Best Korean Films of All Time

Top 12 Korean films of all time

1. Aimless Bullet (1961, Yu Hyun-mok)

Yu Hyun-mok expertly incorporates neorealism with some film noir and crime elements while tackling vital socioeconomic elements of Korean society in the Korean war’s aftermath which led to poverty, crime and general disillusionment.

2. The Housemaid (1960, Kim Ki-young)

A remarkable film which long held the #1 Korean film in my all time Korean film list. A precursor to Parasite in its examination of the rich-poor divide sparkled with a few jaw-dropping moments.

3. Right now, Wrong then (2015, Hong Sang-soo)

Love and relationships are two common elements found in Hong Sang-soo’s films with food and alcohol being vital to his film’s flow. Characters often gather at a social gathering where lots of food and alcohol is to be found. Alcohol is a key ingredient in his films, particularly the drink of soju which serves as lubricant in allowing the character’s true feelings to be revealed in a natural manner. In his last few films, Hong Sang-soo has used repetition as a powerful device. He has either shown the same event from different perspectives or repeated the same segment with slight variations. All these elements are found in Right Now, Wrong Then which is divided into 2 films, shown from different perspectives and with slight variations. Each film has its own title with the first film called ‘Right Then, Wrong Now’ while the second film is ‘Right Now, Wrong Then’. The alternate titles and the unfolding of events allow audience to select which film they prefer, and in a way, the audience selection also shows the manner in which they prefer to live their own lives.

4. Burning (2018, Lee Chang-dong)

Burning, Lee Chang-dong’s cinematic return after a gap of 8 years, smartly transforms a Haruki Murakami short story into a seductive thriller that lingers in the memory long after the credits.

5. Memories of Murder (2003, Bong Joon-ho)

Gripping thriller which keeps us guessing and tries to be as objective as possible without diving into contrived situations. The ending is unlike any other ever shown in a Hollywood serial killer flick which is what makes this an excellent movie.

6. Parasite (2019, Bong Joon-ho)

Perfectly blends genre elements with socioeconomic examination of a society.

7. Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002, Park Chan-wook)

Takes time to develop its characters and outline the story before plunging into a series of cuts and stabs to end on a bloody note. This was the first Korean film I saw at a midnight film festival screening and it led to an exciting discovery of tracking down as many Korean films as I could.

8. Breathless (2008, Yang Ik-joon)

Yang Ik-joon’s stellar film shows how a cycle of violence can continue beyond generations and that kids who witness violence in their youth can grow up and re-enact those same episodes onto others.

9. The King and the Clown (2005, Lee Joon-ik)

This was a surprise box-office hit upon its 2005 release so much so that it was the biggest box office movie in Korean history until The Host came along. A simple story with no big budget based on a stage play beat out all the big named commercial films! The story is set in 16th Century Korea where two street performers undertake a risky game to make some money. They decide to lampoon the king and his mistress. Such a thing was never done before but it pays off, initially at least among the common folk. However, the king is not amused and wants to punish the street troupe. The lead person asks for one chance – if the king laughs, the troupe be spared. Well the king does laugh, a little at first and a lot over time as he makes the troupe perform only privately for royalty. Such a thing does not go down well with the ministers but the king does not care as he seems to be pre-occupied with a crush on one of the performers. Excellent performances all around!

10. A Dirty Carnival (2006, Ha Yu)

A Dirty Carnival breathes new life into the over-worked gangster sub-genre by focussing more on the characters and their relationships.

11. The Day He Arrives (2011, Hong Sang-soo)

The Day He Arrives is vintage Hong Sang-soo and features what one would expect from his films: filmmaker turned professor returning to his hometown, an ex-love, plenty of drinking with friends/strangers. Conversations and confessions flow as effortlessly as the alcohol and naturally people pour their hearts out. Even though there are familiar elements to his previous films, The Day He Arrives is still a wonderfully crafted feature that is shot in black and white, which lends a poetic beauty to the snowy streets.

12. Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter..and Spring (2003, Kim Ki-duk)

After Park Chan-wook, it was the cinema of Kim Ki-duk that became my window into Korean cinema in the early 2000s. This was the first of his films that I saw and it proved to be a contemplative experience. Broken into 5 segments as per the title, this film is a visually meditative film that evokes multiple emotions including awe and sadness.

Korean Cinema

Almost all the films that I have come across from South Korea have been from 2000 onwards making my cinematic education with South Korean cinema only a recent one. Here is a list of South Korean directors whose films I have seen in the last few years:

Park Chan-wook:

Lady Vengeance (2005)
Three...extremes (2005, final short Cut)
Old Boy (2003)
Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002)
Joint Security Area (2000)

Bong Joon-ho:

The Host (2006)
Memories of Murder (2003)

Kim Ki-duk:

Time (2006)
The Bow (2005)
3-Iron (2004)
Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter..and Spring (2003)
Bad Guy (2001)
The Isle (2000)


Single titles from other directors:

Woman on the Beach (2006, Hong Sang-soo)
Secret Sunshine (2007, Lee Chang-dong)
Soo (2007, Sai Yoichi)
The King and the Clown (2005, Lee Jun-ik)
Save the Green Planet! (2003, Jang Joon-Hwan)
My Sassy Girl (2001, Kwak Jae-young)
Il Mare (2000, Lee Hyun-seung)
Natural City (2003, Min Byung-chun)
Tae Guk Gi: The Brotherhood of War (2004, Kang Je-gyu)
Repatriation (2003, Kim Dong-won)

While it is much easier in my city to find older Japanese or Chinese films, tracking down South Korean films prior to the 1990’s is next to impossible. I put this difficulty down to only a local deficiency within North America and didn’t think much of it. But in Issue #34 of Film International Soo Jeong Ahn points out that this inability to know older Korean cinema extends to other parts of the world.


Korean films made before the 1990s are largely unknown in the West. South Korean cinema has only very recently and very rapidly emerged onto the international cinematic stage....Within the global art-house circuit, older Korean films have been less acknowledged than their Japanese and Chinese counterparts. For instance, in Britain the prevailing image of Korean cinema is largely constituted of particular films made by contemporary Korean film-makers. Comparing Japan and Korea in a Guardian article, for example, the director of the Edinburgh International film festival, Hannah McGill, associated Japanese cinema with the ‘golden era of Kurosawa and Ozu in the 1950s’ while placing the golden age of Korean cinema in the ‘present’ (early 2000s) rather than the ‘past’. In Korea, however, the golden age is considered to be the period of the 1950s and 1960s.

Soo Jeong Ahn’s article (Re-imagining the Past: Programming South Korean retrospectives at the Pusan International Film Festival) begins with a Q&A involving Bong Joon-ho which followed a French screening of his The Host. Even Bong Joon-ho points out classic Korean cinema did exist yet remains largely unknown.


Q: In the past 10 years, Korean cinema has spread rapidly in France, where it is much loved by local audiences. Considering the fact that Korean cinematic history boasts no great master such as Kurosawa Akira in Japan, isn’t this global spotlight amazing?

A: Have you ever wondered why classic Korean films have long been unknown in Europe? The absence of information about old Korean films may be attributable to Korea’s history. I don’t think the quality of Korean cinema at that period was inferior to other countries in East Asia. While Kurosawa was making films in Japan, there were quite a few film auteurs in Korea whose work was of an equally high standard.


The purpose of the article by Soo Jeong Ahn is to discuss the political decisions behind the Pusan film festival in picking retrospectives of older Korean film-makers Kim Ki-Young and Shin Sang-Ok. Although, I am more interested in the fact that the Pusan International Film Festival (PIFF) is showing older Korean films than concerned with the motives why PIFF chose to select a particular director’s works. If PIFF continues to screen older Korean films, then there is a chance that in the future Korean retrospectives might even tour the World and even get released on DVD.

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A spotlight, finally...

I wanted to throw a net out to see how many older Korean films I could capture. I was also looking for works from directors I was not familiar with. I came across the following films:

Black Republic (1990, Park Kwang-su)
City of Rising Sun (1999, Kim Sung-su)
Dirty Carnival (2006, Ha Yu)
The Restless (2006, Cho Dong-oh/Jo Dong-oh)
Black House (2007, Shin Terra)

While I managed to get films from different directors, most of the films were still new. Although getting a single title from 1990 seems to be a little achievement. But overall, I think getting older Korean films will be a work in progress.

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The films...

Three of the films (Black Republic, City of Rising Sun & Dirty Carnival) involved a gangster element while The Restless was a martial art/sword fighting flick whereas Black House was a horror film.

If I had turned the volume off Black Republic, I would have initially pegged the film as Chinese as the setting of an old mining town reminded me of the Chinese film Blind Shaft. But after the gangster element makes an entrance in the film, I would have guessed that Black Republic was inspired from old 1960’s Japanese films. In the end, Black Republic stands on its own but given my lack of familiarity with older Korean films, I fell back on cinematic examples from Korea’s neighbours to pin the film’s look and feel.

The Restless features some amazing fight sequences and special effects. Unfortunately, the promising first 20-30 minute set-up involving good vs evil souls is sacrificed for the stunning visuals and eventually the story suffers. Black House is one of those horror films with many false endings. At the hour mark, the twist is revealed and the film could have ended yet it continues on towards a fitting resolution, which is provided about 25 minutes later. But the film does not end then and carries on for another 10 minutes. After which, when everything is finally resolved again, the film ends with the message that pure evil never really dies and appears to take on a new form.

The pick of the films was the gripping Dirty Carnival. While the film starts off as a gangster flick, things get interesting when the gangster, Byeong-du, runs into his old school friend Min-ho. The two share memories in a cafe and head to a old reunion with other friends where Byeong-du meets his old school flame Hyeon-ju. The entire setup among the friends has shades of the reunion from Hong Sang-soo’s Women is the Future of Man and has a very easy flow to it. Min-ho wants to be a film-maker and is struggling to get a realistic script written about gangsters. Byeong-du offers to help Min-ho etch out realistic gangster characters for his film by offering advice and introducing Min-ho to other gangsters. Trusting in their friendship, Byeong-du confides about his real life killings to Min-ho only for Min-ho to include the exact real life murder scenarios in his film as opposed to creating a work of fiction. When Min-ho’s gangster film becomes a hit, Byeong-du is under pressure from his gang members and boss to kill Min-ho lest all the crimes of Byeong-du are revealed to the rival gangs. Byeong-du finds himself in a tough bind and struggles to maintain both his friendship with Min-ho and relationship with Hyeon-ju.

Dirty Carnival breathes new life into the over-worked gangster genre by focussing more on the characters and their relationships. Even though there are some edgy and rough fight sequences involving bats and knives, they are put on the back burner when the film within a film element takes center stage. During key moments in the film the background score is similar to the music one finds on a merry-go round carousel signifying the cyclic nature of business in the gangster world -- round and round the crime business goes and when one gangster gets off the high horse, another is waiting to take his place. There is no time to rest because if one stops, then they will surely get knocked off and crushed.

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Ratings out of 10

Dirty Carnival: 9
Black Republic: 8
Black House: 6.5
The Restless: 6
City of Rising Sun: 4