Cobweb director hopes film will reignite audiences’ romance with cinema
TBA Studios has brought the South Korean dark comedy Cobweb to Philippine cinemas starting this week. It’s the latest offering from the local film production and distribution outfit in its succession of critically acclaimed and commercially successful foreign movies — including most recent releases Past Lives and Sound of Freedom — which they described as “best seen” in cinemas.
Cobweb, for one, world-premiered out of competition at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. It is produced by Anthology Studios and globally distributed by Barunson E&A, the same studio that produced the Oscar Best Film winner Parasite.
A satirical take on the business of making films, Cobweb follows the story of a ‘70s director Kim Yeol (played by Parasite’s Song Kang Ho) who’s obsessed with reshooting his recently-finished film after he dreams of a more powerful ending for his story. His insistence and persistence create a web of complications — from producers, government censors to actors — and hilarious situations on set.
Written and directed by Kim Jee Woon (A Tale Of Two Sisters, A Bittersweet Life, The Good, The Bad, The Weird), the film came from the director’s personal reflections on the struggles of the entire film industry, one of heaviest hit during the pandemic.
At the global virtual presscon for his film, director Kim said through an interpreter, “Through the global pandemic, everything came to a halt and the cinema industry was no exception. I think it wasn’t just me, but all over the world, everyone involved in the industry, including the creators, directors and actors, through COVID, everybody in their own way and through their own ideas, really got time to think about what cinema really means to them.”
“I am sure everyone has questions like, ‘What is cinema?’ and ‘What does film mean to me?’ I myself thought about it when I first fell in love with cinema: ‘What does film mean to me personally?’” he added.
Filming Cobweb, the director continued, served as a time for him to also “reignite and reconsider” his own love affair with cinema.
“It gave me time to self-reflect and also self-redefine and reestablish what cinema holds in my heart,” he expressed.
He hoped for the same impact for viewers by posing questions about their own relationship to cinema via the film.
“I tried to ask those questions through this film Cobweb,” he said. “And so I wanted this to be a film that allows you to really rekindle the love that you have for cinema — think about it once again.”
As for his fellow filmmakers, he wanted his film to be a form of encouragement in the face of post-pandemic challenges. “I’m sure that all filmmakers have gone through experiences where they were met with obstacles and hindrances. And they had to really break through that. All filmmakers not just in Korea but all around the world carry that narrative with them,” Kim said.
“I think I wanted it to be sort of an encouragement to not just me but to everyone who is involved in cinema all over the world to really rekindle that romance, as well as encourage yourself to move even further.”
Cobweb is backdropped by the ‘70s filmmaking milieu and for the director, the movie industry during that period could be comparable to the state of cinema after the pandemic.
“We went through the first Renaissance in the 1960s. And then in the 1970s, we had state censorship, and a little bit of forced production of certain establishment or government-forced movies. And so, we went through quite a dark time in K-cinema,” he said.
“If you look at the numbers, we used to have about 220 films per year. That dropped drastically in the ‘70s to about only 100 per year. And as for the per capita average amount that you would go to see a movie, the number dropped from 68 to two to three. That is actually very similar to what the Korean cinema is currently going through after the pandemic.
“Going through those dark times, during a very difficult time in K-cinema, I got to thinking, how did the directors or filmmakers that were senior to me break through those hard times? And how did they succeed in bringing about a second Renaissance?” he said.
“I came to really think about those things. And also by translating the spirit that our filmmakers had at that time that allowed them to break through those hardships into my film Cobweb, I felt like these days in Korea, we often say that what’s important is the undying spirit. And I wanted to show that through the character, director Kim Yeol.
“I thought that looking at what happened back in the ‘70s, and how the second Renaissance of Korean cinema was able to take place, I feel like now is a very good time to tell that story,” director Kim said.
Meanwhile, leading the film’s ensemble cast is Song Kang Ho, best-known for his widely extolled performance in Parasite (2019) and for a track record of breathing life into some of the most iconic characters in Korean cinema. In Cobweb, he’s playing a film director for the first time.
Delving into his approach to the character, he shared, “It’s not important to really focus on the profession of the film director itself… (but to) put more of my thoughts into really how to carry out that energy of wanting to push forth until the end in a confined space, with so many different characters, with one purpose and one goal of finishing this film.”
How realistic Song’s portrayal may be in this film within a film, he couldn’t imagine himself directing, a path undertaken by other actors.
“I think that the role of an actual film director, I believe it’s beyond my personal capabilities,” he said. “So, no. I would say that I do not have plans to sit in the director’s chair. What I have on my plate as an actor is enough (laughs).”
Song is a frequent collaborator of Kim. According to Korean press, it was the director who paved a different acting direction for the actor previously identified with gangster roles after he got him for his debut feature, the horror-comedy The Quiet Family. The filmmaker’s subsequent comedy-drama The Foul King, on the other hand, has been considered as the project that cemented Song’s leading-man status.
But even though they’ve done five films together in the span of 25 years, according to Song, each project would feel like a brand-new journey of cinema. “And every time, I get very excited and I have high hopes. I wonder what we are going to be taking on this journey? Are we going to be on a train? What are we going to be this time around?” said Song during the presscon.
“Of course, I always wonder what the destination is going to be. At times, I admit there is a sense of fear but more than that, there’s a huge sense of excitement and just anticipation. That was also the case this time.”
Song has his own theory as to why director Kim obviously likes casting him for his movies.
“I get asked this question a lot by the Korean press as well, as to what is my secret to working with director Kim for so many times,” he said before addressing the international media.
“I know all of you here today, the members of the press, you will look at me and think that I sort of represent the face or the look of the Korean male actor.
“But I have to say, I’m the least good-looking actor out here. There are so many good-looking Korean actors. I think it’s because of that aspect, the sort of being able to appear like an everyday man, that is the secret to director Kim casting me,” he quipped.
Cobweb also stars Lim Soo Jung (A Tale Of Two Sisters), Oh Jung Se (It’s Okay Not To Be Okay), Jeon Yeo Been (Vincenzo), Jang Young Nam (It’s Okay Not To Be Okay), Park Jung Soo (Marriage Contract), and Krystal Jung of the K-pop girl group f(x) (Sweet and Sour).
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