Discoveries from South Korea World Cinema

The world every movie has gone, the man who translates everything into movies shows up.

On the first full moon of January, in the town of Ha-pyung, there is a festival going on in the yard of Shin Chi-gyu, the town's biggest landowner. They are playing yut, a game of throwing four short sticks. The winner of the game is Ok-bun's husband, Lee Bang-won. Having no money, Ok-bun and Bang-won had been tenant farmers on Chi-gyu's land. With their winnings, they try to start their own business. Chi-gyu had always been drawn to Ok-bun. When Bang-won leaves, Chi-gyu comes on strong to Ok-bun. Ok-bun waits eagerly for her husband's return but Bang-won has failed in his business and returns a pauper. As their dreams go up in smoke, Ok-bun falls into deep despair.

The movie begins with the mysterious death of a journalistic photographer named Kim Cheol-hun. Veteran police detective Park (Kim Seung-ho) teams up with a young, intellectual detective (Kim Seong-ok) to investigate the people surrounding Kim.

Young-cheol, an ordinary office worker, met Jung-hee, an aunt's sponsor from college when he wanted to start his honeymoon in a 31-pyeong apartment. Young-cheol, who has been spawning for three years, tries to end his relationship with Jung-hee when he becomes acquainted with Eun-ju, whom he met at the club and promises marriage. However, it's easy to cut off your body mix for years. Instead of accepting a breakup, Jung-hee proposes to spend the last weekend together. However, Young-cheol did not know. That Junghee is Eunjoo's mother. After listening to Jung-hee and Eun-joo's lover, I found out that he was Young-cheol. She was jealous because she seemed to be losing her man to her daughter, and revealed to Eunju that Yeongcheol was spawning with her. However, Eunju is a tougher year than her mother. I noticed my mother's jealousy and bet who I chose Young-cheol...

Changsik, a college student, did not receive credit well for dating a girlfriend. I missed the scholarship and introduced a good job to the professor I met by chance. When she received a call from the woman saying her laptop was broken, It is said that he goes to his homeroom and repairs his laptop, so he fulfills his wish. Jihoon, walking through the park, encounters a woman who came to Korea from Japan. Ji-hun falls in love with her at first sight and asks for a date the next day.

University students Gu-pil and Byeong-soo were recruiting a female member for an erotic film contest. They meet Tae-hee, a shy and ugly girl. She wasn't what they expected but they take her in anyway. They watch erotic movies with her and go to adult top shops for inspiration but nothing pops up. Tae-hee vents on them saying she was called ugly by a person she liked but they don't listen to her. So she's angry and decides to make up her mind.

Yeon-shil is the lover of crime boss Dong-il. She pays off one of the boss's henchmen, Man-ho, with whom she once had an affair; Man-ho is an opium addict, and he has been blackmailing Yeon-shil by threatening to disclose their past relations.

"Do you know the world of Ssanahee Sunjung?" After leaving the city for Magari, Mr. Yoo, a poet stays at Won-bo's house, whose dream is to become a fairytale writer. From the first day he came, he said, "When I see Mr. Yoo, my heart grows". He said that he knew the world of innocence and that he knew the world of children. Won-bo's dream is to become a fairytale writer who inspires passion in children's hearts. Won-bo, who only talks about strange things, and Mr. Yoo, who live under the same roof, adjust to both of their lives, and regain their ' innocence and 'children's heart'!

In April 2013, unfamiliar faces appear at the Jamsil Baseball Stadium during the opening matches between Doosan and SK. The nervous middle-aged men throwing and batting the first ball are, in fact, Korean-Japanese former team members that played on that same spot in the 1982 finals of the Bong-hwang-dae-ki games.

Myeong-jin and Jeong-woo, attending the same conservatory, are studying cello. Myeong-jin is in awe of Jeong-woo's genius. Ji-eun, a piano student is working on her own composition: Magic. Jeong-woo offers to play it for her but on the day of the performance, he collapses on stage, leaving Myeong-jin to complete the concert. While nursing Jeongwoo back to health, Myeong-jin asks Ji-eun if he can step in for Jeongwoo but she refuses his offer. After Jeong-woo dies, Ji-eun goes to see Myeong-jin. She plays Magic one final time and quietly enters the music room to end her own life.

A movie about criminals who wear the masks of elites but make the wrong choice because of their pain and a father who loses his daughter to them.

Song-young and Song-mi are sisters who came all the way from Seoul to celebrate their mother’s birthday. While spending the happiest moment in the world, Yoo Jae-ma, a notorious serial killer on the loose drops in. However the girls and their mother find out the truth behind his murders.

The seawater belonging to the National Intelligence Service's International Crime (Drug) Team is called 'Panfunction' in the house on behalf of a colleague who died during the operation, and the blankjack of the unidentified gambling, 'Blackjack', aims for 6 billion won drugs. You know that there is. Now there is only one way to catch him. Seawater decides to jump directly into dangerous gambling boards.

This is the security office of Bukchon Apartment. Recently, a missing incident occurred in our complex, and the police are investigating. If you see a suspicious person nearby or hear a strange noise, please contact the security office and we will take immediate action. Your reports and tips will be crucial clues to finding missing people. ※ Out of consideration for neighbors, please be careful not to make noise between floors. ※ Please refrain from feeding wild animals.

A little boy Seung-gu thinks his dad has become a zombie after losing his job. So he arranges an anti-zombie commando with his schoolmates whose dads seem zombies too. They try every possible means to banish zombie fathers from their own sweet home, but it fails all the time. Whether their grand plan to save their family would be accomplished is in the question.

The human is the lonely existence. It has nothing to do with an age. There is the other reason. Live, therefore. It is that it became an elderly because it was faithful to the given role and it got old one.

In 1592, Japan invades Chosun (the ancient name for Korea). While thousands submitted to the foreign rule, Non-gae encourages General CHOI Kyung-hoe to love her, so that she can behead him. In 2007 Korea lovers Seung-hyun and Young-shin are also botanists in search of a legendary flower believed to absorb human souls. During their mountain trek, they encounter Jae-jin a stranger who insists he knows them both. Jae-jin’s presence has a strange effect on Seung-hyun, whose bursts of insanity eventually threaten Young-shin’s life. Eventually Seung-hyun finds himself in a struggle to death with Jae-jin. The film is a fantasy motivated by a historical story of Nongae and the idea of Buddhist transmigration of souls.(KOFIC)

Tree curer Cheong-a, who dreams of a happy marriage with her fiance, receives a request for tree treatment and visits a high school. Cheong-a meets a mysterious high school girl with a strange aura while she is treating trees and suffers from bad dreams every night thereafter. Then, one day, a box is delivered to her through parcel service. In the worn-out yearbook contained in the box, the face of a male student encircled with a red pen many times as if done by a crazy person catches her eye together with her picture in her high school days… The memory of that day suddenly comes to her. Will the fear that has been suppressing her be identified?

A suspicious taxi is driving on a night road... navigator said: "You're off course" "Mind if I take you home?" An unidentified patient talking to 'Mi Sook' living in a nursing home, "Please take care of my Soyeon". Uncanny and odd English tutoring, a little girl observed in the warehouse... And the mysterious events are happening. The bizarre things that happen inside the house while organizing her mother's belongings. The spine-chilling horror that you can feel even when you close your eyes and cover your ears. The real-life horror ghost story bundles at home, taxi, work, and nursing home. We invite you to five eerie and strange stories.

Features powerful performances, in-depth interviews with the 13 members, and commentaries on their past, present, and future they will create with CARATs.

The newly-restored film by one of Korea's first female director follows a female judge's struggles in balancing her duties as a mother and a public official.

This film is an adaptation based on the 1988 Japanese film Kaisha monogatari: Memories of You, written and directed by Jun Ichikawa. This film follows the story of "Chief" Cho Min-hyuk (Baek), a middle-aged corporate manager nearing his retirement after working for 30 years in the same company. Cho and other colleagues in the office secretly have held dreams of being rock musicians but they suppressed those ambitions in order to get stable office jobs and support their families. During the film Cho and others resume their interest in playing musical instruments and form a band together. However Cho struggles to deal with office politics that result from his upcoming retirement as well as the anxiety for his and his family's future post-retirement.

Baek Seong-chul has been running away for 14 years and 11 months after being accused of killing a man. When there is only one month left from the statute of limitations of 15 years, he comes to a quiet village to hide, pretending to be the missing son of an old woman with dementia. However, the intense fight between environmental groups and the county office gets him exposed. Will he have to pay for his crimes?

A comical martial arts movie about the story of Ho-ryong, who comes down to his hometown of Hoengseong, learns the secret of the family, undergoes harsh training, and avenges his parents and his master.

Wheelchair basketball is often associated with disability sports. However, wheelchair basketball is a sport for both people with and without disabilities. Inspired by the dedication to wheelchair basketball of national team coach Lee Won-woo, known as the ‘fox of the court’ in the 1990s, and his protégé, coach Han Sa-hyun, this human-action sports story follows a middle-aged basketball star past his prime, an arrogant basketball genius, and men with rounded steel legs due to accidents. Together, they unite through wheelchair basketball to pursue their dreams.

Gong Hyo-jin, Korea's greatest rom-com queen Lee Chun-hee, an actor reborn as a furniture businessman Jeon Hye-jin, a housewife with 11 years of experience as a child actress Three people from different backgrounds with different intentions unite for the sake of the Earth! They attempt to live a carbon-free life at Jukdo, the only energy-independent island that's left! After discovering a lot of plastic bottles on the beach, they call the water bottle company and start inviting unexpected people to the island! Gong Hyo-jin X Lee Chun-hee X Jeon Hye-jin's Zero Carbon Project! How are they so sincere about the Earth?! (Source : Hancinema)

A story about a three-part family with lots of stories to tell and the first episode of the '3 life parts' that is completed henceforth.

A touching drama of a baseball player who has past his prime and comes back to the major league after much struggle.

A drama about Kang Duk Soon, a naive woman who inadvertently gets wrapped up in an independence movement after following a man she has a one-sided love for to Gyeongsang province, and how she grows through her experiences.

There are 200 miserably impoverished people working in the Dongseong Metalworks Factory. Ju Wan-ik is introduced to the forging team as a new member of the team and they all go drinking together to welcome him.

In 1971 birth control was a major policy drive of the Korean government. Nevertheless, one poor farming village went against the trend, boasting the highest fertility rate in the country. This peaceful Yongdu Village receives an unwelcome visitor, the national family planning officer Hyun-joo, to oversee the villagers nocturnal pleasures. However as a single lady with little experience of her own, Hyun-joo finds it nearly impossible persuade the residents to use contraception. She finally appoints the village head Suk-gu as the local support officer and thus begins the “0% Birth Rate Project.” Appointing him brings more turmoil to the villagers and when the President comes to inspect…

A suspense film with a hint of the classic Hitchcock film Rear Window, with its theme about the isolation of alienated people living in the city.

Gupabal is an old village that is soon to disappear into history due to redevelopment. An hour before the evacuated area is scheduled to be detonated, a famous elderly novelist named CHOI Ho sneaks into the village carrying a small bundle. Arriving at the old home where he was raised, CHOI embarks on a journey through the past via a beautiful reunion with his already-deceased mother. However in the midst of these travels through old memories, he accidentally discovers the secret that his mother has been hiding...

A healing drama about Hee-yeon who only follows the splendid appearance shown others, meeting her old friend Seong-seon in Tongyeong, where there is nothing special, and moving forward to find her forgotten dream.

In 2008, late President Roh Moo-hyun returned to his hometown Bongha village after his retirement and was joined by supporters as he recreated his hometown and began to clean up the Bonghae Mountain, cultivating Bongha Mountain, and cultivating environmentally friendly rice.

A deaf woman boarding with an elderly laborer suffers many hardships upon the latter's death. The old man's son offers to care for her, but she feels she must leave in order to protect the young man's reputation.

During the Korean War in early 1950s, mother’s family comes and stays at Dong-man’s house. His uncle on father’s side is a North Korean partisan and the uncle on mother’s side dies while fighting as South Korean soldier. For this reason, his grandmothers don’t get alone. Dong-man tells a stranger that his partisan uncle is home and his father gets arrested.

Resentment rages between two sisters, one of whom was indirectly responsible for her husband's death and the other who secretly loved him.

While trying to solve a murder case, a cop starts to have doubts about his partner's involvement.

The male owner lived with his parents. One day, he went home and bumped into a strange woman to take a bath in his own house. It turned out to be the daughter of his father's friend. Seeing that the two were of the same age, the man wanted to associate with her, but she did not want to. The man even sneaked into her room and sneaked into her underwear, and was discovered by her mother. In fact, the father of the man is also an old-colored stick. The girl like this daughter is also a child.

Tonight with another man! Seong-kyoon and Soo-ae live together, two people who don't know whether they only live together, or married. Seung-kyoon loves Soo-ae so much that he's been living a modest life One day, Soo-ae tells him that she has a man He finally kicked Soo-ae out of the house, but still dying to see her Seong-kyoon who couldn't stand the situation has to make an important decision...

Jiri Mountain is completely off-limits due to police search operations. Jeong-ok, along with other tourists on a cultural tour of Jiri Mountain, escapes the attention of the police and enters Jiri Mountain on a remote road. Jae-won, who follows this kind of Jeong-ok. Jeong-ok and Jae-won chase after each other, going deeper and deeper into Jiri Mountain...

Working at a transgender bar, Min-a is a female with male genitals. When her colleague is assaulted by a male customer, she steps in to help, only to accidentally kill the assaulter. At the court, Min-a insists that she had no choice ? she had to protect her colleague - but the situation is not favorable to her. Taking advantage of her sexual identity, the prosecutor drives the case as if the murder were a result out of jealousy, and Min-a’s own lawyer does not pay attention to her situation. Not until Min-a is placed in a men’s jail and is seized with terror do the human rights issues for transgender people emerge. Min-a is finally transferred to a prison for females, but still she suffers from misunderstanding. Presenting the transgender human rights issues as a court drama, this film tries to correct the myriad misunderstandings toward transgender people.

A boy's experience as a fresh military recruit stationed at the North-South border in the late 1970s.

In this anime fantasy, Kanglim is a 5th grade Ghost Messenger on a supernatural mission. When he finds himself trapped in a Soul Phone, Kanglim, who has the power to see mystical spirits, must successfully capture one of them to free himself from the trap.

"Short! Short! Short! 2009" is an anthology film commissioned by the Jeonju International Film Festival (JIFF) to celebrate its 10th anniversary. The film consists of 10 short films centered around the theme of "Money," made by 10 up & coming directors in South Korea.

Crown Prince Sado spirals down due to his own insanity and his father King Yeongjo's complex.

Trainer Meng Doo-ho spots Young-chul in a bar fight and decides to turn him into a boxing champion.