Over the past 20 years, the South Korean film industry has created a large number of excellent war movies. Due to its prominence in the nation's collective memory, the Korean War (and ongoing tensions with North Korea) is the subject of the majority of these films. However, Koreans also took part in the Vietnam War and World War II. This implies that there are films about the Korean War as well. The best war films made in South Korea are examined in this list.
1. Steel Rain
In this espionage thriller/war movie hybrid, played by Jung Woo-sung, a North Korean spy joins forces with a South Korean bureaucrat to avert nuclear war on the Korean Peninsula. A coup takes place in North Korea as the film opens. A belligerent group of generals seizes control, inciting unrest with a false flag attack and making nuclear threats.
2. Northern Limit Line
The Second Battle of Yeonpyeong was fought between South and North Korea in June 2002, while the World Cup was being jointly hosted by South Korea and Japan. The account of this tense seaborne engagement is found in Northern Limit Line. North Korean patrol boats opened fire on South Korean ones during the battle, starting a bloody back-and-forth that left dozens of people dead or injured on each side.
3. White Badge
Many people in the West are unaware that South Korea, the second-largest foreign contributor to the war after the US, sent more than 300,000 troops to fight in Vietnam. Park Chung-hee, a military dictator who ruled South Korea at the time, used these deployments to win over the US. As a result, much like the US, South Korea also has a divided memory of the conflict, with many liberals viewing their country's participation as traumatising and dishonourable.
4. Sunny
Sunny, a superb Korean film that presents the conflict from a very different angle, is another excellent Vietnam War film. In order to find her husband, Korean woman Soon-yi travels to Vietnam as a singer, played by Korean actress Soo Ae. Soon-yi adopts the stage name "Sunny" while in Vietnam, giving the movie its name. Another illustration of how Sunny examines the impact of the Vietnam War on South Korea's modernization and cultural memory is this renaming.
5. Ode To My Father
Ode to My Father, as we separately examine with an in-depth review, is comparable to the American film Forrest Gump in that it depicts the journey of an average person through recent history. As a result, even though some of the film takes place outside of war, many pivotal scenes do (like how Forrest Gump serves in Vietnam and meets Lieutenant Dan).
6. My Way
An Asian man with German Wehrmacht garb was captured by American paratroopers on D-Day. Yang Kyoungjong was a Korean who had the unfortunate experience of being drafted into the militaries of the Japanese, Soviet Union, and later the Germans during World War II.
7. Operation Chromite
Another movie about the Battle of Incheon was produced in South Korea. Operation Chromite, named after the codename of the amphibious landing, focuses on a small intelligence unit tasked with clandestinely scouting the landing area. The South Korean protagonists of Operation Chromite pose as North Korean soldiers to gather crucial intelligence, such as maps of where naval mines are to be placed, in a loosely based on the actual Operation Trudy Jackson.
8. A Little Pond
The No Gun Ri Massacre, one of the most heinous incidents of the Korean War, is explored in A Little Pond. Before the Incheon landings, in July 1950, American forces opened fire on a group of South Korean refugees they believed to be hiding North Korean spies, killing hundreds of them.
9. The Long Way Home
While there is fighting in war, there is also comradery. As some Korean war movies demonstrate, this comradery can occasionally exist even between adversaries. One of these films is The Long Way Home from 2015. Kim Young-kwang, a young North Korean soldier, is matched up against middle-aged South Korean conscript Jang Nam-bok in this humorous war film. The commanders of Jang give him instructions to deliver a crucial classified document.
10. In Love And War
In Love and War offers a more humorous perspective on the Korean War through its use of comedy, romance, and combat. A remote South Korean village is invaded by North Korean soldiers in this movie in June 1950. The villagers welcome the troops with great hospitality as they struggle to survive.
