September 22, 2004

San Sebastian Dispatch. 4.

Spider Forest Once again, Juan Manuel Friere:

This morning, San Sebastian's film festival offered the opportunity to delve deep into the mysterious, head-spinning, mind-numbing Spider Forest, a curiosity from South Korea's Song Il-gon. Like Japanese master Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Il-gon spices up the thriller genre with bits of sci-fi, psychological drama and dirty realism, developing a challenging proposal which unnerves and fascinates. Deciphering the plot is almost impossible, but it's not exactly necessary when you're wrapped up in such powerful visuals. The film has a lyrical and violent style evoking emotive fascination and gruesome impact.

If I had to choose a directing award just now, I'd have no doubt.



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Posted by dwhudson at September 22, 2004 7:26 AM

Comments

You've got to see more Korean films ... I liked Spider Forest, but this scenario has been done and done better in recent days. A Tale of Two Sisters, for one ...

Posted by: Todd at September 22, 2004 9:24 AM

Hi Todd,

Thanks for your reccomendation, though I already see every Korean film I can--and then some. Do you really like "A tale of two sisters" so much? I found "Spider forest" a lot more challenging, especially in formal terms. But this country still has to surpass "Memento mori", by the way.

Posted by: Juan Manuel Freire at September 23, 2004 9:35 AM