Here are all the best Korean films that are well worth the subtitles
Yes, it's true that watching a foreign language movie means having to actually look at the TV screen rather than scroll on your phone to understand what's happening. But as Parasite director Bong Joon-ho so wisely said after winning the best foreign language film award at the 2020 Golden Globes, "Once you overcome the one-inch barrier of subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films."
World-class talent doesn't just come from the West – it comes from all over the world and in all different languages. So if you're in need of something to stream tonight, we recommend checking out one of the best Korean movies of all damn time (which also happen to be some of the best movies ever). There's so much more to Korean entertainment than K-pop music and K-dramas (though BTS and Squid Game are, of course, very, very good).
The Korean filmmaking industry has produced some of the best horror movies, tear-jerking dramas, spine-chilling mysteries, feel-good films, and genre-defying works of art – and all of them are worthy of the little extra effort it takes to read some subtitles, promise. So, here are some of the most popular Korean films ever, and yes, they're all most definitely required watching.
Broker
Release year: 2023
Cast: Song Kang-ho, Gang Dong-won, Doona Bae
Length: 2 hours and 9 minutes
Two men have a unique side hustle, regularly stealing babies from the church’s baby box — where people can leave children to be adopted or raised in an orphanage — and acting as brokers on the adoption black market.
But, they get more than they bargained for when one mother has second thoughts, returning for her child and deciding to go with them to meet the baby’s potential new parents.
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Oldboy
Release year: 2004
Cast: Choi Min-sik, Yu Ji-tae, Gang Hye-jung
Length: 1 hour 59 minutes
This iconic work from director Park Chan-wook is a classic movie about revenge. Not for the faint of heart, this dark and violent film follows Oh Dae-Su, a man who is released after 15 years in captivity and told to find the people behind his abduction in the next five days.
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Memories of Murder
Release year: 2003
Cast: Song Kang-ho, Kim Sang-kyung, Kim Roe-ha
Length: 2 hours 12 minutes
Director Bong Joon Ho’s second feature film, Memories of Murder, marked his first collaboration with actor Song Kang-ho, who would go on to star in the director’s Oscar-winning Parasite. The gritty murder mystery stars Song Kang-ho as a detective determined to solve a series of murders of young women.
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Decision to Leave
Release year: 2004
Cast: Tang Wei, Park Hae-il, Lee Jung-hyun
Length: 1 hour 31 minutes
This romantic thriller from director Park Chan-wook (The Handmaiden) follows an insomniac detective who becomes infatuated with a widow suspected of killing her husband. Like many of Park Chan-wook’s films, Decision to Leave will keep you guessing until the very end.
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Parasite (2019)
Release year: 2019
Cast: Song Kang Ho, Lee Sun Kyun, Cho Yeo Jeong
Length: 2 hours 12 minutes
This Best Picture winner follows the Kims, a poor family with big dreams trying to do everything they can to move up in society and out of their dingy basement apartment. They finally get their chance when the son connects with a wealthy family, but things end up taking a v dark turn. Just watch it—you won't regret it.
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Mother
Release year: 2009
Cast: Kim Hye-ja, Won Bin, Jin Goo
Length: 2 hours 9 minutes
Yet another A+ film directed by Boon Joon-ho, this tense thriller follows the great lengths a mother goes to in order to prove her learning disabled son's innocence after he's falsely accused of murdering a young girl.
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I Saw the Devil
Release year: 2011
Cast: Byung-hun Lee, Gook-hwan Jeon, Ho-Jin Jeon
Length: 2 hours 18 minutes
In this action thriller, a secret agent's pregnant fiancée is brutally murdered by a bus driver/psychopathic serial killer. And when her body is discovered, the agent becomes fully obsessed with hunting her killer down.
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Burning
Release year: 2018
Cast: Yoo Ah-in, Steven Yeun, Jun Jong-seo
Length: 2 hours 22 minutes
Based on the short story by Haruki Murakami, this psychological drama follows a highly unusual love triangle between a young delivery man, his childhood friend who asks him to look after her cat while she goes on a trip, and the mysterious man she meets while away. Expect the unexpected with this one.
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The Wailing
Release year: 2016
Cast: Jeong-min Hwang
Length: 2 hours 36 minutes
Set in the remote Korean village of Gokseong, The Wailing tells the story of Jong-goo, a policeman who must risk his life to investigate the mysterious illness spreading in the village, which causes its victims to become violent and even lethal.
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A Taxi Driver
Release year: 2017
Cast: Kang-ho Song, Thomas Kretschmann, Hae-jin Yoo
Length: 2 hours 17 minutes
Based on a real-life story, this drama takes place during the events of the 1980 Gwangju Uprising, following a widowed taxi driver who agrees to drive a German journalist from Seoul to Gwangju for a large sum, only to find the city under siege.
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The Handmaiden
Release year: 2016
Cast: Kang-ho Song, Thomas Kretschmann, Hae-jin Yoo
Length: 2 hours 43 minutes
In The Handmaiden, a woman named Sook-Hee is hired as the new handmaiden to Japanese heiress Lady Hideko. What Hideko doesn't know is that Sook-Hee is part of a conman's plot to try and defraud her and gain her fortune. But once the two ladies develop unexpected feelings for each other, things go majorly off-course.
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Train to Busan
Release year: 2016
Cast: Yoo Gong, Yu-mi Jung, Dong-seok Ma
Length: 1 hour 58 minutes
When a divorced dad boards the train from Seoul to Busan with his daughter, he has zero idea that outside the train, a zombie apocalypse has already begun.
He and his daughter — along with the rest of the colourful characters on the train — must then work together and fight their way for survival. A must watch, cult classic!
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A Tale of Two Sisters (2003)
Release year: 2003
Cast: Su-jeong Lim, Moon Geun-young
Length: 1 hour 49 minutes
An oldie but a goodie, A Tale of Two Sisters is inspired by a Joseon Dynasty-era folktale, following a recently released patient from a mental institution who returns home with her sister, only to find herself at odds with her father's new wife...and also the strange events that seem to plague their house.
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The Host
Release year: 2007
Cast: Song Kang-ho, Byeon Hie-bong, Park Hae-il
Length: 1 hour 54 minutes
Directed by Parasite's Boon Joon-ho, this truly bonkers horror flick tells the story of a monster living in the Han River (which was created as a result of chemicals dumped by American military personnel) and a local vendor who must save his daughter after she's snatched up by the creature.
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A Bittersweet Life
Release year: 2005
Cast: Lee Byung-hun, Shin Min-ah, Hwang Jung-min
Length: 1 hour 58 minutes
In this stylish action flick, a hitman named Sun-woo is instructed to keep an eye on his boss' mistress, Hee-soo, who he suspects is cheating. In the process, Sun-woo finds himself falling for Hee-soo, which becomes a problem after he decides to cover up Hee-soo's infidelity rather than come clean to his boss.
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Silenced
Release year: 2011
Cast: Gong Yoo, Jung Yu-mi, Kim Hyeon-soo
Length: 2 hours 4 minutes
Based on the novel The Crucible by Gong Ji-young (as well as the real-life events that took place at Gwangju Inhwa School for the Deaf), this crime drama follows a newly-appointed art teacher as he uncovers the sexual and physical abuse taking place at the school, which is for hearing impaired children.
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Barking Dogs Never Bite
Release year: 2000
Cast: Bae Doona, Lee Sung-jae, Byun Hee-bong
Length: 1 hours 46 minutes
This dark comedy is Bong Joon-ho's directorial debut. It's about an unemployed professor who is so extremely bothered by the barking of his neighbors' dogs, and resorts to kidnapping and killing them. But then he develops a relationship with a young woman investigating the mysterious dog disappearances, making the situation super complicated.
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Okja
Release year: 2017
Cast: Tilda Swinton, Jake Gyllenhaal and Steven Yeun
Length: 2 hours
This film is another Bong Joon-ho masterpiece, and actually stars some of Hollywood's brightest stars including Tilda Swinton, Jake Gyllenhaal and Steven Yeun. The film follows a young girl who grew up on a farm, helping raise a "super pig" named Okja.
The creature has become her best friend, which is why when a multinational conglomerate decides to take Okja for themselves, she decides to go on a big rescue mission across the world.
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No Tears For the Dead
Release year: 2014
Cast: Jang Dong-gun, Kim Min-hee, Brian Tee
Length: 1 hour 56 minutes
In this action movie, we meet a hit man. One day during a job, Gon accidentally kills a young girl and is plagued by guilt over murdering an innocent child. Then, he has an important decision to make when he is ordered to kill the mother whose daughter he shot years ago.
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Innocence
Release year: 2021
Cast: Hye-sun Shin, Jong-ok Bae, Joon-ho Huh
Length: 1 hour 50 minutes
A lawyer must defend her aging mother from a murder charge, but her investigation into the case quickly becomes more complicated than she could ever imagine.
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Night in Paradise
Release year: 2021
Cast: Jeon Yeo-been, Uhm Tae-goo, Noshir Dalal
Length: 2 hours 21 minutes
Caught in a war between two rival gangs, mobster Tae-gu flees to Jeju Island where he meets an arms dealer and his terminally ill niece. But as the rival gangs close in on Tae-gu, his new friends are put in danger.
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The Call
Release year: 2020
Cast: Park Shin-hye, Jeon Jong-seo, Lee El
Length: 1 hours 52 minutes
A young woman, Kim Seo-yeon, receives a call on an old landline from a woman, Oh Young-sook, who lived in the same home 20 years earlier.
The two begin a relationship, hoping to help each other change their circumstances, but when the future changes and the past remains the same, Oh Young-sook becomes vengeful and sets her sights on Kim Seo-yeon.
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Midnight
Release year: 2022
Cast: Wi Ha-Joon, Jin Ki-joo, Jeong Won-chang
Length: 1 hours 43 minutes
In this creepy thriller, a Deaf woman working at a sign language call center named Kyung-mi finds her life at risk after she accidentally witnesses a stabbing committed by a crazed serial killer (played by Squid Game's Wi Ha-joon) who makes Kyung-mi his new target.
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Dream
Release year: 2023
Cast: Park Seo-joon, IU, Kim Jong-su
Length: 2 hours 7 minutes
This lighthearted comedy starring Park Seo-joon and IU follows a rebellious footballer on probation who is forced to coach a group of homeless men, and train them to compete in the Homeless World Cup.
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Past Lives
Release year: 2023
Cast: Greta Lee, Yoo Teo, John Magaro
Length: 1 hour 45 minutes
Nora and Hae Sung, two deeply connected childhood friends, are wrested apart after Nora's family emigrates from South Korea.
Two decades later, they are reunited in New York for one fateful week as they confront notions of destiny, love, and the choices that make a life, in this heartrending modern romance. Grab the tissues!
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