‘Cobweb Review: A Humorous Meta Film In Need Of A Bug Fix
This review contains minor spoilers.
MANILA, Philippines - It's a shame that the last act of this movie really impressed me, because its concept (a director trying to create an alternate ending for a movie, only to be met with chaos and censorship) is loads of fun.
The Spider's Web is set in 1970s Korea, a time of strict state censorship of the arts. The film tells the story of a director who is busy with the shooting of his almost finished film Spider's Web . Kim wants to change the ending to better fit his artistic vision, but faces resistance from producers, actors and censors.
Gun Kang Ho plays director Kim Yeol, who plays someone who struggles with mass impersonation syndrome even after reaching the same heights of success as his first film. This inspires him to rethink his future. Target? Completely rebuilding the ending and effectively cementing it as the crowning achievement of his career.
He believes his rewrite will finally win over the critics. For now, they don't believe that Kim is a worthy successor to his teacher who died tragically years ago. Of course, filming the rewrite is a different story, as the entire film revolves around the chaos of the cast and crew trying to work together to achieve a single goal.
The first problem is that the film doesn't give us any details about this rewrite, perhaps as a ploy to hook the audience and connect the dots. However, you have characters like Shin Mido (John Yeo-bin), the studio's CFO, who constantly waxes lyrical about this new rewrite, calling it one of the best stories he's ever had the privilege of reading. I want to agree with him, but I can't, because we never get a clear idea of what drives this burning passion, and we just have to take his word for it.
I understand. You can't name any character in the movie. "This is the best script I've ever read," and then figuring out what that script is first. There's a little mystery when it's this cold, right? After all, they prove it, and that's good. But imagine the power of getting a sense of this wonderfully contrived "revision" before the fact, rather than a false glimpse of the cast and crew's struggle to understand director Kim's vision. Then as a listener we might think it's really "good" or just rubbish.
It can also create a tension that can carry the film along. Will director Kim be able to stick to his original vision, given what we know about it? It basically highlights every change in the film that eluded the original rewrite, and will break our hearts as much as director Kim when the story becomes almost unrecognizable. Also, if the feedback is really bad, we are now in emotional tension waiting to get the questions answered; When will someone tell her she's really bad? Will it really be successful and critically acclaimed in the magic of cinema?
But again, since we don't know what the writing is, if the cast and crew are actually capable, we don't know if the director has compromised or given up on something, and that makes the audience less excited. . Being close to a film focused on the chaotic nature of collaboration, it felt like the characters just had to work together because we never found out what made them do it. They are just hollow pieces of a chess piece.
The spider's web seems to represent external conflicts and problems, but they have no lasting effect on the film; They are essentially obstacles to a predictable solution. Speaking of what's at stake, there must be a tight shooting window to rewrite, but it never feels that tight. Timing is said to be of the essence, but there's never the sense of impending doom that usually detracts from the quality of the cast and crew.
The actors also complain about how unbelievable and melodramatic the filming is, but oddly enough, this doesn't lead to any real conflict. They threaten to walk off the set, but those problems magically disappear thanks to some pretty shady tricks. The film becomes a constant game of breaking the rules and subverting the Korean censors, which I found quite interesting but flawed.
But what is most lacking is a realistic understanding of the consequences of all this malice. When they find a solution, it's as if it never happened and completely new problems arise; The next one. It doesn't feel organic. While things go wrong may seem staged and contrived, the premise is broken.
Always grateful for Meta-Film, I loved how dedicated it was to showing the finer details of filmmaking, the ins and outs of studio bureaucracy and government involvement. Watching the delicate dance between 1970s filmmakers and Korean censors holds a poignant irony of relativity even in the modern cinematic landscape.
The movie is interesting enough to have a lot of laughs and a fun time at the movies. It's the kind of movie you watch on Amazon Prime Video and forget about your life a week later. Luck becomes a certain satire of the film, creating great stories that can't help but be overly specific about their ideas, but that's just luck. We begin the adventure of funny daring predictions. As a result, I found it difficult to invest in any of the characters, as their development felt shallow.
All of this is to say that my criticisms don't really work for the final act of this film, which is where I think the story really goes. Krystal Jung gets a few moments to light up with some really funny scenes, cameraman Kim Ji Young gets even funnier with her camera moves, and Song Kang Ho eats up every moment. Climax "Device" will mark any movie. The enthusiast bites his nails and goes through the painful process of performing a long solo.
It was then that I realized that the last 20 minutes of the film could have served as an interesting, self-contained short film, in stark contrast to the initial monotony of boring details and the predictable outcome of the first half. -Rappler.com
"The Spider's Web" is now showing in Philippine cinemas nationwide.
