-se, a versatile actor with credits in Parasite and Squid Game, brings depth to his character. The ensemble is rounded out by Jeon Yeo-been (known for Vincenzo) and Krystal Jung, adding further star power to the film.
Cobweb (2024) Korean Movie Summary & Plot Synopsis:
In “Cobweb,” director Kim wants to reshoot his completed film in such a way that will shock the audiences out of stupor. Set in the 1970s, Kim has the grandest ambitions and is stubbornly convinced his ideas for the alterations have the zest and bite of a masterpiece. He is adamant about the potential in his revised script. But he has to surmount a lot of hurdles in realising his vision that has bloomed with a deferred stretch of sparkling, new ideas. He is constantly plagued by the desire to reshoot the ending. He insists he needs only two days to actualize what is nagging him persistently and to such a great degree he can think of nothing else.
Naturally, there is resistance. The unit has dispersed. The Shinseong studio space is booked for the next project to roll in. Kim is bullish about his proposal, meets with sufficient pushback from Baek (Jang Young-nam), who has newly taken over the studio mantle after her brother, established director Shin (Jung Woo-sung), died in a fire accident on set. Baek will have none of what Kim is pushing for.
The shot film has already been sent to the censor board, and reshooting with an altered script will not be received pleasantly by the board that holds the ultimate authority. When Baek is on leave, Kim manages to convince Baek’s niece, Mi-do ( Jeon Yeo-been), of his vision. Mi-Do gives him the go-ahead. She tells him she is swept by the script and entrusts him with full faith.
Therefore, the cast is called back on set. The leading lady, Min-Ja (Lim Soo-jung), the philandering married male lead, Ho-Se ( Oh Jung-se), the rising star, Yu-rim (Jung Soo-Jung), and the elderly Madam Oh (Park Jung-soo) reassemble along with the full-fledged production team. Only later does Kim discover the actors have been promised just a day of shoot, not the two he needs. The circumstances in the embedded film have mirroring threads with infidelity, which is a constant tendency with Ho-Se.
In the film they are making, Ho-Se also plays a man who cheats on his wife with a girl at the factory. Even the character’s father had once cheated on his mother with a factory girl. The mother had thrown the girl out immediately. The entanglements among the characters are many, revealing knottier threads as the film progresses. This embedded film is a family drama that frequently leans to the exaggerated. The antics in the fictional film are dutifully echoed by on-set drama.
Escalating pressure from people in authority causes the situation to constantly explode into chaos and disarray. Mr. Park, from the Ministry of Culture, arrives on set, enquiring about the secret shoot. On Mi-Do’s order, the studio has been locked up. Phone lines are cut. No shoot is happening, and it has to be projected. Mi-Do gets Park abundantly drunk, and he passes out. Shin’s reputation also casts a long shadow that tails Kim.
He wants to put out a stark display and expose the dirty laundry of regular Koreans. He wants to rip through the moral anxiety. But he is also stricken with doubt and a lack of confidence. He is beset with a whole gamut of issues. The on-set atmosphere is tense. Yu-Rim is secretly pregnant, and Ho-Se believes it is his child she is carrying, which doesn’t turn out to be true. Even Mi-do and Kim fill in as doubles for scenes when things seem pretty tight.
Cobweb (2024) Korean Movie Ending Explained:
Will Kim See His Vision Through?
“Cobweb” is strewn with sudden revelations, extending from the embedded film to the dynamics of the cast and crew. Ho-Se’s character in the film is killed in a fight by his mistress. The character of his wife turns out to be his half-sister, who herself wasn’t aware of the true relationship and plotted a vengeful path to get the money of the family who ruined her mother’s life. While the mistress also kills the wife, her fear of spiders becomes fatal when she, on unlocking the safe, is confronted with a massive one.
Terrified, the character stumbles and crashes down the stairs to her death. In the outer narrative, even as he is able to finish the film and have its premiere, Kim may have something to do with the theft of ideas and Shin’s death, as the drawn-out climax indicates. The ending of the film is littered with deaths and frantically packed with rapid plot turns. Even if overstretched, the final section of “Cobweb” comes off as too busy and rushed to register the finer details of its overworked, scrambling plot.
Read More: Cobweb (2024) Movie Review: Artistic Integrity, The Anxiety of Influence, & The Ethics of Filmmaking
Trailer:
Cobweb (2024) Korean Movie Links: IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, Wikipedia
Cast: Park Jeong-su, Krystal Jung, Oh Jung-se
Genre: Drama, Comedy | Runtime: 2h 15 Mins
