2013 was an unusual year in South Korean cinema. Three of its biggest directors, Bong Joon-ho, Park Chan-wook, and Kim Jee-woon, all simultaneously attempted to break into the U.S. film market by making English-language movies. Bong’s Snowpiercer was moderately successful and became somewhat of a cult film. However, both Park’s Stoker and Kim’s The Last Stand, which featured Arnold Schwarzenegger in his first leading role since he became California’s governor, were both rare flops for the master directors.

In the decade since then, Bong has gone on to become one of the most respected directors in the world after the success of Parasite, and Park, although his output has slowed, has remained a prominent name with The Handmaiden (2016) and Decision to Leave (2022), which won him the Best Director award at Cannes. The third member of the big three, Kim Jee-woon, however, has seen his career slow down. After the critically successful historical thriller The Age of Shadows (2016) came the tepid action film Illang: The Wolf Brigade (2016) and an Apple TV+ series titled Dr. Brain, none of which made a splash in the international film scene.

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His upcoming film, however, could change things. Entitled Cobweb, it will mark a move away from the action genre, which has produced the director’s two most recent flops, and a return to his roots in the world of dark comedy. It will also star Song Kang-ho, who, after the success of Parasite, is now considered even in the United States as one of the world’s top actors. Cobweb could be just the fresh start that Kim Jee-woon needs to re-invigorate his legendary career.

Cobweb: The Plot

     Anthology Studio

Cobweb is about a director who is obsessed with perfecting one of his old movies (also titled Cobweb) that was released in the 1970s and decides to re-film it to change the ending. The casting credits of the real Cobweb hint that the film will focus on the behind-the-scenes struggles of the fictional director to get his movie made. Some of the major confirmed characters in the film include the director, several actresses/actors, a producer, a financier, a literary critic, and an assistant director. The film was written by Shin Yeon-shick.

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Given the film’s plot, one of the major questions that arise is whether or not the movie is semi-autobiographical. To summarize the premise, real-life director Kim Jee-woon, whose career has slowed down in recent years, is making a movie about a fictional director (also named Kim) obsessed with his older movies. Furthermore, one of the major roles in the film is played by Im Soo-jung, who starred in Kim Jee-woon’s A Tale of Two Sisters two decades ago.

The movie’s plot, which is reportedly both sad and comedic, also sounds like a marked return to some of Kim’s earlier work. His two first films, The Quiet Family (1998) and The Foul King (2000), are, above all, comedies about troubled and pathetic individuals. In the 22 years since The Foul King, Kim’s films have been much more serious. However, he occasionally imbues elements of comedic relief, his films are strongly located in either the horror or action genres. The fact that Kim seems to be returning to his early days with stronger elements of comedy, by casting Im Soo-jung, and by naming the protagonist Kim, all hint that the film may draw from Kim’s own experiences or, at the very least, be inspired by some of his own artistic drives.

The Cast

     CJ Entertainment

The leading role of the obsessive film director is played by Song Kang-ho, one of South Korea’s biggest actors. Song has starred in many of the most popular Korean films of the past two decades, including Shiri (1999), Joint Security Area (2000), The Host (2006), Snowpiercer (2013), and Parasite (2019). He also has a long-running relationship with Kim Jee-woon and has starred in more than half of the director’s films.

The role of the fictional film’s co-star will be filled by Im Soo-jung. Im is another prominent name associated with Kim Jee-woon; her breakthrough acting role was as the daughter in the movie that cemented Kim’s popularity, the psychological horror film A Tale of Two Sisters (2003). Since then, some of her credits include the TV drama I’m Sorry, I Love You (2004) and the romantic comedy All About My Wife (2012), which got her Best Actress at the Blue Dragon Film Awards.

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Oh Jung-se will star as a famous actor playing the male protagonist of the fictional film. Oh is a multiple award-winning actor in TV series such as Missing 9 (2017), When the Camellia Blooms (2019), Hot Stove League (2019), and It’s Okay to Not Be Okay (2020).

The other cast credits include Jeon Yeo-been (After My Death, Vincenzo, Night in Paradise) as the head of finance for the studio producing the obsessive director’s fictional film; K-pop star Krystal Jung as an up-and-coming actress; Jung In-ki as a colleague of the director; Jang Nam-yeol as a literary scholar; Park Jung-soo as one of the director’s regular actresses; Shin Sung-pil as the fictional film’s producer; and Kim Min-jae as an assistant director.

Release Date

     OCN

The film’s release date is not yet known. However, principal photography began on March 8, 2022, and completed on June 6, so it is likely that the film will not release until 2023.

Cobweb will be the first film from Kim Jee-woon’s new production company Anthology Studios, which he founded with Song Kang-ho and a production executive from Warner Bros. Korea, Jay Choi. According to Variety, the studio’s goal is to work with and mentor up-and-coming directors.