The Chosun Ilbo's Top 50 Korean Films
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- DirectorYu Hyun-mokStarsMu-ryong ChoiKim Jin-kyuJeong-suk MoonA pressured accountant, his war veteran brother and their dysfunctional family struggle with integrating into post-War Korean society.
- DirectorIm Kwon-taekStarsAhn Sung-kiJeon Moo-songMichelle Okkyung LeeA story that follows the lives and interactions of two Buddhist monks living in South Korea.
- DirectorKim Ki-youngStarsKim Jin-kyuJeung-nyeo JuEun-shim LeeA composer and his wife are thrown into turmoil when a housemaid becomes more than they bargained for.
- DirectorIm Kwon-taekStarsKim Myung-gonJung-hae OhKim Kyu-chulDespite its falling popularity, a father teaches his two children the Korean musical tradition of Pansori (one singer accompanied by one drummer).
- DirectorYong-Kyun BaeStarsYi Pan-YongSin Won-SopHae-Jin HuangAbout three monks in a remote monastery; an aging master, a small orphan and a young man who left his city life to seek Enlightenment.
- DirectorShin Sang-okStarsChoi Eun-hieShin Yeong-gyunYeong-seon JeonOk-hui lives with her grandmother, her mother and the maid. People refer to their house as the "Widow House" because all three adult women who live there are widows. One day, a teacher named Mr. Han moves into the house as a lodger.
- DirectorKang-cheon LeeStarsKyeong-hie NoYe-chun LeeKim Jin-kyuA group of communist guerillas encounter jealousy and rivalry among themselves because of the presence of the female compatriot while one of their members plots to desert their band
- DirectorKang Dae-jinStarsSeung-ho KimShin Yeong-gyunJeong-sun HwangA man tries to raise his two sons and two daughters under some of the most adverse conditions known to man. The father operates a horse-drawn cart, but in a city that is modernizing after the destruction of the Korean War, automobiles are making carts obsolete. The children are experiencing difficulties as well. The eldest son has flunked the bar exam twice and is not hopeful of passing it a third time to become a lawyer. The eldest daughter is mute and married to an abusive husband. The younger daughter tries to pose as a rich university student to move up in life. The youngest son has a penchant for petty theft.
- DirectorIm Kwon-taekStarsJi-mee KimShin Seong-ilJi-il HanA historical drama that incorporates real footage from the 1983 KBS campaign to reunite families divided by the Korean War with the fictional story of Hwa-yeong, a woman who leaves her middle-class life in Busan to search for the son she lost in Gilsotteum during the war.
- DirectorJang Sun-wooStarsPark Joong-hoonSeo Kap-sookDae-kun LeeSituated in the small poverty stricken town of Woomukbaemi, South Korea, this film centers on a clothes factory manager and the triangular relationship between himself, his insatiably jealous and violent wife, and one of his employees.
- DirectorPark Kwang-suStarsShim Hye-jinPark Joong-hoonJin-hui KimIn the winter of 1980s coal mining town, Ki-young runs away from the police due to his student protest and hides into the town. Then, Ki-young meets an unhappy waitress Young-sook who falls for him, and two people decide to leave together.
- DirectorHa Gil-jongStarsNam-hyeon ChoiKim Hee-raHa Jae-YoungThe story is set in the 1970s during the period of military dictatorship. Schools were frequently closed down and society seemed to face bleak prospects on all fronts. Nonetheless, Byung Tae, a college student, enjoys pursuing romance at group "meetings" or blins dates. It is during one of these ventures that he meets Young-ja, a French Literature student.
- DirectorLee Man-heeStarsBaek Il-seobKim Jin-kyuSuk MunGoing through a jail and a site of construction, a young laborer Young-Dal meets middle aged Mr. Jeong on his way to his hometown Sampo after ten years' absence. They become to know a waitress Baek-Hwa who runs away from a restaurant and then, they travel together. Arriving at the destination Kangcheon Station, Mr. Jeong is disappointed at the changes of the old village by building a hotel. Young-Datl and Mr. Jeong stay at Sampo not as the hometown but as the site of living. Baek-Hwa leaves Sampo with a ticket Young-Dal buys her with his last money.
- DirectorLee Jang-hoStarsLee Bo-heeKim Myung-gonHie-seong LeeThis is a film which ridicules the weaknesses of South Korean society.
- DirectorLee Jang-hoStarsAhn Sung-kiSeong-chan KimYeong-ho LeeThis is a film about the coming of age of three men.
- DirectorJong-won ParkStarsChoi Min-sikHong Kyoung-inShin GooA fifth-grade classroom takes on a political structure which reflects Korea's history of coups and dictatorial regimes.
- DirectorKim Soo-yongStarsShin Seong-ilYun Jeong-hieLee Bin-hwaA married man who moved to live in Seoul for a better life visits the small town where he grew up and falls in love with a local girl.
- DirectorIm Kwon-taekStarsJi-mee KimSo-yeong AhnHie MyeongA drama about several women who work in a "tabang" bar in Kangwon province, where sometimes customers exchange a "ticket" for something extra.
- DirectorYong-Gyu YoonStarsKi-jong ByeonHeon-yong OhSeung-min NamDo-seong is a child monk who lives at a small mountain temple with the head monk, learning the teachings of Buddha. He becomes attached to a young widow who comes to pray at the temple, and the childless widow entreats the head monk to let her raise Do-seong as her own son.
- DirectorJeong Ji-yeongStarsAhn Sung-kiLee Kyoung-youngShim Hye-jinSouth Korea, 1979. Han Kiju is an alcoholic novelist who has never recovered from his year long tour as a volunteer soldier in Vietnam. When he's asked to write a book about the Korean soldiers who fought in Vietnam he's battered by flashbacks that remind him of the brutality and lies that destroyed his innocence. The serialized novel brings him back in contact with a former soldier who served under him, PFC Pyon Chinsu, the one-time company clown driven mad by the violence of the war and who now looks to Han for some sort of emotional rescue.
- DirectorLee Myung-seStarsAhn Sung-kiHwang Sin-hyeBae Chang-hoLee Jong-se is a third-rate comedian who believes himself to be a creative genius. He desires nothing more than to be a movie director. When he befriends barber, Mun Do-seok who has hopes to become an actor, it seems like a match made in heaven and the two set off to make a film
- DirectorPark Kwang-suStarsBae Jong-okPark Joong-hoonKang Shin-ilA painter quits his job and looks to an old acquaintance for work and a place to stay.
- DirectorJeong Ji-yeongStarsAhn Sung-kiLee Hye-yeongJin-shil ChoiSouth Korean production exploring a North Korean perspective of the long, grueling account of the Korean War based on memoirs of Lee Tae, former news agency correspondent who fought for North Korean partisans.
- DirectorLee Chang-dongStarsHan Suk-kyuShim Hye-jinMoon Sung-KeunReturning home and finding his town drastically changed, a former soldier falls in with gangsters.
- DirectorHong Sang-sooStarsPark Choong-seonKim Eui-sungJo Eun SookAbout desires and lives of four characters in diverse circumstances. A poor novelist, a cheating wife, a mysophobic husband and a ticket girl.
- DirectorDong-hong JangYun-hyeon JangEun LeeThere are 200 miserably impoverished people working in the Dongseong Metalworks Factory. JU Wan-ik is introduced to the forging team as a new member of the team and they all go drinking together to welcome him.
- DirectorKang Dae-jinStarsSeung-ho KimJeong-sun HwangKim Jin-kyuA furnace repairman lives only for his children's happiness. But while his daughter is grateful and obedient, his son is constantly getting into trouble
- DirectorHo-sun KimStarsSong Jae-hoBok-sun YeomBool-am ChoiChang-su recalls the girl whom he loved before he entered the military. At that time she had been working as a housemaid. They meet again years later at a police station and the girl, Yeong-ja reveals that she quit her job after being raped by the son of her employer. Her life got steadily worse until finally she lost an arm in a car accident and had to work as a prostitute to pay for an artificial limb.
- DirectorLee Man-heeStarsJock MahoneyPat YiYoungson ChonA division of marines survive a battle with the Chinese army but find themselves stranded without contact on the wrong side of the front.
- DirectorBae Chang-hoStarsAhn Sung-kiChang Mi-heeYu-yeong JinBaek Ho-bin jumps into an arranged marriage with Jane for a green card and a chance to succeed in America. Because she felt like an isolated foreigner, his love is a beacon of hope. When Ho-bin finally gets through the immigration process, his ambition runs up against Jane's love. When the pretense is over, his aspirations nearly destroy her. The two decide to take a farewell trip to the desert, but will they find passion or death?
- DirectorIm Kwon-taekStarsKang Soo-younGu-sun LeeYang-ha YunShin, a nobleman, had been trying to conceive a male heir to pass his family name. Unable to provide a male heir, Shin's wife gives her husband permission to search for a surrogate wife to bear a male heir. On the way to finding a surrogate wife, Shin runs into a 17 year old girl, Ok-nyo (Kang Soo-yeon). She was a poor feisty girl who stated she would do anything for money.
- DirectorKim Soo-yongStarsShin Yeong-gyunEun-a KoJeong-sun HwangAt an ocean side village, many fishing boats never return from the high sea, and many of the women in the village assume they are widows when their husbands never return. One of them, Seongku, begins an affair with a coal worker.
- DirectorYoung-Joo ByunStarsSun-deok KimOk-nyeon ParkYeong-suk LeeThe first installment in Byun Young-joo's trilogy documenting the past and present lives of Korean women and girls who were forced to work in Japanese military brothels during World War Two.
- DirectorLee Jang-hoStarsKim Myung-gonLee Bo-heeSok-Yang ChooA young man travels to various regions of South Korea to scatter the ashes of his dead wife.
- DirectorJang Sun-wooStarsLee Jung-hyunMoon Sung-KeunYeong-ran LeeA young girl is caught up in the 1980 Gwangju massacre, where Korean soldiers killed hundreds, if not thousands, of protesters who opposed the country's takeover by the military the year before. Flashbacks show the girl seeing her mother shot to death in the massacre. The film spurred the Korean public to demand the truth behind the incident, and their government eventually opened previously classified files on the massacre.
- DirectorHur Jin-hoStarsHan Suk-kyuShim Eun-haShin GooHahn Suk-Kyu suffers from a fatal disease. He meets Shim Eun-Ha and falls in love with her. Will their love story have a tragic ending?
- DirectorIm Kwon-taekStarsKim Hee-raYun-seok ChoiHie BangTwo ruined, old adversaries meet in a rehab center and reassess the conflict that dominated their lives since the Korean War. One man is a former cop and the other is a former communist guerrilla. The film flashes back to their tragic pasts to explain how they arrived where they are.
- DirectorLee Doo-yongStarsJi-in YuWon NamkungJeong-sun HwangAn attractive young woman has been called on to help rid a haunted family of its demons - the male heirs all die young, and one is now in a coma - she has to clear the environment where several exorcists have failed before her.
- DirectorSang-ho ParkStarsMi-lyeong JoWon NamkungBin-a JuThe film exposes the atrocities of war through the eyes of two children who are stranded in the DMZ after the end of the Korean War. The DMZ, strewn with abandoned tanks, dead bodies, land mines, and unexploded shells, is an exceedingly dangerous place for children. But what most endangers them in the end are not weapons but people.
- DirectorPark Kwang-suPark Kwang SooStarsKim Bo-KyeongKim Bo-kyungYoo Byeong-SeokThe film intercuts two stories, one in black and white, one in color. From 1965 to 1970.
- DirectorLee Jang-hoStarsIn-suk AhnShin Seong-ilIl-bong YunA man and a woman fall for one another, but she is haunted by her troubled history with men.
- DirectorByung-il LeeStarsSeung-ho KimMi-lyeong JoYu-Hee KimA Korean style arranged marriage teeters on the brink of failure when the bride's family hears a rumor about the rich groom. If they cancel the ceremony they will lose face.
- DirectorLee Doo-yongStarsMi-kyeong WonYeong-Ryong ShinJeong-suk MoonKi-rye, from a respectable but poor family, is married off to the deceased son of a powerful government official. Her father-in-law takes pity on her miserable and lonely condition and helps her to run away. She becomes a servant in Minister Choi's house. She marries again to a low-level noble, but finds herself in dire straits when it appears that she is unable to produce a male child to carry on the bloodline
- DirectorHong Sang-sooStarsJong-hak BaekOh Yun-hongKim Yu-seokHelmed by one of Korea's leading directors, Hong Sang-soo, Jisook joins two of her girlfriends for a holiday in Korea's Kangwon Province. But in an eerie twist of fate, her former lover, Sangkwon, plans a getaway for the same destination, where tragedy brings them together once again.
- DirectorBae Chang-hoStarsKim Bo-yeonAhn Sung-kiKim Hee-raMosaic portrait of people living in an impoverished neighborhood in Seoul.
- DirectorShin Sang-okStarsChoi Eun-hieKim Jin-kyuShin Seong-ilA middle-aged man is laid off from work but is too proud to tell his family. His children, however, learn of the situation and take jobs of their own to help him save face.
- DirectorYu Hyun-mokStarsJeong-sun HwangDae-kun LeeShin-jae KimA family, ideologically divided but living under the same roof, experience the Korean War as tragedies shake their daily existence.
- DirectorShin Sang-okStarsChoi Eun-hieKim Jin-kyuKum-Bong DoChun-hyang, the only daughter of an old gisaeng named Wolmae, falls in love with Lee Mong-nyong and promises to marry him. But Lee leaves for Seoul with his father who's an aristocrat, and the new governor, Byeon Hakdo, covets Chun-hyang because she is the most beautiful girl in town. When Chun-hyang rejects his order to serve him at night, Governor Byeon sends her to jail. In the mean time, Lee passes the state exam and becomes a special undercover agent of the king. He comes back to where Chun-hyang lives to save her and punishes Governor Byeon.