Discoveries from South Korea World Cinema

On their second anniversary of marriage, Kang Nam-dae and Jang Young-mi get bored with their routine sex. They visit a motel to re-live their first night and record it on a video camera. Nam-dae spoils the moment by bringing up their mutual friend Jae-guk whom Young-mi had dated previously. After reading Jae-guk's book and realizing he truly loved her, she leaves Nam-dae. Two years later, they meet again and go to see Jae-guk.

The curse of the darkness where the sun does not rise has fallen on the world, and Turandot, who has a cold heart, receives proposals from many men for his beautiful beauty. She comes up with three riddles as a condition for accepting the proposal, and anyone who fails to solve them turns to stone and dies. Calaf, the prince of the Balkan Kingdom, also solves her riddle and proposes... Turandot, a woman who does not believe in true love. Calaf, the only person who can move her heart. What will be the fate of the two?

The son of a Chosun Dynasty general, Kim Du-han finds himself orphaned when the dynasty ends and the Japanese colonize Korea in the early 1900's. He sets out to build a resistance army in this historical drama.

Right after Korea's liberation, O Yun accidently finds out through Choe Sang-bae about a large amount of gold nuggets Japanese soldiers left behind, O kills many of his colleagues to take all the gold to himself. In the end, a neckless beauty among the dead shows up and takes her revenge on him.

Yeong-jae (Sin Joo-ah), Ha-eun (Koo Ji-sung) and Chun-hee (Yoon Chae-i) have been friends for 15 years since high school. Yeon-jae is the youngest of a fine hotel owner and she aims to sleep with 1203 men throughout her life. On the other hand, Chun-hee is an old-school minded high school teacher who has never had sex before in her thirty-something life. Wedding planner Ha-eun was in love with one man for 10 years but recently experienced the pain of losing both her man and work. Then one day, to celebrate their 10th year majority, they have a party of their own in room 1203 of Yeon-jae's hotel. They say the house breaks down if three girls get together.

Kyung-whan, who's been with the same play team for 15 years, is out to have a get together after the play again tonight. Drinking brings the joy out of everyone but Kyung-whan's wallet is as light as a feather as he's been acting for a long time. However, his pride on acting and the stage is at its highest. Maybe too much. Kyung-whan feels upbeat with all the sweet talk from other members of the crew. And, there he goes again with the preach on acting with the little knowledge he has. While the preach is going on, one of the members' phone rings. It's an ex-member of the crew but now a big time star Nam-hee. Kyung-whan feels uncomfortable after finding out Nam-hee's about to join. He can't say no to it since everybody's excited about Nam-hee's visit and he doesn't want to be the person to ruin it. Kyung-whan gets demoted from the main role to a supporting role with the sudden visit from Nam-hee.

For Hee-chul, a deliveryman, his future is unclear. His father, who comes to see him, is a violent alcoholic, and it is his grandmother who cooks for him. One day, Yeon-ju, a college student in a similar situation to Hee-chul, asks him to play the lead role in one of her short films. Hee-chul dreams and hopes for the possibility of finding a new relationship through film. But reality belies his dreams. His grandmother, who is tired of the grim reality of life, leaves a note saying that she can no longer live with him and moves out of his house to begin a brand new life. And soon after, his father gets involved in bad financial dealings and becomes a wanted man. Hee-chul realizes that he cannot rely on his family or lover and turns to the faint hope he holds for film-making.

An old blacksmith discovers he shares a secret past with a troubled young woman he meets on the road in rural Korea.

German filmmaker Susanne, married to a Korean man named Kim Jeong Rae, turns the camera toward her own intercultural marriage and family with both humor and tenderness. Blending vérité and performance, the film dives into the beautiful mess of love, identity, and cultural collision. Becoming Kim asks: How do we stay true to ourselves—while learning to love another?

Chunhee, who is left alone after her parents died right after IMF crisis, has been living in her mother’s childhood house ever since then. She makes a living by peeling garlics, and saves some money for the treatment for hyperhidrosis. Everything was fine until she got struck by lightning. When she comes around and gets home, she encounters herself waiting for her, to be specific, her younger self.

Yong-cheol, a gangster living in the 1930's, gains the reputation of having amazing fighting skills. However, he decides to give up his lucrative but dangerous calling for his girlfriend. He agrees to do one more job for his boss, but during the robbery, he winds up killing his girlfriend's brother.

Seong-hoon becomes involved in an illicit affair with Moon-ok, the second wife of Choi Seok-pa, the chairman of a conglomerate, after helping her to the hospital when she fainted from vertigo. Choi Seok-pa schemes to use Seong-hun to protect his fortune from Moon-ok, but soon comes to his senses. Seok-pa's only daughter, Nan, falls in love with Seong-hoon, who has become cold-hearted in pursuit of his desires.

A high school girl will do anything to get the expensive sneakers her boyfriend lusts after--but how much is she willing to give up in her pursuit?

One peaceful morning, while young mother and little daughter lounge around, the phone rings. Mother hurriedly prepares to go out as picking clothes and putting on makeup. But her daughter starts whining claiming she wants to stay home for the day. In the end, daughter goes inside the bathroom and locks the door. When mother drags out her daughter in her sleep, the doorbell rings. What’d be her choice?

What are the chances that you will meet a bride in a wedding gown with sneakers on the subway? Just when Hee-soon was running out of sources to write about and found himself in front of a brick wall, a woman arouses his curiosity! Web-toon artist Hee-soon followed her. Bo-kyeong calls herself the 'unlucky one' and blames herself for everything including the time when her groom ran away from the wedding. Why did he run away? She didn't know, but she didn't want to resent him for it. So she sets out to look for him but the buses have stopped running and she has no money for taxi. However, a loser but a nice looking guy asks her where she's going. How long will he follow her?

The plot is based on the Korean folk tale, The Tale of Chunhyang. Chunhyang falls in love with the upper-class Ri Mong-ryong, but they must marry in secret. Mong-ryong is sent away to become a government official. While he is away, Chunhyang is imprisoned by a corrupt governor. Mong-ryong returns just in time to save her from execution and the two can publicly proclaim their love.

Eight aspiring students take on the quest of joining the school's annual Multiverse Short-Film Festival. In the process of doing so, Minho was casted as the lead role and built both expected and unexpected friendships along the way.

One day, a huge unidentified monster appeared all over the city, causing confusion in Korea. Jjang-dol, who lost his job due to the monster attack, wants to escape by selling ‘Stress Zero’ with his friends Dr. Ko and Ta-jo, but finds out that the drink is the only secret to stop the monster! Will Jjang-dol and his friends, who suddenly became heroes, catch the monster and save the world?

In-Young, a repeater of entrance exam, happened to know a murderer Dong-Su on her way to the sea. As she loses 48,000won in front of the ticket window and can't join her friends, Chang-Yun comes to there looking for her. While he is looking for In-Young, he meets Yeon-Suk, an elderly unmarried writer, who asks him to go to the sea together. But Chang-Yun runs away from her to find In-Young. When she meets Chang-Yun, In-Young tells him to go to the sea first and makes an appointment to meet Dong-Su who is about to search for her lost money in a park. However Dong-Su is chased and shot by the police and In-Young is arrested too. As Chang-Yun and Yeon-Suk , who get in an abandoned car by Dong-Su, are ran after by the police, they jump into the water without thinking of anything.

A short artistic, experimental, humorous film about saving birds.

The daughter, an aspiring actress turned insurance planner, dreams of running a café with her mother in their hometown of Jeju Island. As they contemplate signing up for dementia insurance for her mother, who is beginning to show signs of the condition, an unexpected delivery from the past arrives, prompting her mother to embark on a journey back in time to meet with old friends.

Korean pop culture has taken over, but another Korean export is also becoming very popular - the culinary delicacy of kimchi.

Chan-young is a musical actor. Dan-bee who is in a musical with Chan-young gently holds his hands behind the curtain. Chan-young stays still. There is Chan-young who has fallen in love for the second time. And there is Dan-bee who’s rushing to Chan-young. But it is unclear whether she knows or not about her immature husband’s affair... Chan-young’s wife Mi-sun is quiet and calm. However, as seasons change their performances are reaching their end and there is a change in their love...

Impulse disorder patient Icheon fantasizes about playing with his brother Yucheon in the hospital. But to those who don’t know about his fantasies, Icheon is just a strange boy. His mother struggles with paying the hospital bills, and barely gets by, receiving help from her husband’s friend.

Summaries An architecture student and a daughter of a bank branch manager are in love with each other. The love cools down as she gets to know his family ancestors were butchers. He spends his life in obscurity cursing his destiny of being born as a child of butchers. One day his father tells him a moving story of himself, describing how he overcame the handicap of being a butcher and has built up his business to a success. Then, he realizes his stupidity, decides to forget her and harbor a hope in his mind.

Kim Dong-soo is trying to escape with a list of compatriots who support independence, but is ambushed by a Japanese Sabroo, which takes away the theater and cuts off his son Eung-beom's three fingers. Eung-beom hones his orthodox martial arts with the help of Master Baegun. And he creates a new martial art unique to Chil Ji-soo and grows into a terrifying, high-skilled martial artist. Eung-beom, who has been taught his martial arts, descends in search of his homeland and his father's enemies. Eung-beom goes through all sorts of trials to punish Sabroo, a vicious Japanese. Meanwhile, he meets Kyung-ae, a Korean woman who works as Sabro-oh's henchman. In a confrontation to eliminate Sabro-Oh's subordinates one by one, when Eung-beom is put in jeopardy due to a cunning scheme, her Kyung-ae provides dramatic help. Eungbeom escapes from crisis and becomes angry and punishes his parents and enemies of the nation.

Governor Heo, worried over the plague that's sweeping the country, rebukes the Kus who make amulets to ward off evil. Heo castrates the husband when he makes superstitious claims and takes the wife as his mistress. Heo continues to be tormented by hallucinations and nightmares and begins to blame it on the Kus' curse. He kills the couple at their reunion and unable to ward off his bad karma, dies from leprosy.

A romantic comedy that tells the story of a fashion designer from Pyongyang who comes to a small village to show her latest designs. Since the fashion designer is young and attractive, the village patriarch comes up with a plan to set her up with a duck farmer who has ambitions of moving to the city.

The school finds peace with Han-cheol's dropping out. Min-soo, whose fighting abilities have intensified, bluffs his friends. Sang-gil discovers that the number of students in the school's secretly run fight club is increasing and asks Yoon-hyeok who the prime leader of the club is. Yoon-hyeok tells him it is Min-soo and Jin-man. Jin-man and Min-soo are wrongly accused and sought for the fight club, when Yeon-ji, who abandoned them, returns. They reject her, but end up being in a good relationship with her again. Then they run into Ga-yeong and sneak into a fight club meeting...

A sad breakup between a sound staff called boom operator and an actress who were secretly in love.

Two inseparable male models promise each other never to fall in love with a woman. However they both find themselves inexplicably attracted to a wealthy and ambitious aerobics instructor.

A little girl is reunited with her reluctant small-time criminal father. Jong Dae is a lowlife conman and gangster who lives in a old trailer in a junkyard by the sea. Not exactly ideal father material. He is (understandably) shocked when, while in jail yet again, a social worker visits to inform him that he has a seven year old daughter called Joon (Seo Shin Ae) who has been living in an orphanage and is on her way to America to be adopted. Little Joon desperately wants to meet her daddy before she leaves.

A man gets hit by a ball. At that precise moment, at the clicking sound of a camera shutter, the whole world comes to a halt. The film is a fantasy tale of our everyday life that gets filled with little moments coming and going, leaving their marks in this lonely world.

Go Ara, a deaf dancer, navigates a world where hearing aids offer only a partial connection to sound. The nuances of speech remain beyond her grasp, and the music that fuels her dancing feels frustratingly distant. Despite these obstacles, Go Ara embarks on a profound journey: motherhood. Haunted by childhood taunts in music class, she hasn't sung in twenty years. Yet, the birth of her child awakens a long-dormant desire. For the first time in two decades, Go Ara sings a lullaby. This simple act reignites her love for music, prompting her to explore new artistic territories and craft a soundscape that is uniquely her own.

13 year old girl, Hyeju has to spend a few days with her highschool student brother while her parents are absent. By the way, her brother brings his girlfriend home and lets Hyeju out. Hyeju doesn´t know where to go, so she comes back home after killing time somewhere like PC room. Next morning, she finds used condom in bro´s room with curiosity. And she finally has a date with a highschool boy who she could meet through the online chat, but it is awkward and uncomfortable somehow.

While preparing to shut down the photo studio business that he has been running, a man hears that someone named Chulsu has died.

Song-jae immerses himself in scientific experiments and abandons all personal life. Song-sun commits suicide while opposing the marriage arranged by her parents.

The father of the man found a stepmother for the man. Because of the imminent face of the college entrance examination, there are some pressures in the life of the man, and the way he releases the pressure is more abnormal. He uses the stolen stepmother’s underwear to masturbate, but he was discovered by his stepmother. The male lord simply did not endlessly, and attacked the stepmother's body. Under the refusal of the stepmother, the male owner found his own gentle township....

Buzz Salon which is run by Cho is known for its mysterious ambience. Gi-hyuk, one of Cho's best customers, falls for Hae-joo, a hostess at Buzz. Cho uses Hae-joo to kill gangsters who harass him with money he owes them. When Gi-hyuk discovers that Hae-joo is biologically male, he feels betrayed and becomes disillusioned. He leaves her for good. Hae-joo is able to get her transgender operation in return for the assassinations and goes in search of Gi-hyuk. She returns to Gi-hyuk, as a new person, calling herself Yoo-jung. She also begins to take revenge on the thugs who abused her in the past.

The pupils of rival martial arts schools attempt to destroy each other using super-martial arts and spells raising the dead.

One morning, the wife hands her husband an umbrella as he goes to work and tells him to go to the hospital, but he only responds rudely. The wife buys an orchid in bloom on the street and goes to the hospital alone. The pregnancy she wanted does not occur. That afternoon, it rains. The wife and husband meet by chance at the entrance to the subway station.

Ha-jun always engross his friends love with his good looks. Min-woo, a close friend who is jealous of Ha-jun, summons a devilish ghost, but the ghost who fell in love with Ha-jun spends a hot night with Ha-jun every day. Looking at Ha-jun who looks happy after all, Min-woo is planning another curse.

When King Myeong-jong dies, his son takes the throne and the old king's concubines are expelled. One of the concubines becomes pregnant. Believing that only she knows the true father, she claims the unborn child is the former kings and has a claim to the throne. The enemies of the new king, ignoring facts, decide to support her claim and threaten to start a civil war.

Jong-hak is working as a consultant who helps refugees from North Korea. At the same time, he is a spy who sends the names of the refugees to North Korea. Jong-hak’s ordinary life changes as his watch starts cracking.

In 1909, the Korean Empire is on the verge of losing its sovereignty to Japan. Patriot Ahn Jung-geun and his comrades pledge their lives to the movement for Korea's liberation. Seol-hee, a court lady of the late Empress, also expresses her intent to join the independence movement. Ito Hirobumi, the first Japanese resident-general on the Korean Peninsula, heads to Harbin to pursue his dream of advancing into Asia. On Oct. 26, 1909, a shot rang out at Harbin Station.
Beloved son, father of two children, and husband, Ahn Jung-geun, assassinated Ito Hirobumi. In court, Ahn claims not to be a terrorist, but a prisoner of war desperate to protect his beloved homeland, Korea. Who is the one guilty of a crime?

Family members left behind, who have played different parts in their lives, fail to disguise their habits and expectations.

Don't worry. You were lonely at home. It will be better to be with friends. There will always be a lot of people visiting you. The ceiling is higher, and it will be warmer there.

South Korean live action adaption of the ultraviolent post-apocalyptic manga, Fist of the North Star.