As this movie has an ending that is left to multiple interpretations of what actually happened and what does it mean, please feel free to post what you got out of the movie and how you were able to make it make sense from what was shown and said...
Have fun!
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that's a really good interpretation - I agree that the young boy means he has escaped the forest and that Min Su-jin is indeed 'outside looking in' so to speak - but here's my one nagging question: how did he end up in the hospital to begin with - was he really struck by a truck? Or am I being too literal there? - a great film though - the last five minutes were truly beautiful
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One detail that no one seems to have noticed: The car that struck him in the tunnel was the same car he drove on the assignment to Spider Forest.
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A few years since we discussed this film but I thought of something the other day, when I re watched it...I still love this film :)
Actually goes together with this comment:
by peter-209 (Mon Dec 24 2007 21:49:01)
One detail that no one seems to have noticed: The car that struck him in the tunnel was the same car he drove on the assignment to Spider Forest.
Aw, your buns smell like lox, honey! I can smell them. From here!share
I have a similar understanding of this movie, dalifemme77.
But there are several things which don't fit. For instance, who was the guy who called Kang? Was it his own future soul which sort of travelled back in time to give his former self some clues?
Who is the guy who attacked him in the forest and took his purse and his ID? Kang himself?
Are Kang and Min Sujin from the photo-shop siblings?
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The soul of the adult Min Sujin tells Kang that her father has taken all the pictures that are displayed on the wall in the photo-shop. He died long time ago and she has taken over the shop.
Towards the end we learn I think from Min and Kang's former school teacher that Kang's father who was a teacher at the same school took his son just after half a year there, moved away and opened a photo-shop.
When the police are searching through the deserted and dusty old photo-shop, one of the investigators informs the chief, that the former photo-shop owner had a son who had the same name as the chief's friend, namely Kang.
Maybe I'm mixing up some things, but I concluded that Min and Kang are siblings or half-siblings if they have the same father. But this makes the whole story even more complicated.
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That's a smart interpretation.
So it wasn't the girl who lived with her mother in the house in the spider forest, but the boy Kang... His father then killed his mother and her lover when Kang was watching from the closet (or whatever it was)?
Would the father have been able to leave that area with his son so easily when it was him who committed the murders?
This film is really an enigma. Just when you thought you have it all mapped out, other questions pop out which don't fit. I sometimes wonder if there is a logical solution to this movie riddle at all. Maybe the director wanted his film to be very vague without a clear denouement.
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ah, I think you are correct here - this makes much more sense than there being two sets of murders - plus it helps Kang remember Min later
and thanks for the reply to my 'car' question above - I think you are correct with that insight too
think I'll wait a few more days and then read all the posts and watch the movie again
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I think I understand the film a little more with this thread after having read it. I was totally confused when I finished the film. Now less so. It was still a beutifully filmed movie. I cannot recall an American film filmed this well
shareI actually got the impression that the part with Min's parents being murdered wasn't necessarily in the story that Min told Kang. Remember that what happened in the photo-shop was told by Kang to his police friend. I thought that the events got jumbled up in his memory, and he infused the murder (of his wife and boss) into the story he had been told by Min.
shareIf the man they saw inside the closet was Kang's father, Min may be his half sister. They everybody has told the truth?
Note: we were never shown how Min died, or even when. All we saw was a flying Min.
about the plane crash and kang's wife. it did happen. did you notice the wedding ring on his hand? and that he was totally drunk and indifferent when he first met the girlfriend (recovering from the sorrow of the crash).
my questions:
1. did the plane crashed in spider forest?
2. is the girl friend the ghost of his wife (i am not too good at recognizing faces), if so, he was only reminded of the crash after he has taken the cobweb drug. if that is true, he was telling his girlfriend about the crash as a dream, while it was actually his memory. he remember the crash but did not remember the face of his wife.
3. if we take that everything mentioned somehow happened (although maybe told in a misleading way), then why Min's father was also on the plane? did she just go there to meet Kang? (no dad photo was shown in the funeral)
I posted this originally to another thread here - there's an explanation posted in the "Comments" area by "eaveta" that makes the whole film ingeniously simple:
Everything that happens in the film, from the point where Kang is hit by the truck in the tunnel to the point where he awakens from the coma, is his dreams. The "Spider Forest" is a euphemism for: Kang's subconscious. Many, many thanks to eaveta for giving us this tip.
That's the explanation for the impossible time loops and the whole construct of his wife's dying in a plane crash. All of that stuff is going on in his subconscious, not reality - mentally he's in denial of his murder of his boss and his wife. It's only when he goes into the cave, through the door and into the tunnel to confront himself that he finally comes face to face with the reality of his crime.
Watch the film again with that in mind, and all the pieces will fall into place. If you think of it from this perspective, the film has a masterful mixture of paradoxical complexity in the dreams, with a deceptively simple overarching truth.
That too may not be the actual meaning Il-gon Song intended, but to me it's the most plausible by far.
Thank you for reminding us of this. I personally love movies that require some effort on the part of the viewer to solve puzzles, but this film had me more frustrated than any other movie upon my first viewing. I think I now know why this happened. I was attempting to piece together different scenes that were NOT INTENDED TO BE PIECED TOGETHER AS IF THEY WERE ACTUAL EVENTS. If Kang was really unconscious throughout the vast majority of the movie, then the scenes can be interpreted allegorically, symbolically, philosophically, or even psychologically; but they simply do not fit together properly as actual events.
Despite my frustrations during my first viewing, I still thought this movie was good. Now I am ready to revisit it with a fresh perspective, and hopefully I will enjoy it even more.
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good insight, thanks!! reminds me of the complexity of the subtext of Eyes Wide Shut & Mulholand Drive
shareI really really (can I stress really?) dislike that interpretation. And I don't see where ingenious comes in. It's just the most obvious one. A lot of movies have done that ending before. I was really liking the movie until I got to the end. Then I became really pissed off. I had just seen a movie the night before (yesterday) with the same type, or rather exact same ending, complete with the last shot of him waking up in the hospital. The movie I watched the night before was a solid 8 (out of 10) up until the ending then shot down to a 5. Would've been much better without it. So when I was watching this movie and the same ending came up I was almost ready to snap the dvd in half. But I must say, a couple of interpretation on here have saved my view of the movie. I like dalifemme's interp and really like vzrusto's.
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"Don't argue with a fool. The spectators can't tell the difference."
Thanks :) And I STILL think the film has a deeper meaning. It's not just a "dream"...
This one really annoyed me:
If you think of it from this perspective, the film has a masterful mixture of paradoxical complexity in the dreams, with a deceptively simple overarching truth.
Aw, your buns smell like lox, honey! I can smell them. From here!share
Totally agree.
share"Everything that happens in the film, from the point where Kang is hit by the truck in the tunnel to the point where he awakens from the coma, is his dreams."
But before he is hit by the truck, several other things have happened to Kang: he visited the house, found the bodies, etc. How does this theory explain them? In other words what happens to Kang outside the dream, BEFORE being hit by the truck?
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I'm pretty sure the plane crash happened, they said it was in osaka, and he was wearing a wedding band throughout the whole movie...
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great interpretations. my initial take was the kang had a near death experience and was able to see the dead because of it. something like maybe he was in a coma and he couldn't wake up until he released the girl from spider forest and he would stay in the coma repeating that scene until he freed her, which he does at the end and wakes up.
shareThat makes sense too. I never really looked at it from that perspective...
Aw, your buns smell like lox, honey! I can smell them. From here!share
I took the boy in the story to be Kang. Min was trying to get him to remember that he killed is girlfriend and their boss. The forest is purgatory.
Remember when she says that the person who is trapped in Spider Forest has their memory erased? That they don’t know why they’re there. And that there is one way to escape, which was for someone to remember them. The people in Spider Forest are people who were not loved by anyone. Kang was there because nobody loved him (and he was a murderer). Min was there because the only person who loved her (her dad) was dead. So for Kang to remember her releases her from Spider Forest. Kang is doomed to live the story over and over until the end of time because no one loves him…..right?
If you agree to the above reasoning, here’s a question for you. Wouldn’t the cop, his friend, release him from the Forest by remembering him? What was the point of the cop character?
Very confusing flick; I absolutely loved it. It’s right up there with A Tale of Two Sisters for me in regards to Korean cinema.
Yes, I think Spider Forest is purgatory for some but for others just a limbo.
I don't think it needs to be a loved one who can free you. I think it's kind of a "limbo" for the lost souls. Kang could not be released until he remembered his crime. Min, needed someone to remember her, not because of her crimes but because of her lonely life. And I think she was put there as a "guardian angel" for Kang.
Aw, your buns smell like lox, honey! I can smell them. From here!share
If anything the film has at least stimulated some very good discussion on here.
At first viewing this film led me all over the place, which although fascinating when you have time to sit back and analyse it is a tad frustrating when you just want to enjoy the movie.
Interesting to see a though provoking psychological thriller from South Korea.
For those who loved this movie, I'd like to recommend 'Triangle' (2009). I am sure you all will love it too.
shareAnybody else think Kang and Min had the same father? Min's mother was the mistress in the woods and Kang's father visited her there?
shareSo, I just watched this movie again (second time) and this time, I decided to read the comments and visit the boards because once again this movie has me wanting to hit myself in the head with a hammer. I have a sort of love/hate relationship with it.
Cat, I don't think Min and Kang were related, I think they were friends, that the teacher remembered that much correctly and that Min died of pneumonia.
What I thought *might* have been the truth about Min's mother and father (the murder the children saw and the teacher saying that Min's mother left them for another man) is that it was either:
Min's father did kill her mother in a fit of jealous rage and hid the body then came up with the story of the mother leaving them;
or Kang's father was having an affair with Min's mother ... and this is kind of twisted, but ... Min's father was away most of the time, so Min and her mother were staying in the house with Kang and his father, again they're are having an affair. But Min's father finds out where they are staying, next thing you know they fall into bed together (drunk?), Kang's father comes home and finds this and HE kills Min's mother and for whatever reason her father agrees to the story that the mother has run off.
I know, that doesn't make much sense, but there's alot of this movie that leaves you going *Huh?". That's the love/hate part. I don't need or want to be spoon-fed a plot, but more than the vague hints would be nice in places too. I love the look, the feel, the atmosphere and the actors in this movie; I hate that it almost makes me feel stupid because I just don't entirely "get" it.
Every time you close your eyes, you'll see me. I'll be in your nightmares every night
I think that this movie shows us a dream,a dream of a troubled man who is uncapable of dealing with his sorrow and his lifes misery,he cannot accept reality and doesn't have the power to move on with his life.From the beginning to the end this movie is a mosaic of events that really happened and of imaginary pictures and things that only take place in a dream world,creating a very complexe story where truth is very well hidden and our hero struggles to find in order to liberate himself from the past.This battle takes place in his mind,in a dark place where lost memories hide and is called the Spider Forest.The first time i watched this film i thought it was a mystery thriller and i tried to find clues and hidden messages,a vain effort to understand what is happening.What happened in reality?What happened in his dream?Well,it doesn't matter that much.What matters is that he must deal with his grief,his sorrow,his guilt and face the things that he hides from himself.The ultimate goal is to forgive himself.Sounds easy yet most of the times this is the hardest part.And the sadest part is that he fails to do so and he must go back again.
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