A couple of weeks ago, Adamu of Mutant Frog penned a post on recommended films on Japan. It got me thinking—if I had to recommend films on Korea, which films would they be?
Unfortunately, unlike our friendly neighbors to the east and west, Korea has not received the same kind of attention from overseas film makers. In fact, off hand, I can think of only three major Western films dealing with Korea—”MASH” (of course), “The Bridges at Toko-Ri” (not a bad film at all) and the legendarily bad “Inchon” (not that I’ve seen it).
Korea, on the other hand, produces a lot of movies about Korea. And with this in mind, I though I might suggest a couple of films to Korea watchers out there, although I admit the movies mentioned below probably reveal more about me than about Korea.
- Sopyonje (1993). OK, I’ll be honest—I’ve yet to meet a person, Korean or foreigner, who actually enjoyed this film. But the movie, master director Im Kwon-taek’s biggest international success, is a powerful depiction of the Korean soul.
- Oldboy (2003). As I’ve said before on this blog, I think “Oldboy” rocks. But for our purposes here, I point to the “hall scene,” which, as one of my co-bloggers pointed out, is a representation of the Korean spirit. There is Oh Dae-su (Choi Min-sik), getting the shit kicked of him by God-knows-how-many thugs as he makes his way down the hallway, but he doesn’t give up. He perseveres, not because he had numbers or because of his mad technical skills, but because he could take the punishment and through ugly, brute effort attain his objective…. all because he wanted it more.
- JSA (2000). Well, we need at least one film dealing with the national division, and I guess this would be the one to see. Personally, I didn’t really care for it, partially because it stars Lee Young-ae, who for reasons beyond my ken always manages to rub me the wrong way with her performances, and partially because like most films dealing with intra-Korean issues in the era of Sunshine, it avoids any honest discussion of what the North really is. That being said, it does depict the worldview of many young Koreans, right or wrong.
- Taegukgi (2004). I should include a Korean War film, and this is probably the best ever made. That being said, it’s a toss-up between “Taegukgi” and “Spring in My Hometown.” “Taegukgi” gives you plenty of action and a good feel for the fluid nature of the war as the frontlines swung up and down the peninsula. “Springtime,” however, is a brutally slow but beautifully shot depiction of the how the war impacted life even in rural villages far from the frontlines. Of course, you could also watch “Welcome to Dongmakgol,” which is a well-made film that’s probably more recommended as a case study in self-inflicted historical delusion. Which, if you’re a Korean watcher, you might as well get used to now, because it doesn’t get any better later.
- Why Has Bodhi-Dharma Left for the East? (1989): Korean Zen as a (drop-dead gorgeous) film. Partially shot at Yeongseon-am Hermitage, Bongjeong-sa Temple, Andong, which really is that beautiful.
But enough about my suggestions. Which films would you recommend for Korea watchers?
42 Comments
I saw Sopyonje here back in the summer of ‘93, when it played to packed houses. It’s still one of my favorite Korean films.
봉준호 감독의 살인의 추억 (2003)
(Memories of Murder by Bong Joon Ho’s.
“Memories of Murder”
“Bittersweet Life”
“Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring”
Older ones:
“Black Republic” (1990)
“Taebak Mountains” (1994)
How about the upcomming “The Fast and the Furious: Kia Pride”?
쉬리 and 투사부일체.
I second Sugar shin’s nomination of “Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring”. That was a very moving film and well made.
I just watched Taegukgi today with my father. Powerful and tragic.
I really liked 집으로 and especially 파이란, which was very sad, and had a great change of pace in the middle.
I used to like most Korean films I saw, but the last six I’ve seen on DVD have ranged from passable to execrable. What’s going on? And can anyone recommend any really good recent Korean films?
Marmot: How do Sopyonje and Chunhyangjeon compare? I’ve always considered the story of Chunhyang Korea’s definitive tale.
Wjk: It’s interesting to note, that the films I’ve seen in a Korean theater where audience members cried so profusely were Taegukgi and Gibson’s Passion of the Christ. In both cases, my wife and I were literally surrounded by legions of soggy, sobbing women for more than one scene of each movie. I always found that fact food for reflection.
shiri, oldboy, dongmakgol, 3-iron, sassy girlfriend
flower sisters (1972 from DPRK)
but honestly, recently (every single year since 2000) korea produce more good film than any other country in the world , incl Hollywood.
and ‘a tale of two sisters’, if you like lynch.
Korea really seems to churn out some quality movies from this particular region of the world.
Damn, I still have “Memories of Murder” in my drawer that I STILL have not watched. Come to think of it, I haven’t watched any movies at home in a long time…
sunbin from United States Says:
July 4th, 2006 at 5:16 pm
“but honestly, recently (every single year since 2000) korea produce more good film than any other country in the world , incl Hollywood.”
hmmm, i’d say that koea produces more good koren films than anywhere else but better than everything else in “the world” ? actually I find most of the korean films way overhyped and kinda boring. stuff like oldboy i’d rank with a typical hollywood film (i.e. not too bad but no great shakes) but nowhere near the class of many other non-english language films such as the motorcycle diaries. by the way, hollywood might be another planet but it’s certainly not a country.
I’ll go with “Memories of Murder” also. Not only is it a great psychological drama, it gives a feel for Korea in the early 1980s.
The movie is so good that, after the goon cop has his ’shit stomping leg’ amputated and Song Kang-ho’s character sees his cloth-covered kicking boot and cries at the thought of his friend never beating confessions out of suspects again, you actually have sympathy for the guy.
I’ll also have to go with “Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring” - one of my all-time favorite movies, period.
“Silver Stallion” was a decent film. Though much of it is predictable it offers an interesting glimpse of how Korea views camp towns and the downfall of its women.
“Susanne Brink’s Arirang” covers Korea’s “shame” as a baby-exporting nation. Through the intervention of a Korean Susanne is rescued and recovered, and de-Westernized and re-Koreanized. The honor Korea has been restored.
The ’80s offers some great Chun Doo Hwan-era films such a “Between the Knees”, starring Lee Bo Hee, “The Ticket”, about da bangs and starring Kim Ji Mi, and “Queen Bee”, about the dangers of foreign English teachers.
• Anything by 김기덕, especially the old ones starring 조재현 like 악어 or 나쁜 남자.
• 친구 - 頭師父一體 sucked, and #2 sucks too.
• 살인의 추억 [송강호 rocks, when he wants. I don't like JSA, but he's great in it. Same for 효자동 이발사]
여곡성(Woman’s Wail, 1986) is a must-see Korean horror movie. steel shot 1 and steel shot 2and
pics 3, 4 and the movie’s trailer on a Korean netizen’s blog
kim ki duk is the bomb in terms of capturing a violent underside to everyday life in korea i have often felt(whether it’s real or imagined is still to be decided).
for those interested in korean film, a great source is http://koreanfilm.org/. if they only put together a site like KFCC, it would be a lot more user friendly for those like me who merely want a rating system minus too much analysis.
Robert:
We haven’t met, have we? Thanks for reminding me of this, I just ordered it.
DDA:
어이그… I have a feeling that I have become a worse person just by translating one of those two. But I’ll admit that 조재현 is convincing in ‘Crocodile’.
For personal reasons referred to in my comment to DDA, I’ve developed affection (정이 들었다 이 말이다) with ‘Take Care of My Cat’ and ‘Girls’ Night Out’, most likely also because I find in those films so much of the feelings of the times I’ve spent in Korea.
Well, there are several movies that affected Korean psyche.
1. Arirang(circa 1930) : A Japanese cop rape a country girl. The brother of the girl kills the cop. To avoid certain death sentence, he pretends to be a mad man. He sings “Arirang, arirang..”. This movie portrayed the sadness of losing control to a foreign country and subsequent exploitation. Only thing Koreans could do was to pretend to be mad and play along. This movie was banned by the Japanese.
2. ChunHayng (circa 1960): Well known story of “Good triumphing Evil”. Staged on Chosun dynasty, an ugly magistrate forces a married woman to have sex with him. She refueses, to the point of death. Her husband returns with a higher post than the magistrate and cans him. The movie teaches a Korean woman to keep fidelity to her husband, even in times of heavy temptation.
3. HongGilDong(1970, North Korea): Again the well-known story of Hongil(a super spy for the king)doing amazing things. A sort of like James Bond sans womanizing. At the end of the movie, he was not promoted due to his lowly birth(Ssangnom) and was betrayed by the king. Commies insert the ending as a propaganda. Effective.
4. A marine not returning (1960): Korean war movie about a bunch of marines. Their friendship, espirit-de-corp, their bravery. Kill Commies!
Recent movies are garbages. JSA? Pure fiction and Commie propaganda. I like the Shiri better. Other garbages are shot with 1960 film technology. Poor stuff.
I like Mexican and SouthAmerican movies. They are picante and caliente. Tells story without sanitization as in Hollywood movies- utter poverty, dead and bleeding dogs, shooting, raw sex. Sex and violence at primitive levels.
If you want a sublime entertainment, go to opera. But, if you want to see life in raw, see SouthAmerican films.
Nicotina, City of God, Amores Perros, Common Wealth, The Man Who Copied …
I’m surprised noone has yet mentioned the masterpiece “Please Teach Me English.”
I liked Sopyonje, Robert. A very beautiful and moving film.
Was Baduk the only to mention 쉬리/Shiri/Swiri—and then only in passing? This movie was the blockbuster that kicked off the entire Korean Wave, was it not? It was the first big-budget, Hollywood-style* blockbuster. I’d recommend it for historical reasons alone, and because it is a half-decent movie.
(* I’m sure Korean filmmakers would be loath to come out and use “Hollywood-style” in describing their product, but JSA, Silmido/Shilmido, and Taegeukgi just built on the inter-Korean action thriller, spend-it-and-they-will-come model.)
Yeah, Lee Young-ae bugs me, too.
Baduk: Im Kwon-taek remade Chunhyang a couple of years ago. I haven’t seen the 1960 version, but the remake is gorgeous…and the entire thing is set to pansori, with transitions between the singer/drummer (one person) and the action.
i found it quite interesting often korean films were cirticized for the wrong reason (eg in IMDB and even some pretended critics). e.g.
1)oldboy, as superb as it is, in both the filmmaking and plot, were discounted because they found the plot (even though they are afraid to criticize the greeks) and the scene (an octopus) repulsive.
2) dongmakgol, a well made film, was discounted for its allegedly being too soft on the NK and too harsh on US. though i would criticize its faults in the plot - e.g. not quite knowing how to end the melodrama),
Joseph: I saw Taegeukgi and the Passion of the Christ back-to-back—well, two evenings in a row. Man, can you imagine how gutwrenching that was!?
A few of my personal favourite movies are all good, but not ones that I’d necessarily recommend as “definitive” or “the best”: 집으로/The Way Home for the transformation a spoiled boy from the city undergoes when staying with his extremely rural grandmother, 말아톤/Marathon based on the true story of an autistic young man who finds purpose in life through running, No. 3 and —in both of which Han Suk-kyu plays a gangster, and 나의 결혼 원정기/Wedding Campaign, in which a 촌스로운 farmer travels abroad to find a wife and falls in love with his interpreter.
Some films that are among my favourites and are all good, though not necessarily “definitive” or “the best.” All except the first one (a comedy) are emotionally moving.
* No. 3 and 초록 물고기/Green Fish (1997), in both of which Han Suk-kyu plays a gangster (one a comedy, the other a tragedy);
* 집으로/The Way Home (2002), in which a spoiled boy from the big city is transformed while staying with his extremely rural grandmother;
* 말아톤 [sic]/Marathon (2005), in which an autistic child finds meaning in life through running (based on a true story); and
* 나의 결혼 원정기 (2005), in which a 촌스로운 farmer travels abroad to find a wife and falls in love with his interpreter instead.
The advantage of the last movie—at the risk of giving too much away—is that it’s an antidote to movies like Dongmakgol, or JSA, if one is concerned about the way that the reality of NK is dealt with.
There are some good recommendations above (and some I’d really disagree with - I mean, Taegukki? I’d rather go with Baduk’s #4 suggestion, The Marines who Never Returned - and it’s over 40 years old!)
To add a few (going with the idea that we’re talking about good representations of Korea, as opposed to just good films made in Korea):
Barking Dogs Never Bite (Bong Joon-ho’s first film) is a very black comedy about apartment life (and dogs); Take Care of My Cat might not be everyone’s cup of tea (a drama about five girls after they finish highschool) but it does cover a great many aspects of Korean society, from socio-economic divisions, ‘guest workers’ and plastic surgery, to orphanages and generational divides; a more fractured take on the underside of the society would be If You Were Me, a collection of short films; and many films by Kim Ki-duk, who has dealt with a lot of taboo subjects - ditto with Im Sang-soo (Tears, Good Lawyer’s Wife, President’s Last Bang).
As for comedies, a few not mentioned that come to mind would be Attack the gas station, Conduct zero, Quiet family, and Foul king.
Add another vote for Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter, and Spring.
빈집 is an unusual movie that won a well-deserved award at Cannes.
I also liked 바람의전설, a spoof on dance instructors hooking up with middle-aged women. Unlike most Korean ‘comedies,’ this one actually made me laugh.
Taking Robert’s list and modifying it somewhat, I’d suggest that the “Top 5″ Korean films (in chronological order) would be:
* Arirang (1926)
* Why Has Bodhi-Dharma Left for the East? (1989)
* Sopyonje (1993)
* Shiri (1999)
* Oldboy (2003)
I’d add Arirang (1926) at Baduk’s suggestion. I haven’t seen it (is it available anywhere?), but it seems to be widely regarded today as the definitive colonial-era film.
I also haven’t seen Bodhi-Dharma, but Robert was right to mention it, as it seems to have been the first Korean film to have any kind of impact outside of Korea. For many years (in the mid 90s), it was the only Korean film available at my local video store, even though the store specialized in foreign films and had scads of stuff from Italy, Japan, etc.
Sopyonje is the representative film of Im Kwon-taek—one of Korea’s most important directors—and was the most successful Korean movie of all time up to the time when it was released in 1993.
I’d drop JSA and Taegeukgi (as good in terms of production quality as they are, even if their values are arguably wishy-washy) and replace them with Shwiri, the prototypical big-budget Korean action movie that set the whole Hallyu ball rolling, as far as I can tell.
As for Oldboy, what is there to say? It’s not my personal cup of tea at all and I have no intention of ever watching it a second time, but objectively speaking, it is a good film, certainly garnered a lot of international recognition, and represents a whole branch of contemporary Korean cinema that deals with dark subjects.
It seems that perhaps one of Kim Ki-duk’s films should be included, as he too has gained a lot of attention outside of Korea. I’ve only seen Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter…and Spring (2003) and 3-Iron (빈 집; 2004), however, and while both were good, neither struck me as great.
Ooh! I’d better hurry up and close my italics!
…There…hopefully that did the trick.
Uh oh…through in some more tags and see if I can turn them off… Marmot, fix please if still broken!
Phew, okay, everything’s okay now! And that should have been “throw,” not “through.”
Speaking about translating movies – thanks Antti for reminding me – I developped an affection for 할리우드 키드의 생애, by 정지영, with 최민수 and 독고영재.
Nobody likes 박하 사탕 here?
I’ve never quite got Kim Ki-duk. Though well-acted and engaging, Samaria, Bad Guy and The Coastguard all left me wondering just what the point was.
As far as the worst Korean movie goes, my votes go to either “Running Wild,” in which uber-poof Kwon Sang-woo “does” grizzled and hard-bitten with preposterous results. Or perhaps even worse, “Holiday,” the allegedly true story of an escapee from jail during the Roh Tae-woo presidency. Rarely has such a piece of crap film taken itself so seriously.
Peppermint Candy(박하사탕) was indeed a good film. I’ve yet to see a Seol Gyeong-gu film where he doesn’t end up crying. He keeps it to a minimum in Public Enemy. The sequel was trash but the original was quite engaging. Seoul’s cop is as tough and reckless as Dirty Harry, as slovenly as Columbo and as dumb and unscrupulous(but not as happy about it) as Rosco P. Coltrane.
The point of Kim Ki-duk’s movies? Well, if you see one of his in which a woman falls in love with her rapist, you might think he is exposing some irony surrounding misogyny but then see two more and it starts to look as if he believes that rape and Stockholm syndrome have some kind of partnership or that maybe he saw it in an old Hollywood movie and really liked the idea for some reason. The first three Kim Ki-duk movies I saw included this trope(악어, 나쁜남자, 수취인불명). There may be others but I stopped watching his crap…that is, after seeing a fourth - Samaria - which was much more original: girl starts to have sex with her dead child-prostitute friend’s johns. The respect this guy has for women is simply astounding.
I’ve heard that a lot about French movies – maybe that’s why I like 김기덕’s movies. But what I like also is the depiction of not-so-well-known aspects of Korean society.
Three movies I loved that haven’t been mentioned yet:
Jeong - 정 - My Heart - a beautiful movie, really well done about the tragic life of a Korean woman as she’s married off at a young age and her struggles and joys.
Save the Green Plant - 지구를 지겨라! - One of the craziest movies I’ve ever seen - it manages to be a comedy/drama/sci-fi/horror movie all wrapped in one.
And my favourite Korean movie:
The Good Lawyer’s Wife - 바람난가족 - Very dark and frank - I loved it.
It seems that Kim Ki-duk pushes the right buttons with the Western art-film crowd (no offence, dda). Since I can’t really dig Western art films either, I guess that’s why Kim Ki-duk doesn’t do it for me either. But that would explain his appeal in Europe and why he’s won so many awards there.