Discoveries from South Korea World Cinema

Chulsoo is a punk kid who always plays tricks on others. One day, while he is picking on somebody as usual, he meets Younghee, a new transfer student, who becomes his class partner. He starts to like her. Younghee is a precocious smart girl who lives with her grandmother alone. Her grandmother owns a flower shop and she helps her grandma by delivering flowers. Though Younghee looks lively, she misses her deceased parents at heart.

Seung-ah fails to get into college and wander through life. She meets Jin-tae and loses her virginity to him. She continues to be psychologically lost until she meets her true love Seok-ho, an ice hockey player. But he dies tragically during a game. Her wanderings in night markets lead her to meet psychiatrist named Min Jeong-gi. They develop a father/daughter relationship but she is soon disappointed by his hypocrisy. She returns to Jin-tae and begins to appreciate rough but genuine nature and begins a new life.

2016 KBS Drama Special. One day, theater director Shin Pa-rang suddenly kills himself. He did not even leave a last will. Playwright Choi Hyun reacts calmly to his death, but she can't understand his death.

Feeling alone in a world where everyone looks exactly the same, a young girl decides to take extreme measures to change her appearance.

The story of a lifelong single high school girl from a rural village in Gangwon Province who secretly writes erotic stories to save money for college in Seoul, and the events that unfold as she gains inspiration from a prim and fair-skinned male transfer student from Seoul.

Dong Chan is a prickly broadcasting director at MBS who meets and immediately clashes with Nam Hee, a reporter he meets at a wedding reception. Through their constant bickering, they end up falling in love despite their initial dislike of each other. His passiveness in love results in a comedic struggle as the two tries to deal with their physical attraction.

Eun-soo dreams of being a professional writer but in reality, has been jobless for quite a long time. While she is looking for materials to submit a contest exhibition, she gets sick of the annoying noise from upstairs and she wonders what is going on. She begins to watch over the owner of the upstairs and the guy Ho-kyung lives right upstairs, also realizes that Eun-soo is keeping her eyes on him. Eventually, Eun-soo witnessed the staggering truth. Another annoying noise again, the story is only able to exist in imagination, could it be real?

Li-hwa graduates college and becomes a reporter. On a rainy day, she remembers an old boyfriend, Suk-gi. She goes to Eroika to look for him. Instead, Li-hwa meets Suk-gi's friend, Su-hwan, and she falls in love with him. On the other hand, while on a story, Li-hwa meets Kwang-jun who is a night teacher. She is drawn to his sincere humanity. As time passes, Kwang-jun comes to know Li-hwa's feelings. Together, they help children and offer guidance to prostitutes. Kwang-jun and Li-hwa have true love for each other but they part when Kwang-jun's non-permitted building is demolished. Hyun-wu ended up as a mental patient from the shock he received from his mother's scandalous behavior. He meets Li-hwa and receives her devoted care. Finally, Hyun-wu recovers completely and the two confirm their love. And the next day, Hyun-wu returns to society as a healthy man.

While the students, full of vigor in their twenties, make a stand against their parents who regard dating as a sin, they enjoy their springtime of life to the full showing affection in their own way. In the meantime, their parents get to understand them and their children receive their parents' blessing.

When the police refuse to investigate their daughter’s alleged suicide, two computer-illiterate parents decide to design a protest banner. Based on the infamous Miryang case in South Korea which shocked the nation in 2004 and continues to fuel public outrage even today.

Hearing-impaired Ji Hwan attends the wedding of his high school best friend, Song Hoon. As the ceremony takes place, Ji Hwan replays in his mind a particular moment from the past and a secret he wasn't able to reveal him that day.

Seok-ho is unable to overcome his fear that he will not graduate from college for only a limited number of the class will get their diplomas. Seok-ho tries to kill himself and ends up in a mental institution. Then he persuades his fellow patient, Hong-ik, to escape with him. After dealing with several incidents, they become miners. They meet a simple young woman. In order to construct an ideal land, they head for a deserted island in the South Sea. However, just before they're about to leave for the island, Seok-ho realizes that the island is a fantasy of an insane man so he runs off with the woman. Left behind, Hong-ik is disheartened but he gets together with the elderly innkeeper couple whose own son died of a mental illness. They head for the deserted island on a boat.

Jameson is a 52-year-old man who left his wife and daughter in Delhi, India. The unlikely duo met through an unexpected chance encounter. After visiting the factory that Je Imsun has run for 30 years, he fell in love with its snow-white rice cakes and wanted to learn how to make them. He was impressed not only with the flavor, but also with the fact that she was able to support her family on her own while maintaining a strong sense of locality.

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.

A film about a step-mother and her new son who are both blinded by lust.

This indie charmer take us on an aimless seaside vacation with struggling film producer, In-sung, where he meets an energetic young girl he suspects to be his daughter from an one-night-stand 20 years ago. Just when he is to tell her his hunch, In-sung is met with a shocking confession from Mina.

Join Baby Shark, Pinkfong, and Hogi in their exciting new adventure as they set out to create the most delicious ice cream in the world. Just before the final touch, the perfect topping, Gingerbread Man dashes away.

Miss Jin, a female detective, meets the head of a human trafficking organization in an undercover plan to destroy it. But she falls into their trap and gets caught. Jin's younger brother and two young men who both have unrequited love for Jin try to save her, but they fail due to the appearance of The Twin Light Brothersrothers. However, Detective Kim defeats The Twin Light Brothers and rescues Jin from the villain's lair.

Over the past 42 years, six people have gone missing, eight people have died "accidently" and eleven cases of murder have occurred in a deserted house. 3 members of an abandoned house exploring club and 3 staff members of a broadcasting company go into the deserted house. All of them disappear.

High school student Ha-Na experiences trouble sleeping after her classmate Jin-A committed suicide. Not being able to sleep, Ha-Na sees her parents fighting. The next day, her parents act like nothing happened the night before. She doesn't like her parents hypocritical behavior. Around this time, Se-Mi, a senior in the band club, approaches Ha-Na. Ha-Na begins to act differently, but she becomes to regret her behavior. A rumor spreads about her and she becomes the target of bullies.

What is beauty? Truth created from whith lie.

Accidentally discovering the operations of the Blood Ninja gangsters, a mischievous young man masters the skills of the Drunk Fist and proceeds to fight against them. But the gangsters join forces, vowing to kill him before the young master destroys them all.

High school teacher Gyeongseok agrees to look after his daughter Yunhui for his ex-wife’s sudden request. He brings Yunhui with him to the school where he works. There, he leaves Yunhui alone in the car briefly, and when he returns she’s gone. Later, Yunhui is found after having been grievously injured in a car accident. The driver of the truck that hit her, however, indicates that Seik, one of Gyeongseok’s students, was the true cause of the accident.

Prominent film critic Tony Rayns has long been a supporter of Korean cinema. This film illustrates Rayns’ affection for Korean cinema through interviews of Korean cineastes that have a special affinity for him, including JANG Sun-woo, LEE Chang-dong and HONG Sang-soo among others.

Seung-joo, an assistant documentary director, hopes to direct his own work, but leaves for Kazakhstan to assist in filming a traditional Korean-Kazakhstan wedding. When the local director Park Yu-ra gets in a car accident, Seung-joo and Young-tae, the cinematographer, miss the wedding they were set to film. To complete the documentary, Seung-joo is forced to stage a fake wedding ceremony in Yura's hometown of Saty Village with Young-tae and Yura's uncle Georgi.

We no longer see children running around playing in the alleys of Seoul. Starting from elementary school, children go to private classes after their school. However, we see these people who are making efforts to protect children’s right to be a child and play like a child.

Dong-ho is ranked number 1 in "Arena," an illegal gambling league for teens, but he steps down to prepare for college. However, the members of "Arena" don't want to lose their biggest money-maker, so they place a debt on his brother Dong-min. Dong-min literally fights against his debt, but when he gets hurt, Dong-ho decides to fight back.

Aema is a bored housewife married to a successful, workaholic businessman. She begins an affair with Jean, a business associate of her husband's. Her husband suspects and begins tormenting Aema, while not letting on that he knows, to protect a business deal. Aema leaves her husband, but is persuaded to return after heeding advice from a friend.

Goalie of the soccer team, Jung-ho, decides to participate in the writing contest because of a girl he has a crush on. But at that time, his only friend Hyung-gook and his family runs away from town and Jung-ho is put in a sticky situation.

Jeong-eun is embarrassed that her mother, who is suffering from dementia, wants to meet and call her sister from who was separated with due to the Korean War. However, Jeongeun accidentally receives a wrong call from a North Korean woman and is asked a favor.

Kim Myung-wu studies modern music in Germany and meets Ji-suk, a pianist. She disappears on the day of his recital to get money for her mother's treatment in hospital and no word from her for a month since. He sees through her mother's funeral when she's gone. When there's a fire in the village, Myung-wu witnesses Ji-suk playing piano at the church watching the flame. She sets a fire at a store she was trying to get the money from but the owner reported her. She blamed her mother's death on the store owner and revenged with the fire. She completes the Pyro-Sonata with help of Myung-wu hiding her from police.

A round table of diverse characters, each obsessed with one of the five senses, participates in a very, very high-stakes game of social deduction. Who gets eliminated when the lights go out?

In 1919, Ryu Gwan-sun was imprisoned at the Seodaemun Prison, charged with leading the independence protest at her hometown. In her cell, No. 8, many women were locked up after participating in the protest. They are different in ages, jobs, religions, and so on, but they all raise their voices for the nation's independence from Japanese Imperialism. The docudrama will highlight some of the female activists who devoted their lives to the Independence movement.

Yeong-chun becomes a gigolo after the woman he thought he loved left him. The reason she left was because Yeong-chun lacked money. He jumps at a chance to make quite a bit of money off a middle-aged woman, but what must he do in return?

A black comedy made up of six stories about the divergent but prevalent human responses to the pandemic.

In North Korea, torrential rains force the dams open, sending floodwater into the south. Later, two kids in South Korea pick up a plastic bag carrying a beetle in the stream. When they learn that the beetle is a North Korean child’s school project, they raise the beetle for him.

It is the last day on Earth. The rich loaded all the edible organisms that exist on Earth to their escape ships. Now the only remaining edible thing on the planet is an egg.

Ji-seok is a director. He has been struggling because of the money needed to produce films. Song PD, Ji-seok's colleague, introduces him to an actress, Hong Mi-ran. Hong, now with terminal disease, agrees to pay for all the production costs under the condition that she must be the lead. The lifetime project of the troubled souls—would this make it through to the end?

Choi Kang-Soon works as an assistant manager at a company. She becomes a victim of a hidden camera. This inspires her to fight against injustice.

Dong-chan dreams of selling clothes in Shanghai after saving up enough money by working in a warehouse in Dongdaemun. Ji-pyung met a Chinese woman named Mei Mei while working and introduced her to his brother. On the day after Mei Mei went to Shanghai, Ji-pyung was called by his boss. He was confronted about helping Chinese people imitate clothing patterns. In order to save his brother, Dong-chan used all his savings and found his boss who was in a karaoke bar.

Jeong-ju lives a wasted life of alcohol and cigarettes after losing her son. One day Min-gu, a man recently released from prison appears in front of Jeong-ju. Seeing him, Jeong-ju is reminded of the events from twelve years ago, bringing back her forgotten guilt.

A satire comedy movie set in the background of a prison cell where people gather together to talk about their lives and the world. Prison is noisy because of religious disputes on the day the pastor and the monk were fictional. One day, one new prisoner enters and claims to be a "God."

In order to find his wife who had been toyed with by gigolos, one man is left with no other choice than to become a gigolo himself.

Peaceful unification between North and South Korea is about to take place. Therefore, the DMZ area near Panmunjom (JSA) will be designated as a Special Peaceful Zone (a.k.a SPZ) for unification of the Korean Commonwealth. So, Panmunjom has entered a overall development phase. However, murder takes place in the DMZ. The suspect is a deserter who is only known as code-name Firefox, the special agent of North Korea.

An independent short gay film, filmed as a social experiment on the streets of Myeongdong.

A young woman in her 20s, Chae Meehee, visits middle-aged Cho Sungsook and insists that they were once childhood best friends. Though Cho Sungsook has never seen Chae Meehee before, they become closer at Meehee’s insistence. Their pasts cross paths as though they were traveling through time.

Yeong-su learns that Jeong-ah, a woman he thought dead, is alive and well but her parents will not allow him to see her because she is engaged to be married. When he does finally meet her, he cannot understand the attitude of his former high school sweetheart, not realizing that she is keeping a secret from him.

Three people with different mysteries abilities want to solve the mystery of a mass suicide in order to prevent another one.

A poor and lonely English professor, Juri(37), decides to become a porn actor using a mask to hide behind, after she watches an unusual porn, featuring an old and fat woman. And she visits Myungsook, a porn producer, despite their separation of 10 years. After various tests and rigorous diets Juri finally stars in a porn film with an attractive young porn star, Byul(20), who saves money for studies abroad to become a professor. He sports a flawless body except a deep scar across his chest. However on the set, she keeps pushing Byul away, and nobody knows that she is a virgin.

Min-Jae, a promising athlete, is driven to the edge when a teammate benefits from a wealthy background, and she takes action. When her coach learns her secret, she is offered a deal.

When the MV Sewol ferry sank off the coast of South Korea in 2014, over three hundred people lost their lives, most of them schoolchildren. Years later, the victims’ families and survivors are still demanding justice from national authorities.