Song Kang-ho

A portrait of the South Korean screenwriter, director and producer Lee Chang-Dong through his work, this documentary provides a thematic analysis of his films, most of which have been selected for and received awards at the Cannes Film Festival.

Warrant Officer Kang Jong-duk is an investigator at the Ministry of National Defense. He has 15 days before he is discharged from the military. He begins to investigate a mysterious case and goes up against conspiracy.

An aircraft forced to declare an emergency when an unprecedented terror incident occurs in-flight.

In the 15th century, despite so many accomplishments he has made for the people, King Sejong, his biggest goal is still remaining; the invention of original letters that can be read and written by all the people. But courtiers who want to dominate the knowledge and the power, are against his will and discourage his belief. Frustrated King Sejong hears about a bonze Sinmi a phonogram expert, and secretly brings him in the palace…

5.7/10

All unemployed, Ki-taek's family takes peculiar interest in the wealthy and glamorous Parks for their livelihood until they get entangled in an unexpected incident.

8.6/10
9.9%

Busan, South Korea, 1970s. Lee Doo-sam is a small-time smuggler. After helping a drug gang to smuggle meth, he falls into the dark crime world. Quick-witted and full of ambition, he eventually takes over the drug underworld and starts to lead a double life: a good community leader during the day but an infamous drug lord during the night.

6.1/10
8%

May, 1980. Man-seob is a taxi driver in Seoul who lives from hand to mouth, raising his young daughter alone. One day, he hears that there is a foreigner who will pay big money for a drive down to Gwangju city. Not knowing that he’s a German journalist with a hidden agenda, Man-seob takes the job.

7.8/10
9.6%

For the work Decades Apart commissioned by the Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain for the exhibition Highlights, PARKing CHANce has conceived an original immersive 3D sound and image installation. Based on the set of Joint Security Area (JSA) (2000), a movie by Park Chan-wook, new images were filmed for the work and sound treated in a very surprising way to give the visitor a total experience.

Set in the late 1920s, The Age of Shadows follows the cat-and-mouse game that unfolds between a group of resistance fighters trying to bring in explosives from Shanghai to destroy key Japanese facilities in Seoul, and Japanese agents trying to stop them.

7.1/10
10%

Ancient Korea, July 4, 1762. The Crown Prince Hyojang, posthumously named Sado, son of King Yeongjo of Joseon, is accused of treason. Thus, the king asks him to commit suicide, but his closest vassals prevent it, so the king orders the prince to get inside a wooden rice chest, where he suffers deprivation of food and water.

7/10

In a future where a failed global-warming experiment kills off most life on the planet, a class system evolves aboard the Snowpiercer, a train that travels around the globe via a perpetual-motion engine.

7.1/10
9.5%

In the early 1980s, South Korea is torn by student protests over the lack of representation in the government. Song Woo-Seok is a successful attorney in Busan specializing in tax law. His views regarding civil liberties are changed by student activist Park Jin-woo. When Jin-Woo is brutally tortured and put on trial for his activism, Woo-seok decides to defend Jin-woo as his client.

7.7/10
7.5%

Nae-kyung, the most skillful face reader in Joseon dynasty, was living in seclusion when he was offered a lucrative partnership by Yeon-hong, a Korean geisha. Nae-kyung accepts the proposal to read the faces of Yeon-hong’s guests only to get involved in a murder case. With his face reading skills, Nae-kyung successfully identifies the murderer and his skills are soon acknowledged by King Moonjong who orders him to identify the potential traitors who threaten his reign. However after the unexpected death of Moonjong, Nae-kyung is courted by Grand Prince Sooyang who yearns to become King himself by killing the young successor Danjong. Nae-kyung decides to keep his loyalty to the late King and help KIM Jong-seo protect the young King which forces him into the biggest power struggle in the history of the Joseon dynasty.

6.8/10

A master and his student visit a mountain to practice pansori (a musical storytelling performed by a singer and a drummer) after a music competition which outcome has left the trainee disappointed.

6.7/10

A man is found burned to death inside of a car. Detective Sang-Gil (Song Kang-Ho) and his co-workers investigate the scene. Sang-Gil doesn't want to take the case, because it looks like a simple suicide case and won't help him get the promotion that he desperately wants. Furthermore, rookie female detective Eun-Young (Lee Na-Young) is selected as his partner for the case.

6.2/10

Director Chung Ji-Young criticizes the thought that older directors have difficulties in making certain movies. Actress Yoon Jin-Seo agonizes over her identity as an actress. In 2009, before the movie "Unbowed" was made, they met and planned a documentary about Korean movies, including the processes a Korean movie goes through and difficulites. "Ari Ari the Korean Cinema" is a documentary with interviews of Korean directors, actors and actresses.

6.6/10

Retired mob boss Du-heon enrolls in a cooking class with the hopes of making a fresh start as a restaurant owner. In the class he meets a quirky girl, Se-bin, and finds himself drawn to her. Despite his determination to wipe the slate clean, Du-heon is summoned back into the criminal fold by his old colleagues.

6.3/10

Six years ago a mysterious shooting takes place in Seoul. The after effects of the shooting results in Han-kyu Lee (Song Kang-Ho) losing his job at the NIS (National Intelligence Service). Six years later, Ji-won Song (Kang Dong-Won), an ex North Korean spy. Now operates somewhere in the Seoul metropolitan area. As these two men hide their identities and work their particular angles, trouble brews again...

6.9/10

The Korean war does not start well for the US. They are being routed by the North Koreans and In July 1950, the early stage of the Korean War, at the Jugok Village in the middle of the Korean Peninsula, Chang-yee and his friends grow excited over the amateur singing contest knowing nothing about what is going on around them. At the time, the US Army keeps losing and are pushed back to the village, evacuating all villagers to head south. The villagers took refuge like going on a picnic believing that the US Army is protecting them, they just follow their orders moving south bound.

6.5/10

Sang-hyun, a respected priest, volunteers for an experimental procedure that may lead to a cure for a deadly virus. He gets infected and dies, but a blood transfusion of unknown origin brings him back to life as a vampire. Now, Sang-hyun is torn between faith and bloodlust, and has a newfound desire for Tae-ju, the wife of his childhood friend.

7.1/10
8.1%

The story of three Korean outlaws in 1930s Manchuria and their dealings with the Japanese army and Chinese and Russian bandits. The Good (a Bounty hunter), the Bad (a hitman), and the Weird (a thief) battle the army and the bandits in a race to use a treasure map to uncover the riches of legend.

7.3/10
8.2%

With middle age creeping up on him, the life and achievements of amiable, mid-level Korean gangster Kang In-gu are about due for an objective assessment. He’s certainly not in top streetfighting form anymore, and the young thugs under his command aren’t exactly an elite troop of criminals. Moreover, his wife is running out of patience with his career choice and the lack of social finesse it entails, and his dearly loved daughter is embarrassed beyond words by her often uncouth dad (but then, aren’t all teenagers?). A conflict with another gang puts Kang and his childhood buddy on opposite sides of the fence. The fact is, Kang just wants everything to work out right for everyone –- and we all know which road is paved with good intentions… the road to hell.

6.9/10

Sin-ae moves with her son Jun to Miryang, the town where her dead husband was born. As she tries to come to herself and set out on new foundations, another tragic event overturns her life.

7.5/10
9.4%

Gang-du is a dim-witted man working at his father's tiny snack bar near the Han River. Following the dumping of gallons of toxic waste in the river, a giant mutated squid-like appears and begins attacking the populace. Gang-du's daughter Hyun-seo is snatched up by the creature and he and his family are taken into custody by the military, who fear a virus spread by the creature. In detention, Gang-du receives a phone call from Hyun-seo, who is not dead, merely trapped in a sewer. With his family to assist him, he sets off to find Hyun-seo.

7.1/10
9.3%

During their journey the expedition led by Captain Choi Do-hyung discovers a journal that was left behind by a British expedition 80 years earlier. The journal was remarkably preserved in a box in the snow and Kim Min-jae, another member of the expedition, gets the job of examining it. It turns out that the two expeditions shared the same goal and soon other strange similarities between them start to show up.

6/10

After a 13-year imprisonment for the kidnap and murder of a 6 year old boy, beautiful Lee Guem-ja starts seeking revenge on the man that was really responsible for the boy's death. With the help of fellow inmates and reunited with her daughter, she gets closer and closer to her goal. But will her actions lead to the relief she seeks?

7.6/10
7.6%

Made in 2004, this extensive documentary chronicles the production and release of Memories of Murder.

A well-meaning but politically naive barber gets pulled into the inner circle of the South Korean dictator Park Chung-Hee, with rather baleful consequences for his hapless family. This sharp political satire covers roughly twenty years in South Korean political history, from the viewpoint of the barber's son.

6.9/10

1986 Gyunggi Province. The body of a young woman is found brutally raped and murdered. Two months later, a series of rapes and murders commences under similar circumstances. And in a country that had never known such crimes, the dark whispers about a serial murderer grow louder. A special task force is set up in the area, with two local detectives Park Doo-Man and Jo Young-Goo joined by a detective from Seoul who requested to be assigned to the case.

8.1/10
9%

This is the story of Ryu, a deaf man, and his sister, who requires a kidney transplant. Ryu's boss, Park, has just laid him off, and in order to afford the transplant, Ryu and his girlfriend develop a plan to kidnap Park's daughter. Things go horribly wrong, and the situation spirals rapidly into a cycle of violence and revenge.

7.6/10
5.4%

During the time Korea was invaded by Japan soldiers, Hochang lived the life of a scholar destined to follow the path of his father as being a tutor at school. One day, while playing soccer he meets an American missionary who was playing an alien game that immediately got his attention, it was Baseball. Taught by the beautiful Jungrim, a Korean traveling women who was accompanying the missionary at the time, Hochang will soon develop a natural talent at being a very good hitter. Jungrim will then decide to form the first baseball team of Korea history, the YMCA.

6.4/10

In the DMZ separating North and South Korea, two North Korean soldiers have been killed, supposedly by one South Korean soldier. But the 11 bullets found in the bodies, together with the 5 remaining bullets in the assassin's magazine clip, amount to 16 bullets for a gun that should normally hold 15 bullets. The investigating Swiss/Swedish team from the neutral countries overseeing the DMZ suspects that another, unknown party was involved - all of which points to some sort of cover up. The truth is much simpler and much more tragic.

7.8/10
7.7%

Dae-Ho is an unproductive bank clerk who is late to work every morning and the object of his manager's frustrations. He was a fan of TV wrestling as a child, but can't get out of a headlock. He finds a local wrestling trainer and through a series of events eventually starts to train. He is slowly transformed as he begins his second job as the cheating villain wrestler known as the Foul King. He starts to stand up for himself in odd ways that are not really in his own best interest. Events get out of hand as conflicting influences come together.

6.9/10

North Korea's 8th Special Forces hijacks a shipment of CTX, a potent new liquid explosive, and threatens South Korea as part of a plot to re-unify the two countries.Ryu and Lee, special agents of O.P., South Korea's secret intelligence service, attempt to track down the terrorists and find the CTX. Meanwhile Hee, the 8th's ultra-bad female sniper, resurfaces to wreak havoc and haunt Ryu.

6.6/10

A family decides to buy a lodge in a remote hiking area. Their first customer commits suicide and the distraught family buries his body to avoid the bad publicity. But their luck gets worse, the bodies start piling up, and the family becomes frantic to rectify the situation.

7/10
8%

Returning home and finding his town drastically changed, a former soldier falls in with gangsters.

7/10

The movie loosely follows the life of "Gangster No. 3", who doesn't like to be called a "Gangster" and really hates to be called "No. 3". But there's lots of tangents and side stories so it's hard to really say that there's any one focus to the movie... it's got a very fractured structure (hence the confusion).

6.5/10

A compilation of episodes from the lives of several of the amateur actors' (who are 'bad teens' and the homeless of Seoul) own experiences, this film sheds light on the dark side of Korean society. Feeling alienated and persecuted, they wonder about and come into conflict with the 'good people' who persist in trying to reform them. They have their own reason for remaining as they are and resist attempts to reform them: they cannot change simply because they are bad.

6.2/10

A novelist has an affair with two women, finding fulfillment in neither; a married businessman strays from his wife he can't satisfy; a naive young woman surrenders her dignity for her lover; and a married woman tries to find solace in a frustrating affair.

6.7/10

The story surrounds boxes that are left out for people to anonymously drop off their unwanted babies.

‘One Win’ is about a female volleyball team that finally gets a new coach.

"Uncle Samsik" will revolve around two men with strong bromance named Samsik and Kim San and their journey during the turbulent times in the early 1960s.