The Asian Cut
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Donate
  • Reviews
  • Features
    • Essays
    • Interviews
    • Columns
      • Criterion Recollection
      • The Queer Dispatch
    • Series
  • Literary
  • Contact Us
    • Write For Us
No Result
View All Result
The Asian Cut
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Donate
  • Reviews
  • Features
    • Essays
    • Interviews
    • Columns
      • Criterion Recollection
      • The Queer Dispatch
    • Series
  • Literary
  • Contact Us
    • Write For Us
No Result
View All Result
The Asian Cut
No Result
View All Result

HKAFF 2023: ‘Cobweb’ Untangles The Magic of Movie Making

Calvin Law by Calvin Law
October 30, 2023
0
Song Kang-ho as Kim Ki-yeol standing in front of a group with his hand out stretched in the movie Cobweb.

Photo Courtesy of the Hong Kong Asian Film Festival

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

At some point in many an auteur’s career, there seems to be an urge to make a film about filmmaking, often from the perspective of a director. This time around, prolific Korean director Kim Jee-woon turns his hand to this films-about-filmmaking sub-genre with his latest, Cobweb.

Frequent Kim collaborator Song Kang-ho plays our protagonist, director Kim Ki-yeol, who suddenly comes upon a burst of inspiration to re-shoot his latest film, the titular Cobweb, over the course of two days with the aim of turning the film into a masterpiece. Hurdles arise — from actor scheduling conflicts to dealing with the not unfounded concerns of the studio and the bureaucracies of state censorship. Nothing seems to faze Ki-yeol, though, who plunges headfirst into a mad, obsessive journey to craft this magnum opus that his collaborators struggle to make sense of.

Although ostensibly a character study of Ki-yeol from the outset, Kim soon branches off from this starting point to examine all the moving, chaotic parts of film production, which is where the film finds its success. Kim excels in letting the humour of scenes gradually build out through arguments between cast and crew, director and producers. When conflicts erupt, often due to people usurping the roles of others or questioning Ki-yeol’s increasingly ludicrous demands, it’s often hilarious.

There’s also much enjoyment to be found in the side gags, with a recurring bit involving a method actor detective sneaking around the set being a particular delight. The scattershot, episodic structure of Cobweb works well in favour of its humour and gags, but perhaps less so for conveying the personal journey at its core.

The film sometimes loses some of the dramatic pull of Ki-yeol’s determination to craft his directorial vision. It’s to the characteristically dependable Song’s credit that his sturdy, gruffly humorous performance can still make sense of the jumbled proceedings and ensure this arc is still coherent, if not as potent as it could be. And by the time the film crew starts putting its final touches on the grand, fiery climactic set piece that completes his vision, it’s hard not to be swept up in it all. Cinematographer Kim Ji-yong, another frequent collaborator of Kim’s and who shot Park Chan-wook’s gorgeous Decision to Leave, finds enthralling ways of capturing the chaos on set by emphasising the sheer scale and messy grandeur.

Outside of Song, there are several standouts in a uniformly solid ensemble. Im Soo-jung, Park Jung-soon, and Krystal Jung all play their varying comedic wavelengths as actresses struggling to make sense of their director’s chaotic vision effectively. Oh Jung-se as the irresponsible playboy leading man and Jeon Yeo-been as the niece of Chairman Baek, played by Jang Young-nam, Kim’s enabler and financier, overplay a few moments but also have some fantastic ones to balance it out.

It’s Jung Woo-sung, though, who stands out the most in a particular scene as Ki-yeol’s late mentor Director Shin. In this one sequence, he articulates the sheer madness of a director’s pursuit of perfection with comical precision but also a strangely moving conviction to the madness. There’s a greatness to this scene that the rest of Cobweb can’t quite attain, but overall stands as an enjoyable showcase of virtuoso filmmaking that just about carries its scattered ideas to a satisfying finish.

Now Streaming On

JustWatch
Tags: CobwebHKAFF 2023Hong Kong Asian Film FestivalKim Jee-woonSong Kang-hoSouth Korea
ShareTweetShare
Calvin Law

Calvin Law

Calvin Law is an amateur film critic. He has completed a master's degree in film studies in the United Kingdom, and is currently based in Hong Kong. Calvin runs his own personal film blog, Reel and Roll Films, and his interest in spotlighting Asian and Asian diaspora stories led him to write for The Asian Cut. All of Calvin's content for Reel and Roll Films and other publications can be found on his Linktree.

Related Posts

Choi Min-sik in Exhuma
Reviews

‘Exhuma’ Unearths More Than Bones

March 30, 2025
Photo collage of Chris Evans as Curtis Everett in Snowpiercer and Choi Woo-shik as Kim Ki-woo in Parasite.
Essays

Class Warfare in Bong Joon Ho’s ‘Snowpiercer’ and ‘Parasite’

March 9, 2025
Robert Pattinson as Mickey Barnes in a space suit, holding his helmet in a snowy landscape in Mickey 17.
Reviews

‘Mickey 17’ Has Bong Joon Ho Written All Over It 

March 7, 2025
A haenyeo diver of South Korea’s Jeju Island in “The Last of the Sea Women.”
Reviews

‘The Last of the Sea Women’ Explores a Life Measured by the Tide

March 2, 2025
Cover design of Snowy Day and Other Stories with author Lee Chang-dong
Literary

‘Snowy Day and Other Stories’ Portrays the Social Despair of 1980s South Korea

February 19, 2025
Author Rina Olsen and her latest novel The Water Stricken
Interviews

Weaving Heritage and Myth: Rina Olsen on ‘The Water Stricken’

October 25, 2024
Next Post
Carlo Aquino as Eric and Gio Gahol as Carlo standing next to each other in an elevator in the animated movie The Missing.

‘The Missing’ Is a Profound Rotoscope Journey of Acceptance and Healing

RECENT POSTS

Kôji Yakusho as Shohei Sugiyama and Tamiyo Kusakari as Mai Kishikawa dancing in a dance class in Shall We Dance?

The Choreography of Trust: Masayuki Suô and Kusakari Tamiyo on ‘Shall We Dance?’

by Lauren Hayataka
June 1, 2025

Headshot of director Jerome Yoo

Director Jerome Yoo Discusses His Journey from Short Films to His Debut Feature, ‘Mongrels’

by Rose Ho
May 28, 2025

Rima Zeidan as Hsu Zi-qi sitting on the edge of a bed in Missing Johnny.

‘Missing Johnny’: A Quiet, Yet Impactful, Character Study of Everyday Living

by Wilson Kwong
May 25, 2025

Han Gi-chan, Youn Yuh-jung, and Kelly Marie Tran in The Wedding Banquet.

‘The Wedding Banquet’ Is Less Feast, More Cosy Potluck

by Rose Ho
April 25, 2025

Ally Chiu as Shaowu stands across from Jack Kao as Keiko at an airport with a full luggage trolly between them in The Gangster's Daughter.

‘The Gangster’s Daughter’ Avoids Tropes and a Committed Direction

by Wilson Kwong
April 9, 2025

  • Home
  • About Us
  • Reviews
  • Features
  • Literary
  • Contact Us

Copyright © The Asian Cut 2025. All rights reserved.
Privacy Policy | Terms of Use

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Donate
  • Reviews
  • Features
    • Essays
    • Interviews
    • Columns
      • Criterion Recollection
      • The Queer Dispatch
    • Series
  • Literary
  • Contact Us
    • Write For Us