29 titles, most popular first
In October 1986, two women are found murdered on the edge of a small town, and the poorly equipped local police are soon overwhelmed. Detectives Park Doo-man and Cho Yong-koo rely on violence and fake evidence, while Seo Tae-yoon, a better-trained detective from Seoul, joins the hunt as more killings follow.
In 1997, Yong-gu, a man with a developmental disability, lives happily with his six-year-old daughter Ye-sung and promises to buy her a Sailor Moon backpack. After a tragic accident involving a police commissioner's young daughter, he is wrongly arrested for her death and sent to prison, where his cellmates at first look down on him.
During the Korean War, student volunteer Oh Jang-beom barely survives a brutal battle and is shaken by what he has seen. He is then put in charge of a newly formed unit of untrained student soldiers, joined by a defiant young criminal named Ku Kap-jo, and ordered to hold a key position.
Crown Prince Sado, heir to King Yeongjo, sets out on a plot to kill his own father. The film moves back and forth between the crisis that follows and the long story of how father and son reached this point, from a king fixated on his young son's lessons to a boy who would rather paint and socialize.
In 1970s South Korea, President Park rules with total power through the KCIA. Its director, Kim Gyu-pyeong, is almost the second most powerful man in the country but faces a fierce rival in the president's security chief. When former director Park Yong-gak flees abroad and testifies before the U.S. Congress, pressure inside the government starts to build.
After President Park Chung-hee is assassinated in October 1979, martial law is declared and Major General Chun Doo-gwang is put in charge of the investigation. As he quietly gathers power, the principled Major General Lee Tae-shin is reluctantly appointed to command the capital's defense, setting the two men on a collision course.
Under President Chun Doo-hwan's military regime, student activist Park Jong-chul dies while being questioned by police. Commissioner Park Cheo-won moves to hide what happened by having the body cremated before any autopsy, but a stubborn prosecutor refuses to sign off. The film is based on real events.
In 1598, seven years into Japan's invasion of Joseon, Toyotomi Hideyoshi dies after ordering his troops home. Admiral Yi Sun-sin, fighting alongside allies from Ming China, has Konishi Yukinaga's army trapped at Suncheon, and the desperate Konishi tries to bribe a Ming admiral into letting his forces slip away by sea.
The crew of a struggling fishing boat, the Jeonjinho, fails to bring in enough fish and agrees to smuggle thirty undocumented migrants into South Korea for money. On the way back, the boat runs into heavy fog and rough seas while being chased by the maritime police. Young crew member Dong-sik finds himself drawn to one of the migrants.
In 1968, after North Korean commandos sneak into the South in a failed attempt to kill President Park Chung Hee, the South Korean military gathers 31 outcasts, including convicts facing death sentences, into a secret team called Unit 684. Sent to the island of Silmido for brutal training, the men are promised their freedom and a fresh start if they complete a mission to kill Kim Il Sung.
In 1978, Song, a former judge who passed the bar without going to university, moves to Busan to open his own law firm. Looked down on by other lawyers, he grows rich by taking the real estate and tax cases they avoid. By 1981 he is enjoying his success, until the son of the woman who runs his favorite restaurant goes missing.
In a South Korean village near a U.S. military base, local lives are shaped by the base's presence. Chang-guk makes his home in a rusting, abandoned Air Force bus with his mother, who teaches him English and keeps writing to his father in America, though every letter is sent back. Nearby are Eun-ok, a girl with a damaged eye, and a lonely boy, Jihum.
In 1990, civil war tears through Somalia as rebels rise against the Barre government. The North and South Korean embassies are each courting Somali support in their bids to join the United Nations. While South Korean ambassador Han Sin-seong confronts his northern rival Rim Yong-su over a sabotaged meeting, rebel forces storm the capital. The film is based on real events.
In 1992, South Korean intelligence recruits Major Park Seok-young to learn the truth about North Korea's nuclear program. Posing as a debt-ridden ex-soldier turned businessman, he sets up in Beijing looking to trade North Korean goods, hoping to win the trust of Ri Myung-woon, a senior North Korean economic official.
In 19th-century Korea, Jang Seung-eop, later known as Owon, begins life as a wandering drifter with a gift for drawing and copying other artists' work. Urged to find a style of his own, he struggles through drink, temper and hard years, while the country around him is caught between China and Japan.
In 16th-century Joseon, where class decides a person's fate, Hwang Jin-yi is raised as an aristocrat until she learns she was born illegitimate. Stripped of her noble status, she leaves her old life behind to become a gisaeng, while Nomi, a longtime family servant, quietly loves her.
In 1777, a year into his reign, King Jeongjo lives under constant threat from ambitious rivals at court and trains alone to defend himself. His one trusted ally is loyal servant Gap-soo, who grew up as an orphan trained to kill alongside his friend Eul-soo, now the deadliest member of a secret band of assassins ordered to kill the king within a day.
Overthrown by his uncle, Grand Prince Suyang, the teenage king of Joseon is stripped of his title, renamed Prince Nosan and sent into exile. Eom Heung-do, chief of a poor mountain village in Yeongwol, hopes that hosting an exiled nobleman will bring his people good fortune, and his village is chosen to receive Nosan, who arrives with his loyal maid Mae-hwa.
In 1980s Korea, Go champion Cho Hun-hyun spots a talented, untrained boy named Lee Chang-ho at an amateur tournament. Seeing his promise, Cho takes the child under his wing and sets out to shape him into a professional player.
In 1923 Tokyo, Park Yeol leads a small anarchist group of Korean and Japanese members resisting Japan's mistreatment of Koreans, with his sharp, good-humored partner Fumiko at his side. When the Kanto Earthquake devastates the city and violence turns against Koreans, the Japanese government sets its sights on Yeol and his group.
In Gwangju in May 1980, Min-woo lives a fairly quiet life with his younger brother Jin-woo, until soldiers suddenly turn their weapons on the city's people. As residents band together into a militia to protect their families, Min-woo finds himself caught in the middle. The film is based on the real Gwangju massacre.
Two North Korean agents, travelling on Japanese passports under the names Shinichi and Mayumi, are sent on a mission to bomb a passenger plane headed for Seoul. The film draws on the real bombing of Korean Air Flight 858 and the life of the woman agent involved.
Sohee, a high school student on a vocational track, is sent for field training at a subcontracted call center. The pressure and harsh work culture there weigh heavily on her. The film also follows detective Oh Yoo-jin, who becomes caught up in what happens to Sohee.
Kim, a widowed narcotics detective, is meeting a would-be informant named Kang when Kang is arrested for killing his girlfriend. Months later, Kang calls Kim from prison claiming he has murdered six more people, and Kim sets out to find the truth, never sure whether he can trust a word the killer says.
In 1997, as Korea slides toward a financial crisis, three stories unfold side by side. Factory owner Gap-su is paid with a risky promissory note by a department store; young analyst Jung-hak sets up a fund to bet against the economy; and central bank official Si-hyun warns that the country will run out of foreign reserves within a week.
In 1925, with Korea under Japanese rule, Princess Deokhye, the 13-year-old daughter of Joseon's royal family, is sent to Japan for her schooling. Longing for home, she tries again and again to return, but each attempt is blocked by Han Taek-soo, a general loyal to Japan.
Jeong-yeon and Jong-bae are happily married and raising a young daughter, until a friend's unpaid loans, which Jong-bae guaranteed, leave them buried in debt. Desperate, Jeong-yeon agrees to carry what she believes are diamonds from Paris to Seoul for a shady acquaintance, but she is arrested at Orly Airport when police find cocaine in her bag.
Yoon Min-cheol, a TV news producer, urgently needs a big story for his investigative show, PD Chase. A tip that the country's largest fertility clinic is illegally buying eggs leads him to Lee Jang-hwan, a celebrated scientist hailed as a national hero for his stem cell work. Then Shim Min-ho, a young researcher in Lee's lab, calls to say the research is faked.
