Discoveries from South Korea World Cinema

A depiction of the life and fate of a physically weak woman who has strong maternal love.

A training manual supposed used by Bruce Lee himself has mysteriously disappeared and is highly sought after by good and evil alike.

5 boys (portrayed by the K-pop Band H.O.T) live in a futuristic society where they are invaded by aliens by the name of Zeus that wish to take over the world. The only way for H.O.T. to save their society is to win a soccer match against the aliens.

A grandfather, his son, and grandson are all henpecked husbands. A comedy picturing these three henpecked men's lives at one family.

An orphan left in the care of a Buddhist temple becomes attached to a young widow who arrives there to mourn her recently deceased son.

Zung comes to Korea to investigate the mysterious death of her father, Seijung, a renowned performer and composer in the Japanese music scene. While Zung pursued a different path in life by studying engineering, she is drawn back to her father's legacy. In her search, she reaches the summit of Hallasan, where her father's body was found, and meets Master Woo, a master of the gayageum, and his daughter, Gasil. Listening to Master Woo's performance, characterized by the phrase "music that is joyful yet not exuberant, sorrowful yet not mournful," she learns that her father had been deeply affected by the music, leading to his tragic passing.

A nobleman sends his daughter to the king as a concubine in order to gain personal power and favors from the monarch. Her lover follows her into the palace disguised as a eunuch. They continue to meet in secret until discovered and sentenced to death.

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

The land of Chungwon is in a state of chaos – the government is all but powerless to stop the many rival gangs that each want to carve a kingdom for themselves, the Camillia Blossoms being the most powerful of them. Having seen what terror his fellows are unleashing, Danyoung, a highly skilled martial artist of The Five Dragons, sets out to fight for the people of Chungwon.

Lee Kyung-Ja's husband is constantly away from home, working hard for Il San, a major conglomerate. When he is fired, she becomes angry and sues the company, requesting alimony for her poor love life. After discovering the vicious nature of well-known lawyer Myung Sung-Ki (and after realizing that he represents Il San), seh decides instead to hire his wife, Lee Ki-Ja. In court, Lee Kyung-Ja's husband betrays her, revealing intimate details of their sex life. Humiliated, she decides to drop the case, until her lawyer reveals that she has similar problems in her own marriage. The two women open their hearts to each other and go back to face the court anew. As the lawsuit progresses, the dispute between accuser and the accused runs deeper. At last, they await the judge's decision...

In a small country village, Dong-hwa dreams of being a priest like his father. One day, Eun-jeong moves into the village with a secret and Dong-hwa feels attracted to her. Eun-jeong's step-father Jang-ho comes down to the village to push the development of the village. Dong-hwa's father Jin-suk won't let that happen. Joon-sang, Dong-hwa's best friend leaves the village because of the development. Dong-hwa feels the situation is quite serious and goes to see Eun-jeong, but he sees her being raped...

A love-action comedy about Hyun-chul, a man who expresses his love in earnest to enter a full-fledged relationship, and Hee-bon, a woman who believed that love was all lies.

One day, Seung-gyu stumbles upon a video of his boyfriend, being intimate with another man. Shocked and confused, Seung-gyu sets out to uncover the truth behind the footage...

After the sudden death of his older brother, who loved jazz, Han Tae-yi loses his passion for music and wanders for a long time. Yoon Se-hun, a transfer student, appears and gets on Tae-yi's nerves by playing jazz songs his brother liked in the school practice room. Although Se-hun is a classical music major, he secretly admires jazz. Se-hun and Tae-yi often argue over using the practice room, where they learn more about each other, and the relationship gets more complicated...

The story of the life of a hard-working woman in an advertising agency who drinks coffee continuously.

Cheol-ho is a spinal cord injury patient who became paralyzed due to a sudden accident. His only guardian was his father, Seong-gyu, until he died in cancer. Seong-gyu, a wealthy man, foresaw that leaving his son with a large inheritance and no family would make him vulnerable to unscrupulous individuals. To protect Cheol-ho, Seonggyu legally acknowledged Ji-eun, a child born between Seong-gyu and his mistress, as his daughter after thirty years of estrangement. Ji-eun discovers that she has also been appointed as Cheol-ho's guardian. Seong-gyu has tricked her into a financial trap that requires her to keep Cheol-ho alive for over 10 years if she wants to be eligible for inheritance.

Cui, a young Korean mother living on the outskirts of Chinese society, has a husband in jail and a son to support. She barely makes a living selling kimchi to workers along the side of a bleak, industrial road. A love affair with a fellow Chinese-Korean leads to tragic consequences as Cui struggles against the vulnerability of her position.

Young-in was brought back to life by his mother with the help of AI. However, the sweetness of seeing his son again didn't last so long. But soon, his mother realizes that the AI ‘deleted’ Young-in’s consciousness and has been pretending to be him.

After the disappearance of his girlfriend, a foreigner man lost in a hostile land becomes the main suspect and his desperate research for her turns into a fight to stay alive.

Since man made the spear one-hundred thousand years ago, the fish have been a surprising role in human history. They've only been known as food for man who have been hungry! How have they changed the history of humans? Here goes the story...

Relive the unparalleled grandeur and brilliance of BTS MAP OF THE SOUL ON:E as it is released on the big screen as a part of the limited-time cinema series "HYBE CINE FEST"

In the early dawn, a man fishing by the riverside pursues a mysterious tracking sound to a charging station. Rigging fishing rods, he patiently awaits his target. As night falls, the hanging batteries sway, signaling the commencement of a covert operation. With a net in hand, the man stealthily moves into action, unfolding a tale of intrigue and suspense.

Jong-ho, a reporter at a local news paper accuses a dog-seller in his article. When he and his wife gather at a pub to celebrate his promotion, the dog-seller suddenly comes in. Minutes later their neighbor In-so enters with a weapon and things go out of control. In-soo holds everyone hostage telling them that he killed his father who abandoned him long time ago. But his fraud is brought to light when his wife Hye-jung enters who Jong-ho found attractive the other night.

Spring Awakening is a coming-of-age rock musical with music by Duncan Sheik and a book and lyrics by Steven Sater. It is based on the 1891 German play Spring Awakening by Frank Wedekind this version was filmed and set in South Korea it is shorter and focuses more on Scifles character.

Park Cheol-ho, a Korean who stole Japanese military funds, is captured by Pang, a Chinese who captures independence fighters. Pang hands Park over to Japanese officer Akasaka, who tortures him to find out the location of the stolen military funds. When Park refuses to open up, Akasaka devises a plan to capture his younger sister, Yeong-ran.

A divorced husband and wife, instead of going their separate ways, dedicate their time and energy to taking revenge against each other.

In a sea village, there is a high school freshman, Da-young, who broke up with her boyfriend after summer vacation. Da-young, who has to write the most memorable thing for her vacation homework, writes down the lies of that summer day, recalling her memories with her ex-boyfriend, Byung-hoon.

When Gina Kim turned twenty-two, she decided to leave her home in Korea and not return. Taking advantage of an opportunity to study abroad, she was anxious to escape her mother’s authority and avoid a similar fate as an overweight, underappreciated housewife. Traumatized by her decision, the filmmaker began to develop symptoms of anorexia and proceeded to document her mental decline and eventual recovery. Combining video performance art with an intimate home-movie diary, this self-documented coming-of-age story demonstrates how video technologies can be used to capture the most intimate, confessional voice of a filmmaker.

After transferring high schools, a teen forms a tight-knit circle with three new friends who have a knack for attracting trouble.

This film concentrates on a group of people who have trouble adjusting to mainstream society. From a woman running away from her previous life, to a man with a terminal disease, to a pop artist misunderstood by his contemporaries, the film looks on with sympathy and compassionate humor on a set of people who, for whatever reason, just don’t fit in.

Relentlessly gruesome, South Korean filmmaker Kim Jin-Won's torture flick chronicles the making of a snuff film from two perspectives: that of the sadistic producers and that of the unfortunate "stars." Their terror captured through vérité-style camera work, the victims are made to endure the agonizing screams of their fellow captives before meeting their own grim fate at the hands the titular butcher in his bloody abattoir.

A woman finds a man who looks just like her husband on a new business account, and a man who hurt his back while exercising with the woman he loves, and goes to the woman who likes him and gets a sex massage.

USA is something like a religious belief in Korean history since the liberation. A powerful essay film is born with archival footages and a compilation of images of the Korean modern society. The right film for a generation who's losing the knowledge of Korean modern history.

Gon-bong cut the leg of a competing mafia group's boss and got on the bad side of the number two of his own group. Out of desperation, he jumps in front of Sae-ju's car. Sae-ju is also suicidal, a former doctor who lost his wife and child due to his mistake. He meets Jae-rim who has a terminal disease but remains optimistic. They all lead very different lives, but they feel curiosity about each other.

A boy returns to Korea after an unsuccessful American educational trip and meets the girl he deflowered.

Byeon Geum-ryeon is once again kidnapped from her hometown by conmen who need her help in pulling off a huge land fraud that will make them all rich. Geum-ryeon transforms herself into the queen of high society to get financial backers while working on a way to cheat her partners out of their share of the take.

Yeong-Ho is a son of second wife and enters his stepmother's as an heir. His stepbrother, Young-Min, is physically weak and frequently gets sick even by minor shock. To get away his girl friend, Myeong-Suk, Young-Ho makes Young-Min approach her. Myeong-Suk, who found something lacked in Young-Ho, starts a long journey with Young-Min. At that moment, Young-Ho suffers form the loneliness and longing for Myeong-Suk. At last, Young-Ho starts to look for her. Time passes, and Young-Ho decides to return his home, knowing that Young-Min has the qualification to inherit. On his departure day, Young-Ho calls Myeong-Suk, confessing his love and asking her to come back to him.

Jin-su, a 9-year-old elementary school student whose dream is to become a boxing referee, doesn't know why he wants to be a boxing referee, but at some point he started to feel a sense of duty to become one. However, he is suspicious of his father, who has nothing to do with boxing. "Where did the hot boxing referee's blood flowing in my body come from?" Jin-su turns his gaze to the three uncles who used to be around his mother. Seong-jin, Bi-chan, and Wang-gu. They are all uncles who only look at their mother and exercise at the boxing gym that their grandfather used to run. Jin-su sees from these uncles the qualities that a boxing referee must have and learns the whole story. On the day his mother announced her marriage to the three people, everything happened because of that.

The story is about a boxer who retired as a soccer athlete due to a heart problem from an unexpected accident, meets Bok-hee at a factory where he got a job for a living and falls in love.

After her husband's death, Reiko was unable to extricate herself in the Niulang store all day because of her loneliness. I don't really like the mother's son, Ichiro, who asks the mother's friend's daughter Maho for help. However, this method has no effect on the mother, but deepens his relationship with Maho.

Near the Abrok river bordering Korea and China, both Chinese citizens of the Qing dynasty and Chosun immigrants live together peacefully. When Yeon Ching-su of the Wol-gwan martial arts sect, a Korean, is killed in a fight against Pang of the Qing's Pacheon sect, his student Jin Ho-rim goes into the mountains to train in the art of Gol-gwon fighting skills with Master Gol-bo. He masters the Gol-gwon skills and descends to find Pang. Pang sends his henchman who is easily beaten by Ho-rim and Pang resorts to kidnapping Master Gol-bo's daughter Chu-hwa. When Ho-rim fails to rescue Chu-hwa, he challenges Pang to a fight to the finish. When Ho-rim is cornered by Pang, Master Gol-bo appears and teaches Ho-rim the secret skill of Gol-gwon and he succeeds in beating Pang. - KMDB

Kim Hyun-pil, an orphan, gets caught for picking pockets. At the police station, he causes trouble for the police. Detective Koh, takes sympathy on Hyun-pil's situation and takes him home to raise him as his own. Hyun-pil grows into a fine young man under the Koh's care, and despite resentment and scorn of Koh's son Mook, Hyun-pil is nurtured by love from Yeon-ji, Mook's sister. But even as adults, the discord between Mook and himself forces Hyun-pil to leave their home...

Su-mi is unable to keep her mother hospitalised because her hospital bills continue to be delayed, and the hospital's 'interim settlement' forces her to discharge her. Believing that if she prays just a little more, her mother will recover, she causes a scene at the hospital and forcibly takes her mother home. Despite everything not going as planned, she refuses to give up hope that she can still send her mother on the flower tour starting next week.

An erotic film about a man enjoying sexual pleasure in a virtual world in the metaverse.

The 17-year-old girl, Woodam, is overjoyed to have her own room for the first time. However, her older brother, Woojoo, brings home the pregnant Gyeongbin, who happens to be Woodam’s classmate. Faced with the threat of losing her room to Gyeongbin and her unborn baby, Woodam begins to devise a grand plan.

A promising program developer braves adulthood with a new perspective when an unplanned pregnancy fills her reality with questions, chaos and courage

Hye-ryeon suddenly loses her parents and stays in the Black Rose Castle alone. One day, she says the castle is haunted and asks for help to friend Ji-suk. Ji-suk goes to the castle with boyfriend Yeong-uk, a newspaper reporter. Just as Hye-ryeon has said, they see a ghost, but Yeong-uk feels that someone is playing a prank. He waits for the ghost in the woods, and when it finally appears, Yeong-uk fights it off. The ghost misses a step and falls off a cliff. It turns out Hye-ryeon has been suffering from a mental disease and has been playing as a ghost.

The motive of NIGHTSCAPE is a TAXI SERIAL KILLER in South Korea from 2004 to 2010. The killer in known as brutal crime, such as keeping the body in the taxi trunk. NIGHTSCAPE shows two faces of ordinary and cruelness the city through an actual crime.

San-hae has a habit for chasing unreachable dreams but never attaining them. His best friend, Sang-chul, is yet to find direction in his life but always lives by his life motto: to live and die for his friends. Dong-leung, a naive and timid student, consistently lacks the courage to live on his own and always submits to his father's orders. Although radically different in personalities, San-hae, Sang-chul, and Dong-leung are the best of friends. Then one day, while gambling on a card game, they inherit a run-down bar. Initially excited about their earnings, the three friends later realize that running a bar is far from easy. Then San-hae comes up with an idea to bring in customers; he decides to create a bartending extravaganza entitled "The Show", a brand new concept in Seoul during the 1970s.