Korean Cinema

Any suggestions for great Korean cinema? 
 
Oldboy is one of my favorite films, and would love to check out anything at that level. 
 
 

The follow up to Oldboy, Lady Vengeance, is great. In fact the whole Vengeance trilogy from Chan-Wook Park comes highly recommended. 

Check out the entire vengeance trilogy (Oldboy is just one of the movies)
and watch Thirst. It is the best vampire movie EVER.

liquidrsr


The follow up to Oldboy, Lady Vengeance, is great. In fact the whole Vengeance trilogy from Chan-Wook Park comes highly recommended. 

I've seen the Vengeance trilogy, all cool stuff!
 
 

The Host.....lol

Park's J.S.A. (Joint Security Area) is also good, sorry but I only got Park's movies to recommend 

Memories of Murder (based on a true story - it's a classic imo)
A Dirty Carnival (excellent gangster film)
A Bittersweet Life (one of THE best gangster/revenge films ever made imo)
The Chaser (Thriller)
Man From Nowhere
Friend
JSA
I Saw The Devil (thriller, very graphic but a brilliant film) 

I Saw The Devil
 
Awesome movie. Rented it from Netflix after hearing about it on here. I typically don't like foreign language films because I hate having to read subtitles (typical American response, I know ), but I loved this movie so much I really didn't mind them. I have since ordered in on Blu-Ray and can't wait to watch it again.
 
Warning to all serial killers: Before you kill someone, make sure she isn't the fiancee of the "Korean Jack Bauer" first. 
 
 
In the middle of watching The Man From Nowhere right now. Really good so far, but I'm having a little trouble keeping track of who is who because some of the males in the movie look very much alike (again, typical American response - no offense intended ).

Liquid Drum Theater summed it up. Those are all the most well-known S. Korean films. That country has been producing some of the best films in the past decade. They have finally reached the same level of production as America, but are doing things in such unconventional ways. It's wonderful to see it happening at this moment in history and not having to look back on it.
 
Mother has not been mentioned. Same director as The Host.

Isn't GlassDream a big Korean film guy?

Liquid Drum Theater


Memories of Murder (based on a true story - it's a classic imo)
A Dirty Carnival (excellent gangster film)
A Bittersweet Life (one of THE best gangster/revenge films ever made imo)
The Chaser (Thriller)
Man From Nowhere
Friend
JSA
I Saw The Devil (thriller, very graphic but a brilliant film) 

This is perfect dude. Thanku so much

The works of Chan Wook Park. He is simply one of the best modern directors.

The works of Kim Ki-duk are amazing. Especially Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter…and Spring and 3-Iron. Very unique, subtle and beautiful storytelling; every film buff should check these out.

Isn't Battle Royale Korean?

something_wicked


Isn't Battle Royale Korean?

It's Japanese.

something_wicked


Isn't Battle Royale Korean?

Nah I'm fairly certain it's Japanese. Great flick tho.

do you want Korean specifically? Or all Chinese, or say "screw it" and go all Asian and I can recommend some majorly funky flicks.

GlassDream


do you want Korean specifically? Or all Chinese, or say "screw it" and go all Asian and I can recommend some majorly funky flicks.

Any amazing Asian cinema would be awesome sir!
 
 
 
 
 
 

Mother.  Starts kind of slow, but it really picks up.  Lots of twists and turns.  I also second I Saw The Devil, but only if you have a strong stomach and moral certitude.  That movie did a real number on me when I saw it in theaters.

gonna get ahold of some of these films in the next few days. The trailer to I saw the devil looks incredible.. thank u so much guys

Bump
 
I love me some Korean cinema, and have been watching quite a bit of it lately.  The Man from Nowhere, Oldboy, The Chaser, No Mercy - all great films. 
 
That being said, I really did not get Sympathy for Lady Vengeance.  Not only was it rather hard to follow, but I had no connection to the main character (or any other one, for that matter), which is fairly funny considering the title.  And for a plan "13 years in the making", it wasn't much of a plan.
 
On another note, how did you guys watch A Bittersweet Life?  It isn't on Netflix (instant stream or otherwise), and it's running for $100+ on Amazon.  Did you just use "other methods"?

Unbelievable21




That being said, I really did not get Sympathy for Lady Vengeance.  Not only was it rather hard to follow, but I had no connection to the main character (or any other one, for that matter), which is fairly funny considering the title.  And for a plan "13 years in the making", it wasn't much of a plan.

 
I hear ya. The film is awesome stylistically, but otherwise I did not get much out of it. I don´t think Park´s heart was in it. He just felt obligated to finish the revenge trilogy. Did you see the first one? (Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance)
 

Unbelievable21


On another note, how did you guys watch A Bittersweet Life?  It isn't on Netflix (instant stream or otherwise), and it's running for $100+ on Amazon.  Did you just use "other methods"?

 
That´s a bummer. I bought it on DVD, when it was still reasonably priced... Oh, checking amazon it is still reasonably priced, in Germany... you could order it from amazon.de, although I have no idea how expensive shipping is. It´s a great film though.
You could of course wait a bit. The director Kim Jae-Won is filming a western with Arnold Schwarzenegger in it (I´m really curious to see that). So when that´s out, they´ll likely re-release any past films of his.

Last life in the universe is a REALLY good movie.
 
It's not about space or anything. It's about a japanese man on the run from the yakuza in the philipines and the language/cultural barrier. (That sounds way more boring than it actually is). I highly recommend it.

oh, yeah, i was very impressed by "i saw the devil"!
 
asian cinema has also some very good comedies like "shaolin soccer" or "barking dogs don´t bite"