Discoveries from South Korea World Cinema

In a world where tall spires fill the sky and unnecessary things are mercilessly discarded, Mogwi, who failed to prove his usefulness and was abandoned by humans as a child, wanders from place to place and ends up staying in a scrapyard. Mogwi, who is wounded, expresses hostility to everyone, but gradually opens up his heart to the robot Rom, who he meets by chance in the scrapyard. Mogwi knows that Rom desperately dreams of returning home, and together they go through hardships and adversities to find Rom's home.

A gloomy energy suddenly falls over a group of veterinary students who have to go deep into the mountains of Gangwon-do to track a released black bear. The deeper they go into the mountains, the more the black bear tracker hovers around the same spot, and the fear slowly creeps in...

Mori is a girl who collects the carcass of victimized animals from roadkill to bury them. Her elder sister doesn’t like her doing that, and the two have a quarrel. But the real reason that Mori cannot leave this place is something else.

There are five grandmothers, four of whom went to Jeonju Prison due to the Jeju 4.3. All of them were young people around the age of 20 at the time of the incident in 1948. The outline of the incident is formed when hearing the experiences of those who were sent to prison without trial particularly as women. The audience feels indescribable emotions by the fact that they have lived on despite what they had gone through, things that are just too much for a human being to bear.

This is a short film which Kim Soo Hyun took part in when he was student in 2008.

2015 short

A beautiful nightclub owner finds herself desired by many men, but she is saving herself for the one man she cannot have .

The life of Lee Seung-man, a freedom fighter who struggled to liberate Korea from Japanese rule.

A middle school student, Jung-eun, practices cartwheeling but it doesn’t go well. She even tries harder in order to impress a boy she has a crush on.

In the 1990s, Incheon experienced a period of economic, cultural, and educational growth centered on the area known as Dongincheon. This area became a hub for heavy metal and rock bands, music listening rooms, and concert halls. Over time, these facilities moved to the basements of Gwangyo-dong, where numerous Korean heavy metal and rock bands gathered and flourished.

In 1993, UFOs appear over every major city in the world. They remain floating in the sky; silent, motionless, unidentified. 29 years later, there is a rumor that some among us are aliens.

Tae-jun, seeing the beauty of Young-hee, was inflamed with passion for her. However, her brother Young-jin prevented him from approaching the girl. By placing Young-jin in a mental hospital, Tae Joon finally has free access to his sister.

KIM Soonak is a survivor of sex slavery by the Japanese military. The war may have ended, but her life was still at a war. She lived in the prostitute quarters to survive, did sex business in the US military camp town, and peddled goods from the US military. She raised two kids on her own as she worked as a maid. We’ll listen to her story in her absence. The film reconstructs the life story of the deceased KIM Soonak with interviews with activists, archive videos, animation, and read-aloud testimony.

A highschool student suffers from depression, resentment, and lonliness when he is forced to repeat his final year but his friend's are accepted into college.

A little feminine and timid Jinwoo accidently remains in an empty classroom with Sujin, a girl who he's crushing on.

Joon Soo, who decided to move to Seoul to fulfill his dream of being a musician, accidentally meets Hee Jeong, who just broke up, while he was singing a breakup song to a monkey in a zoo.

Chun-hyang, the daughter of a geisha in the Namwon region, and Lee Mong-ryong are engaged. When Lee Mong-ryong goes up to Seoul with his father, Byeon Hak-do, the newly appointed magistrate, attempts to take Chun-hyang. Chun-hyang rejects his pleas for her to come serve him and he throws her in jail. Meanwhile, Lee Mong-ryong becomes an undercover detective after placing first on his national exam and goes to Namwon to arrest Byeon Hak-do and rescue Chun-hyang.

It's not her turn, but she's pregnant.

Hui-jun is a delivery boy at a Chinese restaurant. While on a delivery, he runs into Sung-yong, who was his upperclassman in middle school. Hui-jun and his friend Dong-gi witness Sung-yong’s suspicious behavior and tail Sung-yong.

During the Japanese colonial period, Jinho, a Korean student, marries Sakiko, the daughter of Japanese army colonel Fukube. When it is revealed that Jinho is Korean, Fukube assigns Jinho to a unit in North Manchuria. In response, Jinho escapes from his unit and hides in the mountains with Sakiko.

Tae-seong who supposed to call Na-hee that he usually likes, drunk called Mi-yeon, who was not even his favorite. Mi-yeon, unaware of Tae-seong's feelings, visits him in excitement and she spends the night. When he got sober, Tae-seong realizes his mistake and gives up... then Na-hee came to Tae-seong. What could be their relationship?

After taking care of her mother for a long time, Hyo-eun inherits her mother’s house after she passed away. She tries to escape her mother’s shadow by removing any trace of her in the house. But as she is doing so, she hears whispers of her mother’s voice and strange things begin to happen.

Based on a radio drama, this wartime melodrama revolves around a woman caught between two men: her husband, a South Korean lieutenant, and her former lover, a North Korean officer who defects to come find her. The film portrays not only their tragic love triangle but also the empathetic bond that develops between the two men.

In-chul, a scholar of botany, is climbing a mountain for some research when he meets Jin-suk who lives in a forest cottage. At the request of Jin-suk's father, Sang-do, In-chul stays and lives with them. One day, a snake catcher falls under the temptation of Sang-do and is used as a body for dissection. While probing dubious action of Sang-do, In-chul is captured and locked in the basement. He is to become the subject of a live dissection. In-chul had been suspicious of their behavior and investigating when he was caught. In-chul is lying on a surgery table when he escapes with the help of a young hiker and Jin-suk. Sang-do confesses that he had been suffering from nightmares ever since he was dragged off by the Japanese and forced to perform live dissections. These nightmares have made Sang-do a murderer. After his confession, Sang-do kills himself. In-chul and Jin-suk leave the cottage.

A clerk at a jewelry store is an avid reader of the 007 series and admires the protagonist of the story. One day, he loses a huge amount of jewelry to a con artist. In order to catch them, he disguises himself as an woman and pretends to be a cabaret hostess to observe the perpetrators. And he finally reports to the police to arrest them all. A comedy.

On one of the dog days of summer, Jae-ha works at Samgye-tang (chicken soup) restaurant as a day laborer instead of her mother, who died of a stroke. There, through her mother’s co-workers, Jae-ha gets to know new aspects of her mother that she did not notice throughout her lifetime.

A woman wearing a short skirt pick up a man with a lover.

Jinmu starts to record things he should remember with a camera after hearing that he could lose his memory due to the prearranged brain surgery. Memories of family and his forgotten father comes to Jinmu's mind as he takes records of his life.

Yoon Hye-ri is abducted by human traffickers while meeting her husband, and Oh In-ae is also kidnapped in Itaewon and her innocence is violated. The two people, who are sold to the provinces, try to escape but fail, and the husband gives up his job and looks for a wife. Then, he meets Oh In-ae and finally rescues his wife with the united power of prostitutes, an alienated group, and vows to live while stroking the deep wounds that a sick society has given to his wife.

Three digital short films: 'Worldly Desires' by Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 'Haze' by Tsukamoto Shinya, 'Magician(s)' by Song Il-Gon

One Winter morning, the letter from Norway reached Lee Yeong-hee and Choi Yeon-hee through mistaken address. With the letter in their hand, Yeong-hee and Yeon-hee strolled the neighborhood on their way to a senior colleague's wedding. A replay of consolation to a relationship which is needless to say, but is full of empty words.

It tells the story of Ga-young, a film student at university who is not on good terms with her mother. Her mother doesn't expect much from Ga-young, who has been in school for seven years. She often tells Ga-young that she has no talent and her future is unclear. In turn, Ga-young harbours hatred for her mother for belittling and disparaging her. (London Korean Film Festival)

A propaganda film used by the Japanese military to recruit young Korean men as soldiers to defend the northwest border from possible Chinese attacks during World War II

Mike Markovich, a young stockbroker at a Mob-controlled Wall Street firm, is betrayed and imprisoned for six years. When he is released, his deadly quest for vengeance begins.

A documentary film covering the life of President Syngman Rhee and the contributions he made to the Republic of Korea, spanning his childhood, focusing on his independence movement, the founding of the nation, the process of leading to victory in the Korean War, and the process of laying the foundation for Korea's industrialization.

Twenty two years old Yongi and Yoonhee are unable to dream for a better future. No matter how much they try, the reality is heavy and exhausting. Eventually they go their own separate ways.

During the 1996 Gangneung Armed Forces Infiltration Incident, secret agents from the North Korean People's Armed Forces secretly installed a nuclear weapon, Phoenix, in Seoul, the capital of the Republic of Korea. Once caught in the vortex of war. The North Korean coup d'etat forces set off a nuclear bomb in Seoul to take over the entire North Korean regime, wreak havoc in South Korea, and then try to start World War III. At that time (1996), Lee Myung-cheol, the son of Dr. Lee, the developer of the nuclear weapon Phoenix, who learned this fact, secretly infiltrated South Korea and struggled to prevent World War III with the National Intelligence Service of the Republic of Korea. What will be the fate of Korea...

The Element of Hope is the story of a man who is completely cut off from the world and lives a life of isolation as if he were part of the house. He is looking for a job but does not seem hopeful. The only person he meets every day is his wife. However, communication between him and his wife is hard. His wife thinks their relationship has no hope. His wife, who is a faculty member at the university, appears to be dating another man.

During the Japanese occupation of Korea, the daughter of a British diplomat is kidnapped by bandits. A Japanese commander offers to free some Korean prisoners of war if the Korean Independence Army rescues the woman.

Two reluctant Vietnamese husbands embark on a wild mission to track down their K-pop-obsessed wives in Seoul.

In a village in Northern Manchuria, Min-gyu's Taekwondo training hall faces Sujuki's karate hall. With his defeat at a martial arts match, Sujuki loses his pupils to Min-gyu's Taekwondo hall. With growing hostility, Sujuki hires three masked men, Heuk-chun and Hwang-pyo, and has them kidnap Min-gyu's wife, Suk-hi. They torture Suk-hi forcing her to write a letter to her husband asking him to close the training hall and return to his home country. Heuk-chun and Hwang-pyo received from Sujuki a large sum of money for it. They are about to leave when Min-gyu stops and fights them. Along with Jin-pyung, Min-gyu tears down Sujuki's fighting hall and rescues his wife.

The map where the independence army's military funds are stored is contained within the body of the Buddha statue. A bloody fight ensues over this, and In-sik, a patriotic young man, searches for the lost Buddha statue with Monk Hae-cho. At this time, he meets a female singer named Gyocheongcheong. And Detective Mori follows them. They came all the way to Manchuria in search of the Buddha statue. The Buddha statue is kept in the home of an antiques enthusiast named Jincheon. The provincial office goes from place to place looking for Buddha statues. Seoljungmae appears like the wind and disappears without a sound. It is she, the school district office, who is the one who chills the conversation among Japanese people. Ultimately, thanks to her activities, the Buddha statue containing the map falls into the hands of the independence army.

A young man tunes his guitar while holding a telephone, having learned from his teacher that the beep sound of the phone is the same note as the “la” tone of the music scale. Having been discharged from the army following an accident that left him unfit for duty, he now picks up the phone for reasons other than social connection.