My Current Top Ten Korean Films

In honor of 70 years of Independence, marking Japan’s surrender and the ending of World War II I have decided to make a really fast write up of my top ten favorite (not necessarily what I consider to be the best) Korean films I have seen so far. As of a few days ago I have just passed the 100 movie mark so obviously there is a ton of digging left to do but as of now this is how it stands. The films are not ordered from best to worst but rather alphabetically and I am quite frankly happy to leave it un-ordered in any other way. So, here goes.

A Girl at My Door (July Jung, 2014)                                 

A Girl at My Door is the story of police officer Lee Young-nam (Bae Doona) who after some sort of scandal is transferred from Seoul to take over the chief of police position in a small coastal town. Once on the job in her new surroundings she comes in contact with a young girl named Do-hee (Kim Sae-ron) whose neglect and abuse is obvious. Despite her reluctance she soon finds Do-hee as a real part of her life, but how long can the peace last?

For me the thing that sold me on this movie was the combination of Bae Doona and Kim Sae-ron, both being favorite actresses of mine. They have great chemistry and the simplicity of the story along with its relevance in modern society (not only in Korea but indeed everywhere still) helps cement it as a somewhat important movie as well as very touching.

Cold Eyes (Jo Ui-seok, Kim Byeong-seo, 2013)

One of few cases where a remake will ever make it on one of my “favorites”-lists. Cold Eyes is the story of a group of law enforcement specialists who do recon and surveillance on highly dangerous criminals. This is a very simple film where there doesn’t have to be a lot of explanation. The story follows new recruit Ha Yoon-joo (Han Hyo-joo)  who under the codename Piglet joins up with the team in order to help bring down a group of dangerous bank robbers led by a truly menacing figure codenamed James (Jung Woo-sung). Cold Eyes is most likely the least defendable of these movies, simply being a movie that is slick and fun for all the right reasons. One of the few movies on this list that requires no real afterthought.  

The Host (Bong Joon-ho, 2006)

The first Korean movie I ever saw, and probably the one that has the strongest grip on my heart if only for that exact reason. Bong Joon-ho is one of the best currently active filmmakers and any one of his movies is to be recommended. The Host, which centers on a dysfunctional family led by father Park Hee-bong, who along with his mildly mentality handicapped son Kang-du runs a small convenience store next to the Han river. When a mutated monster, the result of a formaldehyde dump in the river, attacks and steals Kang-du’s daughter (Ko Ah-sung) away the two along with daughter Nam-joo (Bae Doona again) and second son Nam-il (Park Hae-il) set out to rescue her.

The Host is a fantastic mix of genres, one part horror movie, one part family drama, one part dark comedy and one part social satire it is an incredibly effective film. I left The Host sitting on the shelf for years before returning to it and its place on this list is secured not only by its importance to me personally as by how re-watchable it is. That and that half of my favorite Korean actors became favorites because of this movie.

Han Gong-ju (Lee Su-jin, 2013)

This is a movie that I will say very little about since the less you know walking in the better. It is the story of Han Gong-ju (Chun Woo-hee) a girl who moves to Seoul in an attempt to move on from tragic events in her past.

The main reason why I so wanted to see this movie is because of the way Martin Scorsese has talked up the film as one of his favorite films of 2013, and after seeing it I can see why. Han Gong-ju is relentless in its delivering of its story and although it doesn’t implement any fancy camera tricks or anything like that, here it is not needed as all that is needed is the story, clean visuals and the actors and all three are top notch. Fantastic, but I won’t be re-watching it any time soon, because it takes its toll on you. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

Il Mare (Lee Hyun-seung, 2000)

Il Mare is the type of movie I always dreamt of making myself. It has a small cast, and a simple story. Two people who happen to live in the same house at different times realize that they are in fact living two years apart in time and can communicate through the mailbox. He is an isolated architect struggling with his loneliness (Lee Jung-jae). She is a voice actress recovering from a bad break-up (Jun Ji-hyun). As the two start writing their relationship goes from formal, to friendly to an odd form of genuine affection that asks the question: can they ever be together in real life?

Il Mare is as simple a love story as you can get. There are a few side characters but they are left very undeveloped and the pacing is very slow as to soak the viewer in what the two main characters are experiencing. I could go on about this one, but as it is a short film I don’t want to say more, except that if the plot sounds familiar it is that it was made into a Hollywood-movie called “The Lake House” starring Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock. However the Korean original is superior to it in every single way, so if you should watch a version of the story watch the original.

Memories of Murder (Bong Joon-ho, 2003)

Bong Joon-ho’s second movie on this list, and probably what I would consider the better of the two objectively speaking. I usually explain Memories of Murder to my relatively film-savvy friends as being the Korean equivalent to David Fincher’s Zodiac. It centers on a group of detectives led by incompetent country-cop Park Doo-man (Song Kang-ho, once again) and by-the-book city-detective Seo Tae-yoon (Kim Sang-kyung) who are tasked with solving a series of brutal murders on the Korean countryside.

Bong Joon-ho balances dread, unease and comedy here and along with the fantastic cinematography this easily becomes one of the more re-watchable movies on this list. Beautiful, well-acted and most importantly uneasily thrilling, Memories of Murder is a fantastic movie.

My Sassy Girl (Kwak Jae-yong, 2001)

Have you ever met a person that drives you crazy? That you don’t know why you have in your life and at times doesn’t even feel like is even left up to you to decide whether or not you want them in it to begin with? That is the basic plot of My Sassy Girl as main character Gyeon-woo meets a drunk girl on the subway home one night only to be mistaken for her boyfriend and having to look after her when it becomes apparent that she is unable to do so herself. Soon the Girl (Jun Ji-hyun from Il Mare) calls on Gyeon-woo to basically assume the role of her actual boyfriend, sans any of the affection be it physical or emotional and his life goes from typical to chaotic.

My Sassy Girl is once again proof of Korean cinema’s excellent ability to blend genres. My Sassy Girl begins as a straight comedy, and as it continues ads on layers to both of our leads that make you feel for them both. A movie that makes me laugh out loud and wipe that one tear running down my cheek within its two hour runtime it is something truly special, much like the Girl herself. Now the only question is… where can I find a girl like that?

Sunny (Kang Hyeong-cheol, 2011)

Life never ends up the way you though it would, and no matter how hard you want to hold on to some people they will fall out of your life. In Sunny we meet Im Na-mi (Yoo Ho-jeong) a neglected housewife whose husband is emotionally distant and whose daughter is discontent and unsympathetic to her mother’s attempts to win her over. When visiting her mother in the hospital she by chance meets her middle school friend Ha Chun-hwa (Jin Hee-kyung) who was the leader of their group of friends called “Sunny”. Dying from cancer, Chun-hwa asks Na-mi to try and track down the remaining members of Sunny so that she can see them all together again one last time before she passes.

That is only half the story of Sunny, since the other half focuses on how Na-mi became a member of Sunny in the first place. The movie jumps between modern day Seoul and Seoul in the 80’s as we meet Na-mi as a young girl (Shim Eun-kyung), newly moved to Seoul and uncertain of herself and her new surroundings.

Sunny is a nice little movie that shows the negatives and positives of both adulthood and adolescence, whilst also having its childhood segment set in a politically charged period of Korean history. There is a particularly fantastic scene which combines humor, politics and action all in one and I will leave it at that (but when you see a giant Sylvester Stallone and Dolph Lundgren you’ll know what I’m talking about). It should be said also that writing about Sunny creates the strongest desire to rush off and go watch it immediately of any of these films, at least for the moment.

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

The first part of Park Chan-wook’s “Vengeance”-trilogy is in my on par if not better than the critically loved second part “Oldboy”. Deaf-mute Ryu (Shin Ha-kyun) lives with his sister (Im Ji-eun) who is suffering from critical kidney failure which will kill her unless she gets a transplant. After losing all of his money for the operation Ryu along with his anarchist girlfriend (Bae Doona AGAIN) decide to kidnap his previous employer’s daughter in order to get the money, only for the father (Song Kang-ho AGAIN) to come after them for vengeance’s sake.

Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance is dark. Like, really dark. Park Chan-wook is, along with Bong Joon-ho’s biggest export-directors. It shows off style and understanding of film as both a visual and narrative medium that Park would come to evolve in his later films.

Again I don’t want to say much more since doing so will only spoil what makes the movie so good. Go watch it, and watch the rest of Park’s filmography while you are at it!

Thread of Lies (Kim Ryeo-ryeong, 2014)

Thread of Lies is a film I actually caught on Korean TV for the first time and it says a lot that I got caught up in it despite barely understanding what was being said. The film focuses on mother Hyun-sook (Kim Hae-ae) and daughter Man-ji (Ko Ah-sung from The Host) and how they deal with the incredible loss of the younger daughter/sister Cheon-ji (Kim Hyang-gi) to suicide. As they move into a new apartment and try to get their lives back on track Man-ji sets out to find out why her sister killed herself and if there is anyone that can be blamed for the act as bullying is revealed to play a part. But as most stories involving bullies, there is more than one hurt soul involved…

As a victim of severe bullying as well as a sufferer of suicidal contemplation and depression, this movie really struck a chord with me. This melancholic story jumps between Man-ji’s investigation, Hyun-sook’s attempts to get over the sadness and the previous life of all three of the family members before and leading up to Cheon-ji’s death and its attempts to humanize all its characters is refreshing and shows how much like a tangled ball of yarn where yanking on one thread can help tie a knot in a place you aren’t focused on at the moment, not seeing other people’s problems and only focusing on your own can in the end make you a participant in someone else’s disaster.

So those are my current top ten Korean films. This list will change I am sure, probably multiple times even before I leave Korea this time. But no matter what, these films will remain some of my favorites, and will be great films in their own right. If you read about a film that seems like it is something for you, then check it out. Hopefully you won’t be disappointed!