The Best Films From South Korea

A female novelist takes a long trip to visit a bookstore run by a younger colleague who has fallen out of touch.

The Novelist's Film (2022)

A former actress with a secret returns to Seoul to live with her sister in a high-rise apartment and meets a director to discuss her return to acting.

In Front of Your Face (2021)

The life of a woman through the tumultuous years of Korea's modern history.

Myong-Ja Akiko Sonia (1992)

In mid-19th Century Korea, the people of Joseon Dynasty embrace the new religion Donghak. After the founder is executed, Choi Si-hyeong becomes Donghak’s second-generation leader and successfully propagates the religion, but in doing so becomes the object of oppression by the royal court.

Fly High Run Far (1991)

Min Ji-suk runs a "ticket bar"where customers can purchase tickets for certain "services"in the town of Sokcho in Gangwon-do. She hires Miss Yang, Miss Hong, and Se-young through the employment agency. Miss Yang and Miss Hong, who are well experienced in this type of business, are used to accepting propositions from customers. But Se-young, who is dating a college student named Min-su, rejects all requests for sexual favors.

Ticket (1986)

Follows an extraordinary weekend in the not-so-extraordinary life of Jinho. The story unravels around the fatalistic pattern of our meek hero's existence-where a chance meeting with the devil offers Jinho an escape hatch to his daily humdrum, and a shot at his greatest fantasy: a night of unbridled passion with all the women of his choosing as his personal sex slaves. Jinho's shy and idiosyncratic character, however, belie the true greed and foolery of his own desires-and steeped in his "Sysphus-esque" lack of self-knowledge, he falls prey to the glitter of the forbidden fruit.

A Nursery Tale (1999)

Twenty-nine year old Seo Sung-yim and twenty-six year old Shin Gil-woo want to escape from the boredom of everyday life. They meet accidentally and set out on a journey together. They spend their money as if they're trying to get back at the world and get immense pleasure from this. Although they are together for only a short time, they begin to understand each other. But Gil-woo's death takes him back to is former life and Sung-yim goes back to his everyday existence as if nothing ever happened.

The Winter Dream Does Not Fly (1991)

Resentment rages between two sisters, one of whom was indirectly responsible for her husband's death and the other who secretly loved him.

The Home of Two Women (1987)

When viewed in public, the Kim's seem to have the perfect marriage. In private, however, their married life is filled with turbulence, fighting, cheating, and accusations.

Mrs. Kim Ma-ri (1983)

Things backfire for young Cheol-hie when she convinces her father to go on a blind date with her kindergarten teacher. It turns out that her teacher is actually Cheol-hie's birth mother. While at first, Cheol-hie is excited at the possibility of her parents getting back together, it turns out that her mother/teacher has different wedding plans coming up in the near future.

Mother's Wedding (1982)

A mother lives quietly with her son. One day, a girl is brutally killed, and the boy is charged with the murder. Now, it's his mother's mission to prove him innocent.

Mother (2009)

A healing movie in the Incheon of 1993 about a man who would do anything for money becoming friends with a child who is then taken hostage.

Collateral (2020)