Spider Forest
Encyclopedia
Spider Forest is a 2004
South Korea
n psychological thriller
written and directed by Song Il-gon
.
Before he could save his loved one, Min is caught off guard by the killer who unexpectedly emerges and dashes out of the cabin. Min grabs the sickle and pursues the dark figure through the shadowy woods of the Spider Forest, only to be temporarily knocked out with a blunt blow to the face. Min, being disoriented and slightly dazed, sees the killer enter into a tunnel on a road nearby and stumbles after him. Yet upon entering the tunnel, a speeding SUV collides with Min and throws him to the ground, severely injured by the impact.
As he lies on the pavement with his blood streaming across the ground, the dark figure approaches Min and stands mere inches away, as if mocking his inability to capture him. Min extends his arm, desperately trying to grab him, but in vain and he soon loses consciousness...
Min wakes-up fourteen days later at a local hospital with his head heavily bandaged. His friend, a police detective named Choi, is at his bedside to both comfort and question him about the murders. Min discovers that he, in fact, is the prime suspect of the killings due to his fingerprints being on the sickle that he picked up and his relationship with the victims. Choi, wanting to believe in his friend's innocence, asks Min to tell him everything that had happened leading up to the brutal crime. Weaving in and out of consciousness, Min tries to reconstruct the bizarre events, but it proves to be a too difficult task. Min finds that there are some details he cannot remember, while other details he can't even be sure they actually happened. The boundary between dreams and reality become blurred as he tries to piece together his enigmatic past in an effort to complete a puzzle that will, hopefully, prove his innocence...
2004 in film
The year 2004 in film involved some significant events. Major releases of sequels took place. It included blockbuster films like Shrek 2, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, The Passion of the Christ, Meet the Fockers, Blade: Trinity, Spider-Man 2, Alien vs. Predator, Kill Bill Vol...
South Korea
South Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
n psychological thriller
Psychological thriller
Psychological thriller is a specific sub-genre of the broad ranged thriller with heavy focus on characters. However, it often incorporates elements from the mystery and drama genre, along with the typical traits of the thriller genre...
written and directed by Song Il-gon
Song Il-gon
Song Il-gon is a South Korean film director and screenwriter known for his international award-winning early short films, and later feature films such as Spider Forest and Feathers in the Wind...
.
Plot
Awaking alone in the middle of a dark forest, Kang Min sees a secluded cabin nearby and wanders towards it. Upon entering the small home, he is shocked to discover a brutal, bloody crime had taken place. A man, hacked repeatedly by a sickle, lies on the floor, dead. Min hears a noise nearby and discovers his girlfriend Su-Young, stabbed and nearly dead, stammering something about "spiders."Before he could save his loved one, Min is caught off guard by the killer who unexpectedly emerges and dashes out of the cabin. Min grabs the sickle and pursues the dark figure through the shadowy woods of the Spider Forest, only to be temporarily knocked out with a blunt blow to the face. Min, being disoriented and slightly dazed, sees the killer enter into a tunnel on a road nearby and stumbles after him. Yet upon entering the tunnel, a speeding SUV collides with Min and throws him to the ground, severely injured by the impact.
As he lies on the pavement with his blood streaming across the ground, the dark figure approaches Min and stands mere inches away, as if mocking his inability to capture him. Min extends his arm, desperately trying to grab him, but in vain and he soon loses consciousness...
Min wakes-up fourteen days later at a local hospital with his head heavily bandaged. His friend, a police detective named Choi, is at his bedside to both comfort and question him about the murders. Min discovers that he, in fact, is the prime suspect of the killings due to his fingerprints being on the sickle that he picked up and his relationship with the victims. Choi, wanting to believe in his friend's innocence, asks Min to tell him everything that had happened leading up to the brutal crime. Weaving in and out of consciousness, Min tries to reconstruct the bizarre events, but it proves to be a too difficult task. Min finds that there are some details he cannot remember, while other details he can't even be sure they actually happened. The boundary between dreams and reality become blurred as he tries to piece together his enigmatic past in an effort to complete a puzzle that will, hopefully, prove his innocence...
Cast
- Gam Wu-seongGam Wu-seongKam Wu-seong is a South Korean film actor. He achieved critical acclaim for his portrayal in The King and the Clown of a court acrobat serving a despotic king.He had a major in Oriental painting of Seoul National University....
... Kang Min - Kang Kyeong-heon ... Hwang Su-yeong
- Suh Jung ... Min Su-jin
- Jang Hyeong-seong ... Choi Seong-hyeon
- Son Byung-ho ... Kim Cheol-ju
Screenplay
- Writer/director Song had originally written a script that thoroughly explained the mystery driving the plot, then deliberately removed as much of that explanation as he thought he could get away with.
- His storytelling method is very much from the European arthouse mode: he leaves the answers, the interpretation, up to the audience.
- Director Song on the script:
- The director also "brought a lot of mythology into Spider Forest, like Orpheus."
Budget issues
- The film's budget was US $1.3 million, which is low for a Korean film. The average is usually around $3 million.
- Director Song said it was very difficult to get the money to make and finish the film.
- Thirty percent of the money came from KOFIC [Korean Film Commission]
- Director Song adds, "The government supported it, which was very important."
Actors' pay
- Actress Suh Jung accepted a back-end deal in lieu of a large up-front salary. Suh Jung received very little compensation for her points contract, which was only tied to domestic release.
- Leading man Kam Woo-sung's salary was 20 percent of the film's production budget, about US$260,000.
Box office
- The film encountered difficulties in finding a domestic audience. It gained little more than 30,000 admissions in Seoul, one-tenth of the average (Korean pictures averaged more than 300,000 admissions in Seoul in 2004).
- According to Song, it was successfully sold to various foreign territories at the European Film Market.
- Total South Korea Box Office: 83,411 admissions.
Domestic
- The film's short domestic run received scant attention from local critics.
- The Korea Herald astutely, but disapprovingly, referred to the film as a “a jigsaw puzzle with some of its pieces missing”, calling attention to Song's intentional plot-trimming strategies.
- The Korean Times said the film was "a web of psychological twists and turns that will leave you trying to get untangled long after you leave the theater." The review added, "The story does get pretty muddled at times but at its best moments the film is as frightening an experience as they come."
- The Dong-A Daily News describes the film as "an unusual movie that drives audiences to solve a puzzle that never ends... [It] belongs to the mystery thriller genre, but its sophisticated editing makes the movie devoid of fast story development, the major feature of a mystery thriller."
International
- Due to distribution on multiple film festival circuits (not to mention an extensive release on DVD by Tartan VideoTartan FilmsPalisades Tartan is a US and UK film distribution company, founded by US-based Palisades Media Group to take over the film library of Tartan Films after it folded in Summer 2008.-History:...
), the film received more attention from international critics than it received from its own country. - Eye WeeklyEye WeeklyEye Weekly was a free weekly newspaper published in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was owned by Torstar, the parent company of the Toronto Star, and was published by their Star Media Group until its final issue on May 5, 2011. The following week, Torstar launched a successor publication, The Grid.-...
, which reviewed the film at The International Toronto Film Festival, referred to the film as a "supernatural thriller" with "a dark look, a genuinely puzzling (and engrossing) set-up, and a couple of memorable ghostly passages." However, it asks in a condescending manner, "Why can't it make even a lick of sense?" - Twitch also reviewed the film at The International Toronto Film Festival, describing it as "well written, well executed and well shot," but concludes by stating, "the film as a whole somehow ends up being slightly less than the sum of its parts."
Film festivals
- 2004 CannesCannesCannes is one of the best-known cities of the French Riviera, a busy tourist destination and host of the annual Cannes Film Festival. It is a Commune of France in the Alpes-Maritimes department....
Film Market - 2004 San Sebastián International Film FestivalSan Sebastián International Film FestivalThe San Sebastián International Film Festival is an annual FIAPF A category film festival held in the Spanish city of San Sebastián .-History:The festival was founded in 1953...
- 2004 Toronto Film Festival
- 2005 Adelaide Film FestivalAdelaide Film FestivalThe Adelaide Film Festival is a biennial and non-competitive film festival held over two weeks in late February, in Adelaide, South Australia....
- 2005 Hong Kong International Film FestivalHong Kong International Film FestivalThe Hong Kong International Film Festival is a platform for filmmakers, film professionals and filmgoers from all over the world to launch and experience new film work. There are seminars, conferences, exhibitions, and parties celebrating the festival community...
- 2005 Cognac Film Festival
- 2005 New York Korean Film FestivalNew York Korean Film FestivalThe New York Korean Film Festival was created by Korean Film Forum and Subway Cinema in 2001. In 2002, the Korean Film Forum took over full responsibility for the New York Korean Film Festival, while Subway Cinema focused on the creation of the New York Asian Film Festival.The Korean Film Forum was...
- 2006 Amsterdam Fantastic Film Festival
Release dates
- FranceFranceThe French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
- 13 May 2004 (CannesCannes Film FestivalThe Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...
Film Market) - SpainSpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
- September, 2004 (San Sebastián Film Festival) - South KoreaSouth KoreaThe Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
- 3 September 2004 - CanadaCanadaCanada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
- 11 September 2004 (Toronto Film Festival) - AustraliaAustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
- 20 February 2005 (Adelaide Film Festival) - Hong KongHong KongHong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
- 25 March 2005 (Hong Kong International Film Festival) - FranceFranceThe French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
- 8 April 2005 (Cognac Film Festival) - JapanJapanJapan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
- 9 April 2005 - NetherlandsNetherlandsThe Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
- 25 April 2006 (Amsterdam Fantastic Film Festival)
Awards
- Award: 2004 - Nominated - Golden Seashell - San Sebastián International Film Festival
- Award: 2004 - Nominated - Best Supporting Actress (Kang Gyeong-Heon) - Korean Film Awards (MBC)
- On the top ten Korean films for 2004 by Koreanfilm.org
External links
- Spider Forest at the Korean Movie Database
- Spider Forest at HanCinema
- Don't Forget Him When He's Cool - An Interview with director Song Il-gon regarding his film Spider Forest
- Song Il-goon: The Wound Inside - Mike Walsh interviews Korean filmmaker Song Il-gon