Best of South Korea: War/Military Movies
South Korean war and military movies are great, intelligent and well acted! They are so different from one another, but their messages are similar.
Apart from titles on my list, there are several of them which aren't listed on IMDb:
P.S. Thanks to my friend Bero, who helped me alot with this list.
My other lists:
Best of South Korea: Action/Adventure Movies
Best of South Korea: Anime
Best of South Korea: Comedies
Best of South Korea: Crime Movies/Thrillers
Best of South Korea: Drama Movies
Best of South Korea: Horror Movies
Best of South Korea: Romance Movies
Apart from titles on my list, there are several of them which aren't listed on IMDb:
- Haan/Han Gil-soo (2005)
- On the Pitch (Dreams Come True)/Kkoom-eun I-roo-eo-ji-da (2010)
P.S. Thanks to my friend Bero, who helped me alot with this list.
My other lists:
Best of South Korea: Action/Adventure Movies
Best of South Korea: Anime
Best of South Korea: Comedies
Best of South Korea: Crime Movies/Thrillers
Best of South Korea: Drama Movies
Best of South Korea: Horror Movies
Best of South Korea: Romance Movies
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38 titles
- DirectorKang Je-kyuStarsJang Dong-gunWon BinEun-ju LeeWhen 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.
- DirectorPark Chan-wookStarsLee Yeong-aeLee Byung-hunSong Kang-hoAfter 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.
- DirectorKwang-Hyun ParkStarsJeong Jae-yeongShin Ha-kyunKang Hye-jeongSoldiers from both sides of the Korean divide live among villagers who know nothing of the war.a.k.a. Battle Ground 625
- DirectorKang Je-kyuStarsJang Dong-gunJoe OdagiriBingbing FanIn World War II-era Korea, rival runners, one Korean (Jang Dong-gun) and one Japanese (Joe Odagiri), go to war together against the Soviets.
- DirectorHun JangStarsShin Ha-kyunGo SooRyu Seung-suA drama centered on the Korean War's final battle that will determine the border between north and south.
- DirectorJohn H. LeeStarsCha Seung-wonKwon Sang-wooChoi Seung-hyunThe story of student-soldiers trying to protect a middle school during the early days of the Korean War.
- DirectorHan-min KimStarsChoi Min-sikRyu Seung-ryongCho Jin-woongAdmiral Yi Sun-sin faces a tough challenge when he is forced to defend his nation with just 13 battleships against 300 Japanese enemy ships in the Battle of Myeongryang.
- DirectorKang Woo-sukStarsAhn Sung-kiSol Kyung-guHuh Joon-hoBased on a true story of 1968 Korean Republic Army plan to assassinate North Korean president Kim Il-Sung. 31 criminals and death row inmates are recruited into secret training on the island of Silmi; for two years they are subjected to maximum mental and physical abuse before the mission is cancelled and the unit terminated.
- DirectorJi-hoon KimStarsKim Sang-kyungLee Yo-wonAhn Sung-kiThe story of events leading up to the 1980 Gwangju massacre in South Korea when thousands of students and protesters were killed by armed troops during an anti-government demonstration.
- DirectorKim Hak-soonStarsKim Mu-yeolJin GooLee Hyun-wooThe movies follows the incident known as the second battle of Yeonpyeong which happened in 2002.
- DirectorKim Ki-dukStarsJang Dong-gunKim Jeong-hakPark Ji-ahA member of Coast Guard Platoon 23, Private Kang monitors a high-infiltration stretch of beach lined with barbed-wire fencing. Driven by the belief that killing a spy is the highest honor, he waits for a chance to prove his worth.
- DirectorSu-chang KongStarsKam Woo-seongSon Byung-hoLee Sun-kyunDuring the Vietnam War, a South Korean base receives a radio transmission from a missing squad, presumed dead, and sends a platoon to rescue the lost squad from the R-Point.
- DirectorJohn H. LeeStarsLiam NeesonLee Jung-jaeLee Beom-suA team of spies is sent into Incheon to gain intelligence on North Korean positions ahead of the invasion by UN forces.
- DirectorKyung-taek KwakKim Tae-yongStarsMegan FoxGeorge EadsLee Jae-wookA unit of student soldiers on a diversionary mission for the Battle of Incheon during the Korean War in 1950.
- DirectorSu-chang KongStarsChun Ho-jinHyun-jae ChoLee Young-hoonA group of GP506 soldiers have been brutally massacred, leaving only one alive but comatose. A military police investigator has only that night to uncover the facts, but ends up discovering a terrifying truth.
- DirectorByung-chun MinStarsChoi Min-sooJung Woo-sungSol Kyung-guKorea's first nuclear submarine and a crew with no record of existence embark on a do-or-die mission into the deep waters of the Pacific.
- DirectorLee HanLee Jae-JinShin Jae MyungStarsIm Si-wanKo Ah-sungLee Hee-joonDuring the Korean War, Second Lieutenant Sang-Yeol encounters a group of orphans while leading his platoon. Empathizing with their pain, he makes a choir with the children to protect them.
- DirectorKwang-Mo LeeStarsLee InAhn Sung-kiYoo-Jung BaeA story of two 13-year-old boys in a small country village during the last days of the Korean War. Sungmin's father gets a job at US army camp through his daughter's American boyfriend, and the family gets richer. But Changhee's father has been long-lost and his mother can't even afford one meal a day for her children. One day, the boys peep into a deserted mill-house which is unofficially used for prostitution, and find out Changhee's mother with a GI soldier. Changhee sets fire to the place and runs away. Months later, Sungmin hears a rumor that his best friend has been killed by a group of angry American soldiers and makes an empty grave with other boys. A year later, Sungmin's father gets fired for stealing things from the camp. Sangmin goes to Changhee's grave to bid farewell and the family leaves the village.
- DirectorSang-ho ParkStarsMi-lyeong JoWon NamkungBin-a JuThe film exposes the atrocities of war through the eyes of two children who are stranded in the DMZ after the end of the Korean War. The DMZ, strewn with abandoned tanks, dead bodies, land mines, and unexploded shells, is an exceedingly dangerous place for children. But what most endangers them in the end are not weapons but people.
- DirectorIm Kwon-taekStarsDong-joon ChoiPang Eun-jinLee Ho-jaeBased on the great river story, (Taebaegsanmaek) The Taebaek Mountains chronicles the lasting generational conflict between proprietors and peasants in South Korea.
- DirectorYoon Jong-binStarsSung-chun HanLim Hyun-sungYoon Jong-binHe just wanted to be a good man..
- DirectorJeong Ji-yeongStarsAhn Sung-kiLee Kyoung-youngShim Hye-jinSouth Korea, 1979. Han Kiju is an alcoholic novelist who has never recovered from his year long tour as a volunteer soldier in Vietnam. When he's asked to write a book about the Korean soldiers who fought in Vietnam he's battered by flashbacks that remind him of the brutality and lies that destroyed his innocence. The serialized novel brings him back in contact with a former soldier who served under him, PFC Pyon Chinsu, the one-time company clown driven mad by the violence of the war and who now looks to Han for some sort of emotional rescue.
- DirectorGeon-yong ParkStarsKim Ju-hyukJung Ryeo-wonYoo Hae-jinSeol-Hee's South Korean village is forced to serve the occupying North Korean regiment during the Korean War. The story focuses on the complex relationship between Seol-Hee and the North Korean Lieutenant, Kim Jeong-woong.
- DirectorSang-woo LeeStarsMoon Sung-KeunKim Roe-haJeon Hye-jinDuring the Korean War, small mountain village is evacuated as retreating American GIs approach.
- DirectorLee Joon-ikStarsSoo AeJung Jin-youngWipawee CharoenpuraIn hot pursuit of the husband that left her to fight in the Vietnam War, a woman becomes the lead singer of a traveling band that she hopes will cross paths with him again.
- DirectorJeong Ji-yeongStarsAhn Sung-kiLee Hye-yeongJin-shil ChoiSouth Korean production exploring a North Korean perspective of the long, grueling account of the Korean War based on memoirs of Lee Tae, former news agency correspondent who fought for North Korean partisans.
- DirectorJoon-ki MinStarsKim Byeong-chunMa Dong-seokKil Eun-sungIn a historically altered Korea, by 2005 the North and South Korean governments have secretly joined forces to create a nuclear warhead.
- DirectorIn-kyu ChoiStarsChang-geun JeonEun-gi DogGye-seon YuTells the story of a Korean resistance fighter leading the fight for freedom from the occupying country of Japan.
- DirectorJeong-Kuk LeeStarsShin Hyeon-junShin Eun-kyungYeong-ho KimTwo Korean navy men that belong to the elite diving squad compete with each other among rising tensions in their personal and professional lives. Matters come to a head when an incident at sea sinks a ship, prompting a dangerous rescue mission.
- DirectorDae-hie KimHans ScheepmakerStarsEverett McGillRon BrandstederBart RömerKorea 1951: After a Chinese attack Dutch mercenary sergeant De Koning is left alone by his army. While trying to survive, he meets a woman who is attempting to save her little brother. The image of the boy in shock changes him.
- DirectorShin Sang-okStarsChoi Eun-hieShin Yeong-gyunMu-ryong ChoiDuring the Korean War, pilots of the 10th Fighter Wing of the South Korean Air Force fly their majestic Saber jets in daily dangerous missions against Communist North Korean targets.
- DirectorKim Jae-hanStarsMaeng Se-changHye-Jung ChoSeo Kap-sookOH accidentally attended war without know what it really was.
- DirectorYu Hyun-mokStarsJeong-sun HwangDae-kun LeeShin-jae KimA family, ideologically divided but living under the same roof, experience the Korean War as tragedies shake their daily existence.
- DirectorKim Ki-youngStarsWoon-ha KimSang-sa LeeYe-chun LeeA Korean man, forced into service in the Japanese army during WWII, marries his Japanese girlfriend despite everyone's objections. Later, he becomes the sole survivor when the Americans attack.
- DirectorKang-cheon LeeStarsKyeong-hie NoYe-chun LeeKim Jin-kyuA group of communist guerillas encounter jealousy and rivalry among themselves because of the presence of the female compatriot while one of their members plots to desert their band
- DirectorKim Soo-yongStarsShin Yeong-gyunKum-Bong DoJeung-nyeo JuIn the early 1950s when Korea is still at war, Kyu Bok who escaped from the North Korean People's Army secretly sneaks into a small village in the mountainside. This village has turned into a widowed village due to the war and widows Jum Rye and Sa Wol live across from one another. Jum Rye had to take care of her mother-in-law who was also a widow, a dote grandfather-in-law, and a sister-in-law. Sawol lives with her mother. Sawol's husband was a soldier from the South and Jum Rye's was a soldier from the North, making the two women hostile towards one another.
- DirectorKim Jong-jinStarsLee Han-wiLim Hyeon-shikKim Hyeong-jaSet in the 1980s, the eldest son of a poor family decides to move to Seoul to become a teacher. Yet as soon as he reaches the city, his money is stolen and his bags are lost. He manages to reach a remote town, where coincidentally they were looking for a new teacher for the town children. He soon falls in love with a woman there, yet her origin seems vague as the townspeople only say she comes from somewhere up North. It turns out the townspeople have been communicating with another bordering town in North Korea through a secret tunnel connecting the two.
- DirectorLim Tae-gueStarsLee GasubJung Jae-yoonSoyAn Army private fails to expose abuses he suffered from his senior. When every member of his platoon gets passes, the senior starts searching for the culprit who tried to report him.