Aachi & Ssipak (2006)
Demented Korean Anime
South Korean anime that is set in a future world where people are obsessed with shit. This comes with a demented energy and a filthy-mindedness that is determined to outrage
South Korean Cinema
South Korean Cinema has been with us since the 1920s. Domestic films gained a popularity from the 1950s through to the 1970s. There were many films made during this period but few that concern us here.
The South Korean cinema that we have today began in the 1990s – what is called New Korean Cinema. Thanks to government subsidies to create works that promoted the country’s culture and back emerging talents, filmmaking began to take off in dynamic ways. Throughout the 1990s, Korea was vigorous in adopting film genres from other cultures – the hard-boiled Hong Kong action film, the Japanese ghost story and the romantic film. There has been quite a respectable body of genre works to emerge from South Korean cinema.
Key Korean genre directors include Ahn Byeong-ki, Bong Joon-ho, Jo Sung-Hee, Kim Jee-woon, Park Chan-Wook and Yeon Sang-ho.
Alienoid (2022)
South Korean Time-Hopping SF Action
A South Korean SF film that comes with a wide canvas involving alien invasion, time hopping between two eras and some epic action in possibly one of the most head-scratching plots seen in some time
Alienoid: Return to the Future (2024)
South Korean Time-Hopping SF Action
The second part of the Korean time-hopping/alien invasion film where many of the plot strands from the extremely confusing first film are at least wrapped up
#Alive (2020)
Korean Zombie Film
A charming and delightful South Korean zombie film about the friendship that grows across the gap separating them between a nerd trapped in an apartment and a girl in the building opposite during a zombie outbreak
Along With the Gods: The Last 49 Days (2018)
The Trials of the Afterlife
Sequel to the hit Korean film Along With the Gods: The Two Worlds about a journey of redemption through the afterlife. This is a much better polished effort than its predecessor
Along With the Gods: The Two Worlds (2017)
The Trials of the Afterlife
A massive hit in South Korea about a firefighter’s journey through the afterlife and the trials he must undergo. On the other hand, the director seems to be trying to turn a moral redemption story into a superhero film
A.P.E. (1976)
Giant Ape
South Korean-made cheapie intended to ride the coattails of the 1976 remake of King Kong, this must be one of the worst films ever made with some of the most pitiful special effects ever put on film
Bad Guy (2001)
Sexual Humiliation and Degradation
Kim Ki-Duk film about the strangely tender relationship that grows between a mute thug and a woman he forces into prostitution
Beauty Water (2020)
Anime/Extreme Beauty Product
South Korean-made anime that takes a dive into horror grotesquerie in the story of a beauty product that offers to reshape flesh and a girl who becomes obsessed with it
The Call (2020)
Phone Calls Across Time
A South Korean film that remakes The Caller about a girl who finds she can make phone calls across time to another woman only to find that the caller is a psychopath who begins to wreak havoc with her timeline
Cello (2005)
South Korean Ghost Story
The huge success of J-horror films like Ringu and Ju-on: The Grudge in the 2000s was copied right around the Asian region. This was one of several K-horror (South Korean) ghost stories produced during this period
Dead Friend (2004)
Korean Ghost Story
South Korean ghost story that has borrowed most of its moves from the J-horror cycle – Ring, The Grudge et al. A relatively anodyne treatment is enlivened by a twist ending that draws heavily on The Sixth Sense
Ditto (2000)
Cross-Time Radio Communication
A South Korean film that came out around the same time as Frequency and has an almost identical premise about two people who start talking by radio while separated in time by twenty years.
Doctor K (1999)
Faith Healer Surgeon
South Korean film about a doctor with shamanistic powers, this starts out seeming to be a horror film before becoming something different altogether
The Doll Master (2004)
Sinister Doll Museum
South Korean film that creates decidedly eerie and an uncanny atmosphere as various guests are invited to a doll museum where the creations appear to be coming to life to kill
Doomsday Book (2012)
South Koren SF Anthology
South Korean anthology containing a trio of tales on the theme of the end of the world. The standout is the middle segment, a very Asimovian tale wherein a robot claims to have logically attained Buddhist enlightenment
The Dude in Me (2019)
Gangster and Bullied Teen Swap Bodies
A South Korean film where a tough gangster and a bullied teenager end up swapping bodies whereupon the gangster ends up transforming the teen’s life by employing gangland tactics in the school playground
The 8th Night (2021)
South Korean Possession Film
A South Korean possession film that creates a fascinatingly outlandish and original plot by dropping the usual cliches to instead draw on Buddhism to create its own mythology
The End of the Animal (2010)
Mysterious Catastrophe/Godlike Stranger
Fascinating no-budget South Korean film about a mysterious catastrophe and an even more mysterious godlike stranger who appears in its aftermath. Enigma like the best of Andrei Tarkovsky
Exhuma (2024)
Korean Shamanism and Exorcism
A completely wild South Korean film set among the rituals of Confucian shamanism during the attempts to relocate a coffin and exorcise a troublesome spirit
A Fish (2012)
South Koren Deathdream Film
Willfully cryptic and baffling South Korean film that only ends up being dull and confusing. Disappointingly, the big denouement reveals that all we have is another copy of The Sixth Sense with pretensions to meaningfulness
Flu (2013)
South Korean Plague Outbreak Film
A South Korean entry in the plague and outbreak genre. While the film draws on the cliches of the genre, in particular Outbreak, director Kim Sung-su wheels it around with an impressive widescreen flourish
The Gangster, The Cop, The Devil (2019)
Cops and Gangsters vs Serial Killer
The tough hard-boiled Korean gangster film is a genre of its own. This uniquely has a detective and a crime kingpin deciding to join forces to track down a serial killer. Slated for remake by James Wan
H (2002)
South Korean Serial Killer Thriller
A South Korean copy of The Silence of the Lambs where detectives find that a serial killer imprisoned in a cell is somehow causing others to continue his trail of killings
Hansel and Gretel (2007)
South Korean Horror/Sinister House in the Forest
Confusingly, despite the title, this is not an adaptation of the Brothers Grimm fairytale but a cryptic and often baffling South Korean horror film about people trapped by children at a sinister house in the forest
The Host (2006)
Korean Monster Movie
Bong Joon Ho, the South Korean director of Snowpiercer and Parasite, delivers his own version of a monster movie that certainly comes with a difference
I Saw the Devil (2010)
South Korean Revenge Film
Overrated South Korean revenge thriller about a detective obsessively pursuing a serial killer that has a mild level of ultra-violence going for it but otherwise fails to grip or dig into a psychological darkness
Illang: The Wolf Brigade (2018)
Anime in Live-Action/Future Anti-Terrorist Squad
The anime Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade was a fascinating play of metaphors that mixed terrorism and Little Red Riding Rood. This is a live-action remake from South Korea
I’m a Cyborg, But That’s Ok (2006)
Woman Believes She is a Cyborg/Gonzo Asylum Comedy
After the ultra-violent Oldboy, Park Chan-wook puzzled everyone by next making this frothily surreal comedy about a girl in an asylum who believes she is a cyborg
In Another Country (2012)
South Korean Alternate Storylines Film
South Korean film that replays the same story three times with slight differences, all featuring Isabelle Huppert as a different woman. Told with a rather charming sense of humour and a playful meta-fiction
Into the Mirror (2003)
Korean Ghost Story/Haunted Mirrors
A South Korean entry in the fad for Asian ghost stories that were popular in the 2000s following the successes of Ring and Ju-on/The Grudge. This later underwent remake as Alexandre Aja’s Mirrors
Invasion of Alien Bikini (2011)
Gonzo Alien Seduction/South Korean Comedy
Wacky South Korean comedy that seems like Species played with the sensibilities of My Stepmother is an Alien – the whole film plays out as a nonsensically charming seduction
Jung_E (2023)
Android Soldier Program
Train to Busan director Yeon Sang-ho turns his hand to making an SF film about the attempts to perfect an android soldier and the fight to complete and control it
Lucid Dream (2017)
South Korean Dreamscape Film
The South Korean version of Inception with a man using a device that allows him to enter his and others memories in search of overlooked clues to the abductor of his son
A Man Who Was Superman (2008)
Man Believes He is Superman
Before the spate of superheroes with no powers films with Kick-Ass and Super, there was this South Korean based-on-a-true-story film about a delusional man who believes he is Superman
Il Mare (2000)
Letters Across Time/Romance
South Korean romantic film about a couple exchanging letters across time. This later underwent a Hollywood remake as The Lake House with Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock
Memories of Murder (2003)
True Life Korean Serial Killer Thriller
Early film from Bong Joon-ho, a true crime work about the investigation into a rural Korean serial killer
Metamorphosis (2010)
South Korean Franz Kafka Adaptation
Wildly experimental South Korean adaptation of the Kafka story about a man turning into an insect – a film shot entirely by the director in bed with the camera pointed at his feet
Midnight (2021)
Deaf Girl Pursued by a Serial Killer
A standout South Korean film about a deaf girl pursued through the streets by a serial killer
Moksha – Or The World and I, How Does That Work? (2012)
Man Chained Up/Existential Parable
Imagine a weird mix between the basic premise of Saw and Waiting for Godot. A South Korean film about a man inexplicably chained up in a park that is less interested in his escape than it becomes a surreal existential allegory for life
Monstrum (2018)
Korean Wu Xia/Swordsmen vs Monster
South Korean attempt to make a Wu Xia film with swordsmen up against a hulking monster
The Moon (2023)
Astronaut Stranded on The Moon
Solid South Korean attempt to copy Gravity and The Martian with the attempts to rescue an astronaut who becomes stranded on The Moon
Muoi (2007)
Korean Ghost Story/Haunted Portrait
After the successes of Japanese ghost stories like Ringu and Ju-on: The Grudge, the phenomenon was copied right around the Asian region. This is a South Korean ghost story set in Vietnam concerning a haunted painting.
Natural City (2003)
Cyberpunk Future/Androids
Wrongly referred to as an adaptation of the original Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, this South Korean Cyberpunk film does homage many aspects of Blade Runner
Nightmare (2000)
Korean Ghost Story
Resembling a supernatural version of I Know What You Did Last Summer, this South Korean ghost story delivers considerable spookiness
Okja (2017)
Genetically-Engineered Super-Pigs
Boon Jong Ho’s version of E.T., albeit one where E.T. is a genetically-engineered pig the size of an SUV, not to mention one with an oddball sense of humour that it is hard to imagine being enjoyed by young age groups
Oldboy (2003)
Imprisonment and Revenge
Electrifyingly ultra-violent film from Park Chan-wook who ably borrows from Takashi Miike. The film equally becomes a conceptual twister as the protagonist is forced to go on a reality-bending quest through his own life.
Peninsula (2020)
Train to Busan Sequel/Zombie Film
Yeon Sang-ho makes a sequel to his international breakout zombie film hit of Train to Busan, appropriating the basics of Escape to New York to good ends
Phone (2002)
Korean Ghost Story/Haunted Phone Calls
South Korean jump aboard the Ringu phenomenon about a series of haunted phone calls that works well through a clever ending
The Piper (2015)
Horror Version of The Pied Piper
A Korean retelling of the fairytale The Pied Piper of Hamelin that in mid-film suddenly morphs from a standard telling into an incredibly grim horror film. The results are really quite striking, not to mention pulled off with considerable assurance
The Priests (2015)
South Korean Possession and Exorcism Film
The possession and exorcism film has become a heavily exhausted one, having cycled through the same limited bag of tricks for the last 40 years. This South Korean take still mines the same territory but adds some nifty new tricks to build to a riveting climax
Project Wolf Hunting (2022)
Monster Amok Aboard a Prison Ship
The most violent, brutal, blood-drenched films one has seen in recent memory, a South Korean entry about a monster loose aboard a prison ship
Psychokinesis (2018)
Psychic Powers/South Korean Superhero Film
From the director of Train to Busan, this starts out as a psychic powers film before becoming a South Korean superhero film. Made with a nicely grounded realism that makes refreshing contrast to the bombast of the MCU et al.
The Red Shoes (2005)
Haunted Shoes/Korean Ghost Story
South Korean horror film about a pair of high-heeled shoes that take over their owner. Some okay jumps in a standard K-horror ghost story
Romance Joe (2011)
Interwoven Tales and Meta-Fiction
South Korean film that takes delight in a series of interwoven tales, of stories being told by characters within stories. Has a wilful complexity to it, although the narrative game-playing essentially becomes the film more so than necessarily produces any absorbing individual stories
Rub Love (1998)
Korean Near Future Thriller/Amnesia Drug
Stylish but not always coherent South Korean near-future thriller about a comic-book artist, a hit woman and an amnesia drug
Save the Green Planet (2003)
Man Imprisoned By Someone Who Insists He is an Alien
A bizarre South Korean comedy about a businessman who is imprisoned by a possibly crazed man who insists that he is an alien. Things sit in an absurdly funny ambiguity. Later remade by Yorgos Lanthimos as Bugonia
Sector 7 (2011)
South Korean Monster Movie
South Korean monster movie set that only rehashes the cliches set down by Alien/Aliens. On the plus side, the CGI monster looks great and there are some particularly imaginative set-pieces with it but the film is at best only a rehash of Deepstar Six on an oil rig
Seobok (2021)
Psychic Powers
Quite good Korean film about a clone with vast psychic powers, this mounts to a climax that captures something of Akira
Seoul Station (2016)
Animation/South Korean Zombie Film
Train to Busan was a massive breakout hit from South Korear. Overlooked in the buzz was this animated prequel from the same director released at the same time. The zombie film and animation are an uneasy mix but this works well, if not with the same kick as Train to Busan
The Silent Sea (2021)
Sinister Happenings at a Moonbase
South Korean tv mini-series about the investigation of a moonbase with illicit experiments and something possibly alien unleashed
Snowpiercer (2013)
Train Containing the Last Survivors of Humanity
One of the most original science-fiction films of recent years. Set aboard a train where the last survivors of humanity circle a frozen globe, this is less an action film than something like Runaway Train turned into a unique conceptual breakthrough story, all rent through with a fierce parable about social revolution
Space Sweepers (2021)
Space Junk Collectors/Korean Space Opera
South Korean space opera about a crew of space junk collectors. If the Star Wars series wanted to find a director to create fresh and exhilarating effects scenes, they need look no further than here
Spider Forest (2004)
Enigmatic South Korean Horror
South Korean horror film that feels like The Sixth Sense crossed with the enigmatic games of Don’t Look Now. The film takes place in a cryptically baffling mandala of dreams, hallucinations and possible deathdream that eventually proves rather absorbing
Spiritwalker (2020)
South Korean Gangster/Bodyswap Film
A conceptually intriguing cross between the bodyswap film and the South Korean gangster film
A Tale of Two Sisters (2003)
Korean Ghost Story
A South Korean ghost story that achieves quite a degree of spookiness, albeit influenced by the Japanese Ring phenomenon, although things fall apart at a confusing twist ending
Tell Me Something (1999)
Korean Serial Killer Thriller
Essentially a South Korean version of Se7en with police tracking a killer dumping severed body parts around the city, all of which lead to a mystery woman
Thirst (2009)
Korean Vampire Film
Park Chan-wook film in which he rewrites the French literary classic Therese Raquin with the addition of a vampire priest with most effective results
Three … Extremes (2004)
Asian Horror Anthology
Standout horror anthology designed to highlight episodes from three Asian directors – Hong Kong’s Fruit Chan, South Korea’s Park Chan-wook and Japan’s Takashi Miike – all of whom are on top form
Three Extremes II (2002)
Asian Horror Anthology
A horror anthology featuring episodes from three Asian directors originally titled Three. The better known Three … Extremes was a sequel whereupon this was retitled and re-released as Three Extremes II
Time Renegades (2016)
Shared Vision Across Time/Hunt for a Killer
South Korean film that borrows the premise of the film Frequency in having two characters separated across twenty years have clairvoyant dreams of the other’s life and combining forces to stop a killer
Train to Busan (2016)
Zombies on a Train
The zombie film has become an overworked vein in the last few years. This South Korean film does nothing to reinvent it, just contains the drama aboard a train but manages to create a grippingly intense epic of the genre
The Uninvited (2003)
South Korean Ghost Story
One of the spate of South Korean ghost stories that came out in 2000s. While made with undeniable directorial style, the two hour running time drags and the plot is often unclear what is happening
Volcano High (2001)
High School Fantastical Martial Arts
Energetic South Korean attempt to employ the Wu Xia action moves popularised by The Matrix and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon in a high school setting
The Wailing (2016)
Korean Horror/Possession/Mysterious Stranger
South Korean horror film that generates a more than effectively creepy atmosphere. The downside is that you reached the end of the show with no clear idea what is going on and why things are happening
The Warrior’s Way (2010)
South Korean Wu Xia/Western
Korean-made Wu Xia/Western crossover that imports Hollywood names and is shot in New Zealand, resulting in a bizarre oddity cross-cultural fusion. The plot elements are paper thin but the film comes to life during the stylised action scenes
A Werewolf Boy (2012)
South Korean Feral Werewolf Boy Love Story
Despite the title, this South Korean film is less a werewolf story than it is a love story about a feral child. The film seems overburdened by the need to pitch the film to the teen demographic and play the violins and heartstrings as a Twilight wannabe
White (2011)
Korean Ghost Story/Haunted Pop Song
Another South Korean copy of Ring with haunted pop songs instead of tv broadcasts. This offers interesting insight into the K-pop phenomenon but nothing particularly standout in the way of scares
The Witch: Part 1 – Subversion (2018)
South Korean Psychic Powers Film
Don’t be fooled by the witch part of the title, this is actually a South Korean film about psychic powers. This follows the path of a standard psychic powers film about the gifted on the run a la The Fury and Firestarter before an ending that turns the genre on its head
The Witch Part 2: The Other One (2022)
South Korean Psychic Powers Film
The Witch: Part 1 – Subversion was an impressive South Korean psychic powers film. This is Part 2
Yongary, Monster from the Deep (1967)
South Korean Monster Movie
South Korean copy of the Japanese Godzilla films and a painfully cheap effort on all counts
Zombie for Sale (2019)
South Korean Zombie Comedy
A rather charming South Korean comedy about a family who try to exploit the commercial aspects of having a tame zombie