Korean Job Discussion Forums

[kermo]

I know this thread has been done before, but the search function is flat out boggled when I enter the words "good korean movies", whether it's in a certain forum, quotes, what-have-you. Sorry.

Anyway, I bought a DVD player recently, and have been able to rent movies from the local store for the first time. I'm trying to sample a range of movies, and renting genres and titles that wouldn't normally interest me if it were in English.

For instance, I rented "Cinderella" (surely you remember the poster for this film, with a frightened girl and a scalpel-wielding older woman holding her face?) and it knocked my socks off!

It's definitely more horror-movie than fairy-tale. I'm not usually creeped out by horror, but to get through this alone, at night, I had to take breaks to ease the tension every twenty minutes or so.

The horror movies I've seen all seem to centre around two or three things:
i) menacing the innocent
ii) vengeance against evil
iii) evil lurking in unexpected places

Booooooooring.

What gave this movie so much power, I think, was the fact that it dealt with chilling themes in modern-day culture, like obsession with plastic surgery, and unhealthy parent-child relationships.

I picked another one off the shelf this week called "Between Love and Hate." Frankly, it appealled to me because it involved a girl in a negligee getting her hair pulled. I'm afraid this movie is anything but erotic, but it was certainly memorable. For instance, it's the first movie I've seen that has dealt openly with room-salon girls and their lives.
This movie reminded me that I still don't understand Korean culture at all. The motives and behaviour of the characters were often utterly opaque to me. Both the "hero" and "heroine" in this story struck me as horribly immature and dreadful people. To me, the happiest ending would be to get them both into therapy.

Anyway, if you've seen these movies, I'd be interested to hear your comments.
If there are others you'd like to recommend, then go ahead. I've heard good things about "City of Violence" but it's never in when I'm at the store. I've seen Old Boy and Sympathy for Lady Vengeance and loved them, and even got a kick out of 야수 와 민야 (Beauty and the Beast) and that Mun Gun Young movie Child Bride. Hated My Boyfriend is Type B though. I've seen a few other movies that weren't too memorable, but my experience has been pretty limited. Enlighten me!

[doggyji]

Watch Aachi & Ssipak (아치와 씨팍)..! It's some psycho animation.

Here's the trailer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eg6aFSEca0

I heard it did very poorly in the Korean box office though.

[Smee]

Oldboy, of course.

Marathon / 말아톤 was a nice movie. About an autistic kid whose mother gets him into running. It's not an "I am Sam" type of crappy film . . . I thought it was very well done, very entertaining, very touching. It apparently had an impact on how the handicapped are viewed here (don't know about that, though).

I can't remember the name right now (___ ___ 주먹), "Crying Fists," I think, is a movie with Choi Min-sik (from Oldboy) about two boxers who come back from various set backs to fight one another in the end. Again, it's not as lame as it sounds.

Check out stuff by 임권택. Supposed to be the grandfather of Korean cinema. Got a huge resume: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Im_Kwon-taek

I can't think of anything else right now.

[Ya-ta Boy]

I thought "A Bungee Jump of Their Own" was interesting because of the reincarnation angle.

[Smee]

[drkalbi]

I enjoyed Spring, Summer, Winter, Fall, Spring.

[Son Deureo!]

[jajdude]

You can watch a lot of Korean movies (with English subtitles) here:

http://kmvlists.blogspot.com/

[Nambucaveman]

Oldboy had good acting, but the story was a bit strange.

There is a movie called "Gangster's Family" which was really funny. The first two are on video tape and the third one in the series is out in the theathers now.

[Jarome_Turner]

Memories of Murder is a really good movie. Another one that I haven't seen mentioned yet is JSA.
Both are based on true stories and have really interesting, suspensful storielines topped with surprise endings (JSA more so than Memories of Murder).

The City of Violence has beenmy favorite Korean movie thus far.... followed closely by Old Boy. Old Boy would probably be number one, but it's become almost trendy to say so....

[Woland]

To really learn more about Korean cinema, go here.

The guy who founded the site is a colleague from my first time through Korea.

[Qinella]

[Neil]

My Sassy Girl (엽기적인 그녀) is the best romantic comedy I've seen.

Peppermint Candy (박하사탕) is a clever movie about a guys life with the harshness of 1980s Korea as a backdrop.

Chingu/Friend (친구) there's a million and one Korean movies about gangsters, this is probably the best.

I second the recommendations of Memories of Murder and The presidents last bang. Both top notch.

Silmido and Shiri are highly rated but I thought both were crap, horses for courses I guess. The Host is fun but not a classic, although I watched it without subtitles, I'll have to check the DVD to get a fuller picture.

If you like happy endings then Korean cinema isn't for you....Korean directors are up with the Russians and Irish when it comes to misery and self pity.

As for horror, the only one I've seen is APT (아파트) which was average.

[kermo]

[Tommy]

For some reasons, my favorite K-movies revolve around the theme of fighting:
- Art of fighting
- See you after school
These two movies deal with bullies, the latter being a great comedy.
- Crying Fist

Some other favorites
- Sex is zero, kind of reminds me of Korea's version of American Pie
- Daisy
- Bad Guy
- A really great movie (but I don't know that title), where a guy's girlfriend is blind and he paints a false picture of his good looks, and then he finds out she's getting an operation to re-gain her vision... anyone know this one?

Movies to avoid!!
- Oh My god! Absolute crap.. romantic-comedy-drama-action? Why do so many of these films feel the need to cram as many genres as they can into one story?
- Monopoly - THE worst Korean film I've seen. It was a toss up between this and City of Violence at the dvd stand, and I wish to god I had chosen City of Violence.