South Korean cinema is well known for its on-screen, no-holds-barred, gruesome violence, which has earned it a spot on the list of the most interesting films. Park Chan-wook remains the most prominent name in Korean cinema; his worldwide success has opened up Korean cinema to comparable administrations.
1. Hope | Lee Joon-Ik | 2013
Based on the infamously terrible Nayoung Case, which rocked the country in 2008, "Hope" has the potential to be a devastating drama about a beautiful family. Their peaceful lives are shattered when their 8-year-old daughter So-won is crushed, raped, and left for dead. So-won survives the inhumanity, but it leaves a psychological and emotional scar on her and, by extension, the family.
The film is very off from the actual incident. So-effort won to rediscover herself and regain stability will inspire you, even if the film never delves deeper into the psychological issues she faced. It's full of humour, but it's the only reason to upset such a skin-crawling, even perplexing audience.
2. Pietà | Kim Ki-Duk | 2012
Can you escape the horrors of your past? Whether or not your neutral person or a victim of circumstances, is there still hope for you? Ki-Duk Kim (Known for Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter, and Spring) typically passes tiny, however important, attributes through his films.
While “Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter…Spring” was his meditation on life alongside all its important entities, through "Pieta" he tells a story of a vicious loan shark, who is cold-hearted, mortal, and unpitying towards his debtors. Neither he provides them extension nor does he kill them. He cripples them. He makes their life excruciatingly painful. Lack of any compassion towards his victim makes him cold.
He is alone and depressed, which is evident from one in all the essential scenes in films. However, life was not that unfair to him. A mysterious girl invites herself on his door and refuses to leave. Step by step he accepts the girl in his life, whereby he starts to assume that there's hope for him. Kim's "Pieta" may be a staggering study of the human condition. It shows however love is the beginning of every single issue that goes right and wrong in life. It additionally shows however love will typically lead to pain, revenge. It's not a contented film. And even despite the massive reveal towards the top of the film, it leaves you with a lump in your throat with its hypnotic tendency that doesn't relinquish.
3. Thirst | Park Chan-Wook | 2009
Park Chan-Wook brings a replacement twist to a generic standard of our usual high cheekbones vampires that we see in Pop Culture; vampires drinks blood, and have drawn out teeth to uphold the arterial blood vessel. His twisted but magnificent tale feels relatable, though the likelihood of their existence shares the same fate as fairy tales.
4. The Host | Ring Joon-Ho | 2006
Bong Joon-ho's monster drama 'The Host' is a smaller amount of a horror film, a couple of slippery tentacle monsters unleashing terror across the Han stream boundary, and a lot of a delicate, however critical, health-care forms, consumerism, and pollution.
The drama shows how the dysfunctional family acts as a connecting tissue, to handle the same problems within the garb of a monster show. One of the best achievements of ring Joon-ho is to tug off a flash of glee throughout the saddest scene, and he will work with charisma within the Host. Attempt not to laugh once the family is mourning the death of their endearing teen woman.
5. On The Occasion Of Memory The Turning Gate | Hong Sangsoo | 2002
One of the earliest works of Hong Sangsoo, 'On the Occasion of memory the Turning Gate', features a made and intriguing narrative loaded with up within the air, complicated emotions that leave a young skilled actor in tithers. Gyung-soo dates two ladies in succession whereas on his visit to an exponent. Each of the romantic tales seems harmonic with a number of the events happening specifically; however, what separates them is the outcome of the flings.
6. The Bow | Kim Ki-Duk | 2005
Kim Ki-Duk’s 'The Bow' is a slippery and dark character study of a 16-year-old girl who has spent a decade on the boat. The girl is living under the guardianship of an older man with a multipurpose bow who plans to marry her when she turns 17. She has been away from civilization for a decade, and that has serious psychological effects on the character's behaviour.
The peaceful, routine life and bond of trust, show a crack when a young, college student boards their tugboat. The gap widens when the girl internalizes the freedom of choice. Kim Ki-Duk never explains the motive or tries to resolve the conflicts. Instead, he uses silence and soothing music to reflect upon the emotional plight of the characters.
7. Il Mare | Lee Hyun-Seung | 2000
Lee Hyun-Seung fine blends the old-fashioned romance with a strong nevertheless minimalistic visual style.
Two troubled people, separated by temporal time warp, connect through letters found within the letterbox at Il Mare, the name of the Lake House. The concept sounds absurd; however, the method characters navigate through their house and heal one another, while not succumbing to the genre tropes, via the fantastical exchange of letters, has a lot of to try to with impulse and therefore, the feeling of affection, then the plot itself. Hollywood couldn't resist the charm and remade the film in 2006 titled ‘The Lake House ‘, stellar Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock.
8. New World | Park Hoon-Jung | 2013
Park Hoon-Jung's fashionable male lead drama 'New World' is an experiential character study of the Korean Crime syndicate's inner functioning, that starts to fall apart once the death of the Chairman during a staged road accident. A helpless Ja-sung (Lee Jung-Jae), has his loyalty questioned once he doesn't realize some way out. Navigating through the crumbling empire, the drama unfolds on the dramatist landscape created from betrayal and shifting loyalties.
'New World' would closely tally 'Infernal Affair' in its setting; however, Park Hoon-Jung takes a humanistic approach in fleshing out the characters.
9. The Dark Figure Of Crime | Kim Tae-Kyun, Kim Tae-Gyun | 2019
'Dark Figure of Crime' may be a gritty, visceral crime-drama that works as a fine character study, and a drama concerning hope during a bleak and glum world. It's everything that Kim Hyeong-jun's mystery 'No Mercy' needed to attain, however, fell in need of, because of his excess in smartness. Hyong-min's life is changed into an instinctive chase when a cold-blood manslayer Tae-oh nonchalantly confesses to the unreported past crime.
10. A Bittersweet Life | Kim Jee-Woon | 2005
"A Bittersweet Life" is usually acknowledged for two things: its razor-sharp action scenes, sewn along, one when another; and therefore, the taut narrative that doesn't allow you to catch your breath till the tip credits. The touching character drama of its protagonist isn't noted for discussion.
However, there is no denying the fact, that what makes those action scenes worthy is the exhilarating drama encompassing Lee Byung-hun's Sun-woo.
A man who has never been smitten before suddenly finds himself at the mercy of the romantic feelings that he fails to concede. What brings sweetness in Sun-woo's bitter life is his boss's mistress, Hee-soo (Shin Min-ah), taking part in songs at a music recital, and reflective however empty and shallow his life is the conclusion of emptiness propels him to travel against his boss, which ends up in a very violent feud.
