Cobweb – Trailer – SFF 23

Directed by Kim Jee-Woon | 2023 | South Korea
| 134 minutes | Unclassified 15+ |

Straight from Cannes, Kim Jee-woon’s (A Tale of Two Sisters, The Age of Shadows) latest is a deliriously funny and clever film about a director obsessed with re-shooting the end of his completed film. Stars Song Kang-ho (Parasite, SFF 2019).

It’s the 1970s, Director Kim Ki-yeol (Song) has just completed the shooting of his latest film and each night has dreams about scenes he didn’t shoot that would make his film perfect. In a restaurant he is taunted by film critics for always making “trashy, racy dramas”. There is only one solution for Director Kim – he needs just two more days for re-shoots and his film will be a masterpiece. But over at the Shinseong Film Studio there is no appetite whatsoever to allow him to do so. And there’s also a problem with the censors who would not look kindly upon re-shoots with an unauthorised script, especially one deemed by the studio head to be “anti-establishment, insulting to common decency, and decadent too!”. Using all his powers of persuasion, Kim gathers the reluctant cast and crew and begins his reshoot which quickly descends into chaos. Kim – plagued by self-doubt – will have to muster all his will to complete his masterpiece. Revered for his brilliant action films, director Kim Jee-woon here takes a deeply satisfying swerve into comedy. The result is not only extremely funny, but also a virtuoso portrayal of the torment involved in creating art.

The 70th Sydney Film Festival: 07-18 June 2023

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