Title says it all. Been interested in Korean Cinema despite seeing so little, I just remember seeing Parasite and thinking “Fuck are Korean movies always this good?”. Wanted to know if you libs have seen any other good ones.
Check out the films of Park Chan Wook. My favorites of his are Oldboy, The Handmaiden, and I'm A Cyborg And That's OK.
Bong Joon Ho's other movies are also very good.
Oldboy was my introduction to South Korean cinema and it's never been the same (fuck the US remake).
I caught Joint Security Area on the Criterion channel and it was excellent
Memories of Murder (think Zodiac but the cops are portrayed realistically ie mostly bumbling idiots) and the Host (monster/pandemic movie) are by the same director as Parasite, and both rock. The Handmaiden is a lesbian romance/thriller and is wonderful. Burning is incredible, and is a good companion film to Parasite (deals with a lot of the same themes). Poetry is a more introspective drama by the same director as Burning, and it's also great. Oldboy and The Man From Nowhere are both awesome action films. And I'm totally in love with the filmography of Hong Sang Soo, who makes like three movies a year and they're all the same (just like, people talking and vibing but they're all on kind of different wavelengths and nothing really happens) but I love each and every one of them. He's a great auteur just doing his own thing, and it works.
Seconding The Man Fron Nowhere, that's like the best action movie I've seen in 10 years. I still think about the knife fight from time to time.
A Taxi Driver was pretty good. Its about a taxi driver who gets unknowingly involved in the Gwangju uprising
Pulgasari is the North Korean Godzilla and it's tight as shit.
Burning (2018) is based on the Murakami short story. Very slow tempo.
Train to Busan is like the perfect zombie movie.
Infernal Affairs It's the movie that 'the departed' ripped off.
+1 for Infernal Affairs, love that movie, but bud that's a Hong Kong production in Cantonese, not Korean.
They're Thai, buy Ong-Bak and The Protector are both amazing martial arts films. Saw Old Boy mentioned and was reminded of those two.
Attack the Gas Station was the first Korean film I saw and it was excellent.
Many good movies mentioned here. Don’t forget “Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter, and Spring,” or whatever it’s called.
The Housemaid! From 1960, not to be confused with similarly titled films from recent years.
With inspired editing and a restless camera (not to mention that famous bottle of rat poison), Kim gradually heightens the sense of tension and claustrophobia, creating scenes of startling intensity. The performance he draws out of young actress Lee Eun-shim as the housemaid (on the left in the photo) is unlike anything else shot in Korea in that decade, or indeed ever since. Sadly, her brilliant acting may have ended her career -- it's said that viewers' reactions to her were so strong (audiences reportedly screamed "Kill the bitch!" during screenings) that producers were unwilling to cast her in subsequent films.
http://www.koreanfilm.org/kfilm60s.html#housemaid
Streaming on the Criterion Channel.
I recommend the ones others mentioned like Oldboy, The Man From Nowhere, I’m A Cyborg And That’s OK, and Train to Busan.
Then there's:
I Saw the Devil
The Chaser
Veteran
Broken
Castaway on the Moon
A Hard Day
A Dirty Carnival
A Company Man
Tunnel (2016)
Killers (2014)
Fabricated City
The Outlaws
The Chronicles of Evil
Confidential Assignment
My Sassy Girl (this one hits different 'cause the female character reminds me of someone I liked who was just as violent. If she wasn't a chef now, she'd make a great dominatrix lol)
