Discoveries from South Korea World Cinema

Inundated by the relentless, breakneck pace of Seoul, a weary woman seeks to anesthetize her misery with alcohol and partying. Longing to break free, she will have to take a leap of faith to find solace and serenity.

It's cold outside. A young couple, Eunyoung and Seungki, are on a date at the park. They seem happy just having some beer and listening to music together, but it turns out that they lost big time on the stock market and have a big debt in front of them. As they talk about the subject they start blaming each other and have a big fight. Eunyoung bursting into anger tells Seungki she's going to go meet a rich prospective husband which her mother set up for her.

During the Japanese occupation period, Koreans were forced to deport or drafted to work in other countries. Now 150 years passed, it appears around 7million of those people and their families are spread in 170 countries. There, a world-famous Korean-Japanese musician Yang Bang Ean follows the pathways of Korean diasporas as an inspiration, and performs his cross over music concert called ‘ARIRANG ROAD’.

Korea, the now: A young man makes a fateful encounter with a stranger he passionately falls in love with. When Unk rides his scooter through the night he fails to notice a drunk pedestrian, a man called Boaz, and hits him. The accident has unforeseen repercussions since shortly afterwards Unk and Boaz start an intense relationship that leads into a gradually worsening dependency.

An old man Park's daughter Eun-Sil happened to know that her biological father is not him and her mother died accidentally at the foot of Seo Rak Mountain. Eun-Sil tries to find out her mother's cause of death and makes sure that his father Song Deok-Sil killed Eun-Sil's mother, his fiacee then, to marry to a daughter of a ChaeBol. To revenge for her mother Eun-Sil gets a job as a governess in Song Deok-Sil's house. But she finds that not only she but also old man Park and Mrs. Choo, a maidservant, threaten Song and his wife. However his wife stately stands against their threats and asks Eun-Sil to forgive.

A nurse who needs money is offered a simple anesthetic part-time job, who soon finds herself caught up in a dangerous insurance scam and tries to escape. However, the nurse is left to the end.

Seo-rim, drowning in debt, plans to kill a homeless girl, Sum-e, for identity theft. However, Sum-e unexpectedly kills Seo-rim's boyfriend and disappears. Now a suspect and facing blackmail, Seo-rim must confront her past and a shocking truth.

Sun-hee and Sung-gu are about to be divorced after 6-month-adjustment period. On the court day, they meet each other at Guui Station, wander the streets and check their feeling for each other.

Won Sa-yong kills his friend to take the latter's girlfriend, Seol-hie. Seol-hie is not happy with this situation and bites her own tongue off and bleeds to death. Ten years later, she reappears as a vampire and attempts to destroy Sa-yong and his family.

A transgender female dancer, Shin-mi, gets a call from the Military Manpower Administration, to attend the Military Service Examination.

A camcorder captures Young-joon and Joon-seok’s anniversary, but beneath the love lies the quiet unraveling of five shared years.

During the Daesong period, Seo-nyeong, who was working as a bridgehead for the Geumchang class, paid sick leave and helped Yangsan-bak to repel the subjugation of the royal court. The court ordered Ho Yeon-jak to subdue Yang Yang-bak, but he was puzzled by the news that Ho Yeon-jak was defeated. Wang Tae-wi, who learns that Pain was in the Seonyeong family's festival, the Gugyeom Changbeop, uses this as an excuse to plot a scheme to steal Seonyeong's secret weapon, the Bogap, which cannot penetrate even spears and arrows under any circumstances.

High school students Jae Nam and Seo Hyun are happy just to be together. But after an unfortunate live broadcast, Jae Nam is suddenly nowhere to be found.

The children are busy. The daughter has got divorced and is now taking care of her autistic son. The oldest son has lost his job and is busy finding another job. The youngest son doesn't have a decent job but manages to get by through driving a delivery truck and working as a chauffeur. Their parents don't blame their children for not calling or visiting on their mother's birthday.

In the winter following her college entrance exams, 19-year-old Yurim wanders the streets with her best friend Seonmi, who ran away from her broken home.

Soobin finally lands a job! With a fluttering heart, she steps into the elevator on her first day. However, countless obstacles still lie between her and her destination: the 7,891st floor. This handmade sci-fi film, created with quiet persistence using 100% analog methods, was made over the past two years, coinciding with the rise of AI as it began to threaten art.

The North Korean defector, who has just settled in the South, is confused by his brother who was separated from the defection process. Ji-hyeok, a Chinese restaurant deliveryman who is having a hard time finding a job due to his criminal record, wants to leave Korea as soon as possible. To raise money for his defector brother, Ji-hyeok, who is involved in a dangerous drug-transport errand, suggests intercepting billions of won of methamphetamine.

Kind-hearted country bumpkin O-bok leads a simple life working as a long-time farmhand for the rich landlord Soon-young. When Soon-young discovers that his son Jae-seok has fallen for local girl Soon-yi, he protests the relationship and arranges for Soon-yi to be wed to O-bok instead. Despite the initial heartbreak, Soon-yi grows fond of O-bok over time and they have a daughter together named Sook-hee. However, when Jae-seok returns into Soon-yi’s life, she cannot resist his charms and runs away with him, leaving Jae-seok to raise Sook-hee on his own. Years later, Sook-hee is now a grown woman working in the city and in close contact with her father. However, a series of coincidences threaten to forcibly reunite O-bok and Sook-hee with Jae-seok and Soon-young in the most dramatic way possible.

After exacting revenge on the people who killed his father for his involvement with the 1940's independence movement, Park Dal visits his father's friend, Reverand Hwang, and becomes convinced that he should carry on in his father's place.

While secretly trying to film the woman next door, Seungsoo happens to capture footage of a murder. The murderer kills Seungsoo, too, but only after the tape with the recording of the murder has been placed in the return box of a video rental shop. As he borrows videos randomly in search of the incriminating tape, the killer learns from Seungsoo’s younger sister, Seungmi, that her brother was a fan of thrillers. Starting with De Palma’s Dressed to Kill and Hitchcock’s Vertigo, the murderer becomes deeply enamored with film. In the end, he reveals his dream of becoming a director to the cashier at the video rental shop…

f(x) 에프엑스 "Pink Tape" The 2nd Album Art Film

Seon-yeong is surprised when Yura, a friend from her hometown, suddenly visits her. Seon-yeong has no choice but to let Yura stay at her place for a few nights since she has no plans. But Yura does not leave, and Seon-yeong gets irritated by her overstays.

The four vampires tired of living try different ways to die, but they cannot. While pondering the last hypothesis that'if you sleep with a vampire, you die', Jong-su declares that he will sleep with Sun-a.

Bo-ra and her brother, Tae-hun, lose their grandmother they have been living with since their parents’ death. But soon after he gets shocking news that Bo-ra has been kidnapped. The kidnappers plan to use Bo-ra in an online porno and threaten to post it on the web by 10 pm on the following day. Tae-hun embarks on an urgent mission to find his sister and get her back from the kidnappers!

Every morning, after driving his street cleaning car around the city, Seong-chun visits Il-hae's noodle shop. One particular morning, Seong-chun helps Il-hae and his daughter drive away gangsters who were trying to extort money from the business. This earns the honest laborer the gangsters' wrath

Questions occasionally turn up in the mind about those deeply buried stories that nobody was clear about. Can 8 young people find the real answer? What is the tree of knowledge and the forbidden fruit? Why did God make the fruit and let people pick it and eat it? It is Jesus who suffered for their sins, was resurrected and be-came the way of truth and a virtuous life itself. If people followed the way of Jesus, they would be resurrected and be unified with God and get into Heaven. But the reality is that the human world and God’s world are separated.

Stories of three women who have been living in Itaewon, Seoul, Korea since the era that the town was run by U.S dollars of the U.S. Army.

A short film about making relationship choices, and second chances.

A woman living in main street goes to school in a rich environment, but she is full of loneliness. One day she saw a cloud and decided to go to Sinchon Station, so she met a new man. Her little lie started the meeting between the two.

The keepers are kept busy with animals under their care. These animals, although they've got the hint of their natural instinct left, are unlikely to survive if released back to the wild. It'd be difficult for them to take part in the pack and they lack the skills to find food. Nevertheless, the ultimate goal for everyone at the zoo is to send the animals back to where they truly belong.

"Wae(Distorted): The Cartel" is a shocking documentary film that conducts an in-depth analysis of various statistical and physical evidence revealed during South Korea's April 15, 2020 general election. The narration is provided by Yoon Joo-sang, a renowned actor and voice actor. The horrific election fraud—so hard to believe and yet impossible to ignore—did not end with the April 15 general election. It has continued even after the change of administration. It is our sincere hope that this film will help widely expose the appalling reality of election fraud that outrages the conscience of all people.

Three years after winning the first season of music competition program "Sing again - Unknown Singer," Lee Seung-yoon has since released two full-length albums and an independent film about him, "Notes from the Unknown". "LEE SEUNG YOON CONCERT DOCKING : LIFTOFF" is a live performance film about the last day of the Seoul performance of Lee Seung-yoon's national tour concert DOCKING in 2023. Whether his fans are still reeling from his last concert or have yet to experience his live performances, this movie will give them a glimpse into his charm as a performer.

The film exposes the atrocities of war through the eyes of two children who are stranded in the DMZ after the end of the Korean War. The DMZ, strewn with abandoned tanks, dead bodies, land mines, and unexploded shells, is an exceedingly dangerous place for children. But what most endangers them in the end are not weapons but people.

Jung-ae volunteers at a juvenile prison when she graduates from college; but the violent boys threaten her safety. Her boyfriend visits and begs Jung-ae to quit. She considers but feels compelled to continue; until the day when an escapee puts her methods at risk. Will she get to the escaped boy in time? Will his negative attitude convince her to quit, or will she affect him positively? And will there ever be happiness at the prison?

Se-hee is doing home training. Ji-eun, her roommate, introduces her to her boyfriend's best friend, Kang-hyeon, as her home trainer.

On the peaceful star of Andromeda, the reign of terror begins when the emperor of darkness, Lucas, takes over the planet. Lucas takes King Gaus hostage. Princess Shou Shou, Gaus' daughter and her protector, Sally the warrior, make a narrow escape to earth. Lucas sends his soldiers to capture the princess. At the same time, Young-gu and Yang-gu on earth are testing their new invention. The princess and Sally escape the soldiers and take refuge in Young-gu's house. The princess had escaped with a necklace that has the power to make the Power King with a good-hearted person. They try it on Yang-gu but it is Young-gu who turns into the Power King. Lucas sends Sanal, Lucifer and Monster to kill the Power King.

Three stories from three different earths in the multiverse... Earth #1: Upon viewing an online lecture on evolutionary theory, a high school girl cuts class to discover the meaning of life. Earth #2: A beggar tells the story of how he became a homeless philosopher. Earth #3: A man who only tells the truth, unwittingly causes everyone to leave him.

The Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) is a most dangerous zone in the world, which was established on July 27, 1953 when the Armistice Agreement was signed during the Korean War. And now in the DMZ... the struggle for survival of the female police who started to step on the landmine while chasing the jailbreaker. She only has Bluetooth, a revolver, and courage!

Reonghee and I are illegal aliens. Yesterday, Reonghee died while running away from the Immigrant Office Agents. The company we worked for is only concerned about covering up the mess. I'm going to find Reonghee, whose body the company has hidden somewhere, and give her a funeral that she deserves.

On the brink of marriage, Doyeong, an employee of a major corporation, meets a man in a café who claims to work for the NIS. His unbelievable story draws him in.

A young couple is having a hard time because of their poor circumstances. They are both desperately searching for work, but that is not easy, either. Meanwhile, the husband is about to lose the camera he has lent to his acquaintance, and the wife is cornered after borrowing private loans to take care of the household.

Seven-year-old girl Shin is sold off as a servant. She takes with her the 50-cent coin her grandmother gave her. However, at the master's house, Shin is accused of stealing the money and beaten. Shin escapes to mountains where she falls into a faint. Jin-ho, a student soldier, runs away from the army into mountains. He saves Shin and they live in the mountain where he teaches her how to read and fall in puppy love with each other. After the winter, Shin and Jin-ho go down the mountain. But they are discovered by soldiers who end up killing Jin-ho. Shin takes the harmonica that belonged to Jin-ho and goes home. When her father beats her and plans to sell her off again, Shin leaves in search of her mother. Shin finds her mother who is a kisaeng. Understanding that she can't stay, Shin leaves to become a servant. Learning that her grandmother is near death, Shin returns home and vows to overcome their poverty.

A trio of rogues, King Kim, Pong Mar Kow and Shintaro steal a shipment of smuggled cash, but before long they are fighting suspicion, mistrust and the violent Hong Kong Mafia!

Filmed behind the scenes and on stage during a fan meeting event, beloved trot singer Kim Ho-joong shows off the talent that made him a star.

Hearing-impaired Mo-Re wants to meet Hiro in person, a Japanese guy she met on the Internet.

Jang Yeong-sil, a genius scientist, rises from slavery to the rank of jong sam pum (Senior Third Rank) thanks to King Sejong's favor, but after the palanquin incident of 1442, he disappears completely from historical records. Where did he go? In 20th-century London, a painting by Rubens titled "Man in Hanbok" appears in an auction at Christie's. The identity of this unknown Asian figure painted by Rubens traces back to the era of King Sejong in the 15th century. Though born a slave, Jang Yeong-sil possessed exceptional brilliance. However, he receives an order from Ming China demanding that he be executed or handed over to them. With King Sejong's help, he escapes by joining the Ming explorer Admiral Zheng He on a voyage to Europe and even meets the Pope in Italy. But Jang's belief that the world is round is deemed heretical, and the Pope orders his execution. Fleeing for his life, Jang reaches Florence alone, where he encounters a seven-year-old Leonardo da Vinci.

A devoted son hears that, he must pay one thousand 'nyang' (old Korean currency) to save his father who is in jail for unknown reason. At that time, a low-grade official seeks for a man who could spend one night to mourn for the spirit of their DEAD daughter. The devoted son spends the night with the dead woman...

Hong Sang-soo's short film made for the 61st edition of the New York Film Festival.

#1. A man who accidentally overlooks the sex scene of the couple next door. The woman who saw it felt strange excitement and went to visit the next day. The embarrassed man asks the woman to do it, and the two share a hot love affair, #2. After a long time, my husband and three of my husband's friends are drinking, but suddenly my husband has a job. A woman is dissatisfied with her husband and deviates after drinking with her husband's friend.

A week left before the Asteroid Sadness hit the earth, Jae-gui holds funeral for his dead wife Min-hee. Their daughter Seong-a refuses to take part, saying it’s no use doing a funeral before the apocalypse. However, Jae-gui roams around to find a mortician, funeral clothes and fruits for the funeral. The daughter tries to stop Jae-gui and some men raids the hall. Against all odds, Jae-gui carries on with the funeral and the hidden truth is revealed at the last moment. Min-hee and Jae-gui faces each other without secrets. With a smile in his face, Jae-gui thinks about feelings.

A man heading for an appointment bumps into his old friend on the street. Coincidental encounter, trivial conversation, and subtle air. They walk together on Jongno Street for a while. They then head their own directions during a rain shower; however, another encountering awaits when the rain stops.