The 30 best movies from South Korea

After being kidnapped and imprisoned for fifteen years, Oh Dae-Su is released, only to find that he must track down his captor in five days.

A young man sees a drunk, cute woman standing too close to the tracks at a metro station in Seoul and pulls her back. She ends up getting him into trouble repeatedly after that, starting on the train.

When two brothers are forced to fight in the Korean War, the elder decides to take the riskiest missions if it will help shield the younger from battle.

In a small Korean province in 1986, two detectives struggle with the case of multiple young women being found raped and murdered by an unknown culprit.

A young couple's enduring love is tested when 27-year-old Su-jin is diagnosed with a rare form of Alzheimer's disease.

In the midst of the Korean wilderness, a Buddhist master patiently raises a boy while teaching wisdom and compassion through experience and endless exercises.

A transient young man breaks into empty homes to partake of the vacationing residents' lives for a few days.

A disgraced ex-policeman who runs a small ring of prostitutes finds himself in a race against time when one of his women goes missing.

A mother desperately searches for the killer who framed her son for a girl's horrific murder.

After being wrongfully imprisoned for thirteen years and having her child taken away from her, a woman seeks revenge through increasingly brutal means.

A secret agent exacts revenge on a serial killer through a series of captures and releases.

A recently laid off factory worker kidnaps his former boss' friend's daughter, hoping to use the ransom money to pay for his sister's kidney transplant.

An irresponsible and childish ex-con befriends a girl with cerebral palsy and develops a progressively stronger bond with her.

A marriage of convenience between a petty gangster and an illegal immigrant he has never met has unforeseen consequences for them both.

Shy Ji-hae's friend asks Ji-hae to write e-mails to the boy she loves in her name. As the boy falls in love with her letters, Ji-hae discovers the story of her mother's romance which is remarkably similar to her own circumstances.

In 1999, a voice actor moves from Il Mare, a seaside house, and leaves a Christmas card in its mailbox. An architecture student receives it in 1997, and a friendship separated by two years begins.

A sixty-something woman, faced with the discovery of a heinous family crime and in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease, finds strength and purpose when she enrolls in a poetry class.

A quiet pawnshop keeper with a violent past takes on a drug-and-organ trafficking ring in hope of saving the child who is his only friend.

After a shooting incident at the North-South Korean border DMZ leaves two North Korean soldiers dead, a neutral Swiss and Swedish team investigates what actually happened.

Things go wrong for a high ranking mobster when he doesn't follow his boss's orders.

Soldiers from both sides of the Korean divide live among villagers who know nothing of the war.

After being institutionalized in a mental hospital, Su-mi reunites with her sister, Su-yeon, and they return to live at their country home. But strange events plague the house, leading to surprising revelations and a shocking conclusion.

Following a man's suicide, time traverses back to reveal six chapters of his life on why he committed suicide.

A woman subject to mental, physical and sexual abuse on a remote island seeks a way out.

A monster emerges from Seoul's Han River and begins attacking people. One victim's loving family does what it can to rescue her from its clutches.