KOFA's 100 Korean Films

A composer and his wife are thrown into turmoil when a housemaid becomes more than they bargained for.

Based on the true story of the country's first known serial murders, which took place between 1986 and 1991 in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, the movie begins with a series of raped and murdered women. Two bumbling, incompetent local detectives realizes a serial killer is on the loose and begins to chase after the murderer.

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.

Two brothers—Chul-ho, an accountant with a toothache and a pregnant wife, and Yong-ho, an unemployed ex-soldier wounded in battle—navigate life in post-war Korea.

Oldboy is the revenge drama from Director Park Chan-wook. Based on a Manga comic it depicts the suffering path of a man who must deal with the never ending torment of having unknowingly made someone his enemy.

The story is set in the 1970s during the period of military dictatorship. Schools were frequently closed and society seemed to face bleak prospects on all fronts. Nonetheless, Byung-tae, a college student, enjoys pursuing romance in blind group dates. It's during one of these ventures that he meets Young-ja, a French literature student.

A South Korean woman in her sixties enrolls in a poetry class as she grapples with her faltering memory and her grandson's appalling wrongdoing.

It’s a sweltering summer, but Jung-won, a terminally ill, thirty-something photographer, is already in the winter of his life when he begins a tentative romance with a young traffic cop who doesn’t know about his condition. Is their relationship doomed before it even begins?

From a mountain peak in South Korea, a man plummets to his death. Did he jump, or was he pushed? When detective Hae-joon arrives on the scene, he begins to suspect the dead man’s wife Seo-rae. But as he digs deeper into the investigation, he finds himself trapped in a web of deception and desire.

The lives of 4 interconnected South Koreans – a married couple, a novelist the wife is having an affair with, and a second woman the novelist is simultaneously involved with.

After spending 7 years as a man-servant in his fiancé's house, Young-bok gets kicked out of the place and works in Gyoung-sung station. He falls in love with Gye-soon but tragedy strikes her, which propels him to seek revenge. This is the oldest Korean film that has been preserved.

A young filmmaker and his crew struggle to bring the famous Korean story of Chunghyang to the big screen. Torn between two very different women and facing financial ruin, the director makes a rash and foolish choice in order to realize his dreams.

An orphan left in the care of a Buddhist temple becomes attached to a young widow who arrives there to mourn her recently deceased son.

Lee Shin-ja is a young widow, subject to the prejudices against her position in society. Trying to provide for her daughter as well as find love, Lee becomes entangled in the lives of her late husband's friend, his wife, and her lover.

A group of communist guerillas encounter jealousy and rivalry among themselves because of the presence of the female compatriot while one of their members plots to desert their band.

Oh starts working at a boutique to help her make a living. Professor Jang begins dating the typist Miss Park, but decides to break up with her to protect her family. Han's wife anonymously sends a letter to Jang to reveal Oh's affair.

In post-Korean War Seoul, a young man from the countryside discovers that his older brother has become romantically involved in a prostitute and has no intentions of returning home.

Six-year-old Ok Hee is glad when Mr. Han comes to board at her house full of women. She plays messenger for Mr. Han and her widowed mother as they quietly fall in love, but is her support enough to guard their love?

A man tries to raise his two sons and two daughters under some of the most adverse conditions known to man. The father operates a horse-drawn cart, but in a city that is modernizing after the destruction of the Korean War, automobiles are making carts obsolete. The children are experiencing difficulties as well. The eldest son has flunked the ba...

A division of marines survive a battle with the Chinese army but find themselves stranded without contact on the wrong side of the front.

There is a poor farmer couple. The landowner, an old man, covetous of the tenant's wife, tries to seduce her and sometimes threatens her. The wife spends every night with the old man at the water mill. Her husband, hearing the news, runs to the water mill and witnesses them together. He picks up the sickle that was placed near and kills his wife...

Yun Gi-jun has become the executive director of a pharmaceutical company by marrying the widowed daughter of the company CEO. With the general shareholders’ meeting coming up shortly, his wife suggests that he visit his hometown of Mujin and he takes her advice.

A writer who was disabled during the Korean War is now contributing a serial to a newspaper. His wife, who once adored him, is tempted by a young man she happens to know. But he overlooks her affair thanking her for her utmost care up until that time. Then the young man asks her to leave with him for a faraway place.

One Sunday, a penniless unmarried young South Korean couple meet, as they do every Sunday; while the pregnant young woman believes they are not ready to bring a child into the world, the young man decides to go visit his friends to borrow money for delivery.

The movie begins with the mysterious death of a journalistic photographer named Kim Cheol-hun. Veteran police detective Park (Kim Seung-ho) teams up with a young, intellectual detective (Kim Seong-ok) to investigate the people surrounding Kim.

The lives of a composer and his wife, who live on a chicken farm, are thrown into turmoil when a femme fatale joins their household.

Se-ran, the mistress of Hyeon-ma, lives in a massive traditional-style house called "Blue Mansion"in the suburbs of Seoul with her sister Mi-ran and their maid. One day, Hyeon-ma comes to the house with his newly-employed handsome male secretary/secret lover Dan-ju.

A man and a woman fall for one another, but she is haunted by her troubled history with men.

Passing through a jail and a construction site, a young laborer meets a middle-aged man returning to Sampo after ten years' absence. Together, they track down a young woman who ran away from the restaurant she was waitressing at, but instead of turning her in for a reward, the trio decide to go on an adventure together.

Chang-su recalls the girl whom he loved before he entered the military. At that time she had been working as a housemaid. They meet again years later at a police station and the girl, Yeong-ja reveals that she quit her job after being raped by the son of her employer. Her life got steadily worse until finally she lost an arm in a car accident an...

A company hopes to open a spa hotel named after Ieodo, a mythical island inhabited by the souls of drowned sailors. During a study trip to the proposed location of the hotel, a journalist disappears under mysterious circumstances. One of the contractors goes to Ieodo's neighboring island, populated by widows of the dead sailors, to unravel the m...

A melodrama about a man who survives an attempted double suicide with a stranger while picnicking with friends. He goes on a cave expedition for a famous archaeologist where he discovers a skeleton several thousand years old. He meets the spirit of the skeleton in a dream, and then becomes romantically involved with the archeologist's daughter.

Three friends, Duk-bae, Chun-sik, and Kil-nam, work each at a suburban Chinese restaurant, a barbershop, and a motel. The three friends are clueless about their future. They just share the drinks and love stories. Kil-nam is in love with Jin-ok working at a hair salon and Chun-sik is after Yu who also works at the barbershop. Naive Duk-bae's min...

Detective Oh goes searching for the murderer of Yang, a small-time brewer bludgeoned to death by a quiet riverside with no witnesses, no apparent motive. As he wanders about the winter landscape of South Jeolla Province and Seoul, he finds himself caught in a story of treachery, rape and murder.

In 1980s South Korea, a former cop, now in destitution, is placed in a rehabilitation center, where, by chance, he finds the Communist guerilla who had eluded his capture more than 30 years ago.

An attractive young woman has been called on to help rid a haunted family of its demons - the male heirs all die young, and one is now in a coma - she has to clear the environment where several exorcists have failed before her.

A story that follows the lives and interactions of two Buddhist monks living in South Korea.

In a poor neighborhood in Seoul, the inhabitants live together in harmony despite their difficult circumstances.

Beginning with the suicide of a film director, this work represents the Korean New Wave Cinema movement that focused on criticizing the Korean society in the 1980s through satire and humor. The journey taken by the characters, who lead low lives at the margins of the society, award them with a sense of liberation, however brief.

A disillusioned student meets a eccentric beggar and a mute prostitute he falls in love with. Together, without money, they cross South Korea to help the girl go home.

A middle-aged woman in Busan searches for the son she lost in Gilsodom during the Korean War.

Baek Ho-bin, who is in the U.S. illegally, dreams of getting rich fast so that he can bring his pregnant wife over from Korea. After conning a Korean immigrant and running off to L.A. with her money, Ho-bin marries another Korean woman named Jane in order to procure a green card...

A barren noblewoman encourages her husband to take a young peasant as a surrogate to secure the male line.

Young-min secretly admires Hye-rin whom he saw in a play and sends her flowers anonymously every performance of hers. However, Hye-rin marries a gynecologist Oh Seong-wu and leaves for New York.

When it was decided that the 88 Olympics would be held in Seoul, the residents of Sanggye-dong were forced from their homes and they struggled against the government to at least guarantee them new residences.

An aimless young man and his sign-painter friend draw a crowd when they climb to the top of a high-rise billboard.

Lee Jong-se is a third-rate comedian who believes himself to be a creative genius. He desires nothing more than to be a movie director.

About three monks in a remote monastery; an aging master, a small orphan and a young man who left his city life to seek Enlightenment.

Bae Il-do, who feels unappreciated in his rural village, runs away from home and works as a tailor. His wife grew up under a harsh stepmother and worked as a housekeeper and bar hostess before meeting Il-do, for whom she bore a child. The young and attractive Gong-rye comes between them, having an affair with Il-do while working with him in a ga...

There are 200 miserably impoverished people working in the Dongseong Metalworks Factory. Ju Wan-ik is introduced to the forging team as a new member of the team and they all go drinking together to welcome him.