Best Korean movies seen so far
by agnishdhiman | created - 29 Oct 2017 | updated - 04 May 2020 | PublicList is not exhaustive and will be updated as I discover other Korean flicks.
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1. The Man from Nowhere (2010)
R | 119 min | Action, Crime, Drama
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.
Director: Lee Jeong-beom | Stars: Won Bin, Kim Sae-ron, Kim Tae-hoon, Kim Hee-won
Votes: 74,601 | Gross: $0.01M
2. Hope (2013)
Not Rated | 122 min | Drama
Story of an 8-year-old girl who faces a horrible rape that damages her internally and affects her emotionally, trying to overcome all the obstacles following the incident with the good support of those around her.
Director: Joon-ik Lee | Stars: Lee Re, Sol Kyung-gu, Uhm Ji-won, Kim Hae-sook
Votes: 9,577
3. Oldboy (2003)
R | 120 min | Action, Drama, Mystery
After being kidnapped and imprisoned for fifteen years, Oh Dae-Su is released, only to find that he must find his captor in five days.
Director: Park Chan-wook | Stars: Choi Min-sik, Yoo Ji-tae, Kang Hye-jeong, Kim Byeong-Ok
Votes: 632,543 | Gross: $0.71M
4. Lady Vengeance (2005)
R | 115 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
After being wrongfully imprisoned for thirteen years and having her child taken away from her, a woman seeks revenge through increasingly brutal means.
Director: Park Chan-wook | Stars: Nam-mi Kang, Jeong-nam Choi, Hye-Sook Go, Bok-hwa Baek
Votes: 85,774 | Gross: $0.21M
5. Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002)
R | 129 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
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.
Director: Park Chan-wook | Stars: Song Kang-ho, Shin Ha-kyun, Bae Doona, Lim Ji-eun
Votes: 74,844 | Gross: $0.05M
6. I Saw the Devil (2010)
Not Rated | 144 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
A secret agent exacts revenge on a serial killer through a series of captures and releases.
Director: Jee-woon Kim | Stars: Lee Byung-hun, Choi Min-sik, Jeon Gook-hwan, Chun Ho-jin
Votes: 145,464 | Gross: $0.13M
7. 3-Iron (2004)
R | 88 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
A transient young man breaks into empty homes to partake of the vacationing residents' lives for a few days.
Director: Kim Ki-duk | Stars: Lee Seung-yun, Jae Hee, Hyuk-ho Kwon, Joo Jin-mo
Votes: 58,123 | Gross: $0.24M
8. Silenced (2011)
Not Rated | 125 min | Drama
Based on real events, this film depicts the story of a school for the hearing-impaired where young deaf students were sexually assaulted by the faculty members over a long period of time.
Director: Hwang Dong-hyuk | Stars: Gong Yoo, Jung Yu-mi, Kim Hyeon-soo, Kim Jee-young
Votes: 21,459
9. The Chaser (2008)
Not Rated | 125 min | Action, Crime, Drama
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.
Director: Na Hong-jin | Stars: Kim Yoon-seok, Ha Jung-woo, Seo Yeong-hie, Kim Yoo-jung
Votes: 72,441
10. Mother (2009)
R | 129 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
A mother desperately searches for the killer who framed her son for a girl's horrific murder.
Director: Bong Joon Ho | Stars: Kim Hye-ja, Won Bin, Jin Goo, Yun Je-mun
Votes: 71,312 | Gross: $0.55M
11. Memories of Murder (2003)
Not Rated | 132 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
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.
Director: Bong Joon Ho | Stars: Song Kang-ho, Kim Sang-kyung, Kim Roe-ha, Song Jae-ho
Votes: 214,608 | Gross: $0.01M
12. Miracle in Cell No. 7 (2013)
127 min | Comedy, Drama
A story about the love between a mentally-ill father and his lovingly adorable daughter.
Director: Hwan-kyung Lee | Stars: Ryu Seung-ryong, Kal So-won, Oh Dal-su, Jeong Man-sik
Votes: 23,852
13. The Wailing (2016)
TV-MA | 156 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
Soon after a stranger arrives in a little village, a mysterious sickness starts spreading. A policeman, drawn into the incident, is forced to solve the mystery in order to save his daughter.
Director: Na Hong-jin | Stars: Jun Kunimura, Hwang Jung-min, Kwak Do-won, Chun Woo-hee
Votes: 81,283
14. The Yellow Sea (2010)
R | 136 min | Action, Crime, Drama
When the attempt to kill a professor goes wrong, a series of violent events are triggered which force a taxi driver to run for his life.
Director: Na Hong-jin | Stars: Lee Yoo-mi, Ha Jung-woo, Lee Hee-joon, Kim Yoon-seok
Votes: 22,877
15. Children... (2011)
Not Rated | 132 min | Mystery, Thriller
The film is based on a true case from the early 1990s that is known among Koreans as the "disappearance of the frog children." In 1991, five elementary school students told their parents ... See full summary »
Director: Kyu-maan Lee | Stars: Park Yong-woo, Ryu Seung-ryong, Sung Dong-il, Sung Ji-ru
Votes: 2,945
16. No Mercy (2010)
Not Rated | 123 min | Action, Crime, Mystery
Despite being nearly proven the murderer, a serial killer threatens to kill the daughter of a forensic pathologist if he doesn't get him bailed out.
Director: Hyeong-Joon Kim | Stars: Sol Kyung-gu, Ryu Seung-beom, Han Hye-jin, Sung Ji-ru
Votes: 9,423
17. New World (2013)
Not Rated | 135 min | Action, Crime, Drama
An undercover cop finds it difficult to play both a cop and a goon.
Director: Park Hoon-jung | Stars: Lee Jung-jae, Choi Min-sik, Hwang Jung-min, Park Sung-woong
Votes: 26,236 | Gross: $0.46M
18. A Taxi Driver (2017)
Not Rated | 137 min | Action, Drama, History
A widowed father and taxi driver who drives a German reporter from Seoul to Gwangju to cover the 1980 uprising, soon finds himself regretting his decision after being caught in the violence around him.
Director: Hun Jang | Stars: Song Kang-ho, Thomas Kretschmann, Yoo Hae-jin, Ryu Jun-Yeol
Votes: 30,798 | Gross: $1.53M
19. Memoir of a Murderer (2017)
Not Rated | 118 min | Action, Crime, Mystery
A former serial killer with Alzheimer's fights to protect his daughter from her psychotic boyfriend.
Director: Won Shin-yeon | Stars: Sol Kyung-gu, Kim Nam-gil, Kim Seol-hyun, Oh Dal-su
Votes: 12,527 | Gross: $0.09M
20. The Outlaws (2017)
Not Rated | 121 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
Based on real events, this crime action film depicts a Seoul detective's attempts to keep peace while two Chinese-Korean gangs battle over turf in the neighborhood.
Director: Yunsung Kang | Stars: Ma Dong-seok, Yoon Kyesang, Jo Jae-yoon, Choi Gwi-hwa
Votes: 12,393
21. Like Father, Like Son (2013)
Not Rated | 121 min | Drama
Ryota is a successful workaholic businessman. When he learns that his biological son was switched with another boy after birth, he faces the difficult decision to choose his true son or the boy he and his wife have raised as their own.
Director: Kore-eda Hirokazu | Stars: Masaharu Fukuyama, Machiko Ono, Yôko Maki, Lily Franky
Votes: 27,980 | Gross: $0.28M
22. Joint Security Area (2000)
Not Rated | 110 min | Action, Drama, Thriller
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.
Director: Park Chan-wook | Stars: Lee Yeong-ae, Lee Byung-hun, Song Kang-ho, Kim Tae-woo
Votes: 34,017
23. Parasite (2019)
R | 132 min | Drama, Thriller
Greed and class discrimination threaten the newly formed symbiotic relationship between the wealthy Park family and the destitute Kim clan.
Director: Bong Joon Ho | Stars: Song Kang-ho, Lee Sun-kyun, Cho Yeo-jeong, Choi Woo-sik
Votes: 950,122 | Gross: $53.37M
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