So the film starts out with a guy named Kang, who just seems to be having a bad life. First his wife dies in a plane crash and then he finds two dead bodies in a cabin. We learn later that these bodies belong to his boss and his trouser bowser enjoying girlfriend. Kang initially cries but hears somebody in the house and spots the little bastard. In a creepy chase through a creepy forest (Spider Forest no less) he gets tripped up and the killer evades him. But not only does poor ol' Kang get smashed in the head by the killer with a log, he gets smashed by a car and in turn almost dies. After getting patched up at the doctor's office, he tells the doctor to get him the police. A police officer (name escapes me) comes in and has some sort of a small friendship with Kang and they go over in detail how Kang came to where he was and events that led up to these moments. We learn of Kang's girlfriend, his dead wife, his job and the legend of the Spider Forest itself.

What's excellent about this film is that if you have the balls to actually pay attention to this flick, it'll pay off. The story moves like a dream almost, Kang relays his story onto the police officer and we learn of a simple man who deals with his loss like most do. There are many smaller stories as well, such as the legend of the Spider Forest which tells that unloved souls go to the forest until they are remembered or loved again. It captures your interest with giving you something to go by as a smaller piece of information that is dealt out every moment. It's not really a "detective" story where it's more of a mystery saga that doesn't try to rely on a bunch of random gore-infested shits to catch your ADD-fueled mind. Kang's a likable guy and we follow him in regular life and when he begins to find out more and more about the Spider Forest and what actually went down at the cabin. But Kang goes into hyper mode and he begins to doubt himself and his own memory at times. The psychological aspects of this film gives us conclusion after conclusion that tries to argue the fact that we might be watching fiction. The point of this is that the director doesn't try to follow the hokey fucking attempt to explain everything we see with some dead girl calling people on a phone or something: it goes the way I wouldn't have expected it to go.

The visuals in this film are also outstanding, there are a few hidden secrets along the way. There's a scene where Kang peels a dead leaf off of a table and it leaves an imprint that looks like a heart. There's a whole bunch of that stuff going on in this film and you can definitely see it. Some great direction is also added which makes the film even more like a dream, from vast shots of the countryside to some horribly violent situations (Stabbed in the neck with a sickle? Yee haw), it's all top notch. The only crappy fact that this film has is that it is named "Spider Forest" (Doesn't that sound to you like a stupid fucking movie with ten foot spiders jerking each other off and spewing poison slime at people? Hopefully it doesn't, because that's just nasty). The music is pretty haunting as well, it fits the scenes that it accompanies.

The film asks some interesting questions as well. "Are we living a constant string of memories? How can we really tell what's what?" The film relies on it's ending to cement the fact that there are two separate problems that could have occurred: did all this happen? Or was it simply a dream? That's a parallel that you couldn't find from you simple run of the mill type film, but what can you do? We end with the final results of the mayhem and we are left partially pissed off and partially sad for Kang's current situation. The guy went through a lot and it might have been in his head. Ah, it's so nice these days that Korea still can kick film making in the ass because I've been pretty bored with other stuff as of late.

Ignore the ranting above and just go see this film. It's an easy rental if you like a little bit of thinking after the credits role. Tartan, you've gotten better in the last few months, ditch the horror bullshit and start getting stuff like this. Don't expect a full on horror film (as it's sadly billed as) but a great film that hopefully gets some notice over the next few years.