Product Details

• Actors: Seo Jeong-min, Son Byeong-ho, Kang Gyeong-heon, Jang Hyeon-seong, Gam Woo-seong
• Directors: Song Il-gon
• Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: Korean
• Subtitles: English, Spanish
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Studio: Tartan Video
• DVD Release Date: October 25, 2005
• Run Time: 120 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000ARXG68
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #99,098 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Remarkably Symbolic and Entangled Mystery Tale..., October 28, 2005

By 

Kim Anehall "www.cinematica.org" (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Spider Forest (DVD)

Spider Forest illustrates a twisted narrative that flutters with total freedom in several unexpected directions. Nothing is absolute in this tale, as the story applies flashbacks, time loops, and converging timelines. Past and future unite in the present while emotions color the moment in a unification of a cerebral mesh of dreams, thoughts, and feelings. Such promise surfaces in the opening shot where the camera zooms through a window on a mysterious character's back while staring out into a dark forest. Yet, the series of events follow a logically linear outline that surrounds a murder mystery in a haunted location. With this said, be warned, and do not take your eyes off the screen, as it might leave you lost in a cerebral maze.

A nightly excursion brings the protagonist, Kang Min (Woo-seong Kam), to a thick forest where he awakens in dirt and blood while trying to recapture his bearings. Simultaneously, the shadows playfully create imaginative characters among the vast number of bamboo trees that surrounds him. Stumbling, Min discovers an isolated cabin within the forest, which he approaches with watchful eyes. Min enters the cabin where he finds a severely lacerated male body, which shows signs of vicious struggle. In the adjacent room, he uncovers a young woman who holds onto life on a thin thread, which is no other than his own girlfriend. Alas, she dies in his arms, as he hears a strange noise from somewhere within the wood cottage. Vigilantly, Min investigates the sound, as he reveals that the killer is still on the premises. A short chase through the murky forest ends up with him being struck into unconsciousness once again.

Lightheaded and aimlessly Min awakens a second time while wandering into a lit tunnel. Inside the tunnel, he stops when he notices someone observing him. However, he is still too faint to make out who it is, and it distracts his limited attention to the dangers that lurk on the highways. And again Min ends up in a state of deep sleep induced by an accident from which he does not wake up from until medical doctors have attended to his severe head trauma. Min is left with his grave head injuries, as he slowly regains some foothold in reality and can alarm the police about the murders in the wood cabin.

Through intriguing flashbacks the story begins to unfold, as Min shares his faulty memory of the nightly excursion and his discovery of the murders. The flashbacks reveal that Min visited the forest due to an assignment to investigate some haunted circumstances of the forest. He also shares how he lost an old girl friend to a plane crash while information is exposed of an old murder that took place some twenty years ago in the woods. As the story goes on, the story becomes increasingly muddled, maybe it is the ghost of the forest that haunts him, or maybe it is simply his head injury that makes it difficult for Min to make out what is truth and what is fiction. Perhaps there is another reason that is waiting to be brought into daylight. Nonetheless, the truth does not reveal itself until the very final scene, and it keeps the viewer in thrilling suspense.

The story uses, as mentioned, a tangled storyline that expects to be untangled by the viewer through Min's slowly returning memory. It is a shrewd approach to the story that the director and writer Il-gon Song apply, as it forces the viewer to be as preoccupied with the truth as Min. At the same time, Song employs subtle clues and diversion that keeps the suspense lingering while the constant feeling of wickedness never leaves the mind. However, there are momentarily symbolic clues that seem to seep through Min's damage mind, which surface through inspiring scenes, framing and mise-en-scene. To capture these brief moments, the audience must, as previously warned, pay close attention to all aspects of this remarkable mystery tale.

22 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars What "Tale of Two Sisters" tried - and failed - to be: Brilliant, January 31, 2006

By 

UFO6 (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Spider Forest (DVD)

[N.B. - Contains thinly-veiled spoilers! Beware!]


I'm sitting here trying to think of what to say about this movie and what I'm getting is a stream of adjectives... Bewildering; brutal; heart-wrenching; astonishing; baffling; mind-bending; ingenious; perplexing; poetic...

And that's weird because when I'd finished watching (about an hour ago,) it was something I hadn't decided whether to love or hate. Thankfully, with some serious thought and a vital clue I got from somebody else, I was able to unravel my confusion, clear away some of the, er, cobwebs, and discard the latter option. Or maybe I'm just dense. 8^D "Spider Forest" is a truly remarkable story and an unexpected gem of a psychological mystery-thriller - that just happens to elevate "thought-provoking" to the "rip out your hair" level. I can't wait to dive into a second helping.

There are a dozen utterly perplexing paradoxes in this story, the most significant of which involves the intentional confusion of the protagonist's character with another, creating an inescapable time-loop - which left me shaking my head and talking to the screen like a lunatic. A similar paradox involving a different major character had me hitting pause - so as to ponder the implications of it all. When I resumed, it soon became evident that these complex twists and turns were to be regular occurrences. But unlike... another recent Korean thriller, in "Spider Forest" the wrenching, mind-blowing plot twists had a definite, calculated, and most importantly, logical purpose: To weave an intricate puzzle around one solid, definite final truth whose eventual revelation unfolds with the elegance and dramatic impact of a symphony. Remember how the UFO tune "Love to Love" ends? Schenker's heady, stratospheric crescendo that finally - and abruptly - crashes to Earth with a finality that leaves you physically shaken? The ending of "Spider Forest" is a lot like that, one of the most artful finishes of a film I've seen since the final seconds of "Blood Simple" (yet completely unlike it.)

The mood is as relentless and emotionally edgy as that of the Mickey Roarke film "Prayer for the Dying"; the photography is dark and atmospheric without being either contrived or openly depressing; the acting is great all around; the supernatural tinges are understated enough to allow the film to be classified as a completely non-supernatural mystery, yet serve to tie the story threads together comfortably and seamlessly - something that would likely have been botched in the hands of a lesser writer/director.

The real star of the show is of course the story itself. It's a brilliant, circular thing that reminds me of Pink Floyd's "Wall" or maybe just that circular, intertwined knot on the cover of King Crimson's classic "Discipline." As it progresses you're kept in a constant state of agitation - that gnawing feeling that there's something vital you've missed (and in fact you will have,) something you can almost get a handle on but not quite - just as the next tidbit of knowledge passes before you, then quickly flits away before you can get a grasp of it. The overall effect is to leave you in something of a daze - not a daze of disgust for a puzzle that's insoluble by design (like... another recent Korean thriller,) but rather the healthy agitation of grappling with a worthy challenge to your intellect.

That, folks, is great storytelling.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very Complex Murder Mystery: Terrific Cinematography!, December 3, 2006

By 

Ernest Jagger (Culver City, California) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Spider Forest (DVD)

The less said about this film, the better. To say too much would give away the film, and thus ruin it for those who have not seen this film. The film itself is circular in nature: Both the past and present are one in this film. When I first viewed this film last year, I was a bit confused, however, with subsequent viewings I began to understand the film much more. It does require repeated viewings, and may not appeal to all viewers. I know this because many people I have recommended this film to did not like it. Therefore, caution is advised when viewing this film.

The main character in the film, Kang, (Gam Woo-sung) who portrays both the protagonist and antagonist, stumbles across a cabin deep inside a forest, where he finds a man and a woman brutally attacked in this cabin. As he chases the attacker he is hit by a car. Kang remains in critical condition at the hospital after brain surgery, and finds that he is the primary suspect in the brutal attack and murder of the man and woman in the cabin. What ensues is a mind trip for the viewer, as Kang attempts to piece together the missing gaps in his memory. This is a very complex film, and where the truth leads Kang is one hell of a nightmare.