Best Korean Movies to Watch | A Good Movie to Watch

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New Top Vouch On Netflix Best Films Most Recent

Foreign

Good Movie

75% Vouch

A Taxi Driver

A cynical down-on-his-luck Seoul taxi driver is hired by a German journalist to go to another town called Gwangju. What seemed like an easy and overcompensated journey at first takes him into the heart of a city under siege by the military. This is in fact the student uprising that will be a very important event in South Korean history, known as 1980 Guangju Democratic Uprising. Both the journalist and the taxi driver confront life-threatening situations as they find themselves at the center of the movement. A true-story-based movie, it’s a heartfelt and entertaining political drama about one of the bleakest chapters of modern Korean history. In 2018 it was the country’s official submission to the Oscars.

Foreign

Good Movie

71% Vouch

Memories of Murder

Boon Joon-Ho’s ‘Memories of murder’, which was recently re-released is not too dissimilar from many of the crime-dramas that have come out of South Korea over the past two decades. Two very different detectives have to come together to solve what is turning out to be a series of murders that are all linked. The movie is based on the true story of South Korea’s first ever recorded serial murderer, who raped and then killed young girls in the late 80’s. In the hands of probably the foremost South Korean director after Park Chan-Wook, this movie takes you through all ranges of emotions.

Foreign

Good Movie

80% Vouch

Train to Busan

It’s disaster movie true to the guidelines of the genre, and yet with a little Korean twist it manages to be refreshingly thrilling. While a father tries to take his daughter from Seoul to Busan, the second largest city in Korea, a zombie virus breaks out. Together with other passengers they try to survive until Busan, with news coming in that it’s a safe zone untouched by the virus. The acting is spot on, the set pieces are well choreographed, and most importantly it makes you care about the characters through the father’s struggle to keep the governing principles of humanity in the bleakest of scenarios.

Foreign

Slow

Good Movie

71% Vouch

Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring

A doorway opens at the beginning of Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring, and through this doorway you are brought into the movie’s world. Explanations or plot transitions rarely exist, and dialogue is kept at a minimum level. And yet this movie remains an incredibly simple film. Following a Buddhist master and his apprentice, it is a fable very much in the ‘cycle of life’ form, offering gentle complexity in the timeless and sole framework of a floating Buddhist monastery. That’s all I can say without saying too much. If you are into aesthetically pleasing films, go watch this.

Drama / Romance

Good Movie

80% Vouch

Okja

Director Bong Joon-ho (Snowpiercer) does something quite amazing with the $50 million budget Netflix gave him: he makes a simplistic movie. But man, is it good. Okja tells the story of a “super pig” experiment that sends genetically modified pigs to top farmers around the world. In Korea, a farmer’s granddaughter forms a special relationship with one of these super pigs (Okja). When the company who originally ran the experiment want their pig back (performances by Jake Gyllenhaal and Tilda Swinton) – the two find an ally in an animal advocacy group led by Jay (Paul Dano). This is a straightforward movie, but nevertheless it is entertaining and full of thought-provoking themes and performances from an excellent cast.

Foreign

Best Film

92% Vouch

The Handmaiden

From Park Chan-wook (maker of Oldboy) comes The Handmaiden, a great movie in line with his now mastered style of portraying the beautifully weird. A rich Japanese lady isolated from the world accepts a new handmaiden, a shrewd young Korean girl with hidden motives. The men around them, full of greed and lust, complete the grand Victorian tale of deception, romance or lack thereof, and dark humor. You will find yourself at times screaming “what?”, and at times bewildered by the general aesthetic of the film including clothes, traditions, and the stunning nature of both Korea and Japan. If you love cinema, you can’t miss this movie. It’s just too big of an achievement.

Drama / Mystery / Romance

Foreign

Weird

Good Movie

75% Vouch

The Wailing

In rural Korea a policeman starts to investigate peculiar and violent events that most of the people in his village attribute to the arrival of a new Japanese resident. As the occurrences keep multiplying, and different perspectives in the film are shown, you start to lose touch with reality in the face of what can only be described as genius film-making. As critic Jada Yuan puts it, the film operates on a level “that makes most American cinema seem clunky and unimaginative”. For this reason, and while The Wailing is a true horror flick with a great premise, it’s also more than just that: it boosts a mind-boggling, interesting plot that will have you thinking about it long after the credits roll. Protip: grab the person next to you and make them watch this movie with you so you can have someone to discuss it with after!

Horror / Mystery

Good Movie

76% Vouch

Under the Sun

When Russian director Vitaly Mansky is commissioned by the North Korean government to make a documentary about an average Pyongyang child, he follows their every guideline. Except the end result, Under The Sun, is the complete opposite of what they had intended. For example starting every take earlier than they thought, he makes the documentary about the watchdogs around the child and other mechanisms of propaganda. He uses quiet storytelling to expose how brainwashing in a fascist regime takes place, and how the people caught in it function. May just be the smartest, most important film you can watch on North Korea.

Foreign

Good Movie

75% Vouch

Miracle in Cell No. 7

Sometimes it’s hard to relate to foreign movies because of the different cultures, languages and actors. But Miracle in Cell No. 7 transcended the language barriers for me and delivered one of the most touching stories I have ever seen. It’s a Korean film about the intricate yet simple love story between a mentally challenged father and his daughter. When the father is wrongly accused of a crime he did not commit and is sent to prison, his personable character eventually causes the prisoners around him to help reunite him with his daughter in prison. Warning: many tissues will be needed.

Good Movie

79% Vouch

Snowpiercer

Snowpiercer is an under-the-rader post-apocalyptic thriller that offers the grittiness that many times only Asian cinema may achieve. South Korean director Joon-ho Bong forces audiences to forget that Chris Evans was ever a Marvel superhero, as he leads a revolt of his fellow “low-class” citizens against the self-appointed gentry in a train that contains all remaining members of the planet. With immersive environments and a layered script, this film melds together social commentary and moral discourse in a visually arresting and vastly entertaining package.

Mystery / Sci-Fi

Foreign

Slow

Good Movie

70% Vouch

Castaway on the Moon

I didn’t know anything about the movie before watching it (this was my husband’s pick for ‘one of us picks something that the other knows nothing about’ night). It is Korean, sweet, funny, touching, unique, odd, poignant. I think the fact I knew nothing about the movie when I watched made it even more enjoyable so I hesitate to write more details in this review! Since watching it I have read that an American remake may be in the works, so I would recommend watching it before there is too much info out there about what is destined to be a less charming and successful version

Foreign

Weird

Good Movie

80% Vouch

I'm a Cyborg, But That's OK

From a distance, this film is a typical romantic comedy: girl meets boy, they have experiences, and all ends well. However, the bizarre stylings of South Korean director Park Chan-Wook make it into something more Wes Anderson than Nicholas Sparks. The female lead (Im Soo-jung) turns Blade Runner on its head, claiming to be a cyborg who gets discriminated against because she appears human. When she electrocutes herself trying to “recharge,” she’s sent to the psych ward where she meets a schizophrenic sociopath (Rain) able to steal emotions from his fellow man (supposedly.) This film toys with the concept of “mental health” like a production of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest performed in an empty toy factory. At the same time, it’s a playful romp that leaves you satisfied. I’d recommend I’m A Cyborg, But That’s OK if vibrantly compelling displays are your preferred method of twisting your brain into knots.

Comedy / Drama / Romance

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