From smoldering dramas to gripping thrillers, Korean movies are a feast for the eyes. This article features top-rated Korean films spanning across multiple genres that offer something for every taste.

Director Park Chan-wook’s Oldboy shook audiences with its stylized violence and hard-to-stomach story of vengeance. Its success paved the way for many other similar korean movies.

The Host

The Host, known in Korean as Goemul, is a witty and wild monster film that's also a family drama, a political satire, and a tragedy. Bong Joon-Ho creates a world where humans and creatures coexist in mutual distrust. It's one of the few films that depict the havoc a single mutated creature can wreck.

In this loopy, feverishly imaginative genre hybrid, a giant fishy monster pounces on the city of Seoul. Inspired by a 2000 incident in which a US military morgue official was convicted of dumping formaldehyde into the Han River, Gwoemul is equal parts horror feature, family drama, disaster movie and political satire. The film's CGI monster, a twisted amphibian from the deep, is exotic and predatory without being over the top like Godzilla or Jaws.

A Tale of Two Sisters

Among the Korean horror films that made their mark in the ’00s were Park Chan-wook’s bloodbath Old Boy, Bong Joon-ho’s crime thriller Memories of Murder and Kim Jee-woon’s haunting A Tale of Two Sisters. Featuring picturesque tropes from gothic cinema, brutal conventions of horror and themes rooted in realism, it’s an outstanding example of how to create a film that genuinely inspires dread.

Based on the Joseon Dynasty era folktale Janghwa Hongryeon jeon (also known as Rose Flower, Red Lotus), it tells the story of two sisters whose father remarries a woman who dislikes them and abuses them. When the eldest daughter is about to marry, the stepmother sabotages the wedding and pushes her into a lake where she drowns.

A Tale of Two Sisters is a top-rated Korean movie that features stunning imagery and a terrifying story that lingers long after the credits roll. It remains an important text contributes to a broader understanding of contemporary Korean cinema.

The Wailing

After making a name for himself with thrillers such as The Chaser (2008) and The Yellow Sea (2010), director Na Hong-jin turned to horror for his third film. The Wailing (Goksung) delivers on its promise of a tense and unsettling tale of evil that resists easy solutions or twists.

The movie centers on a Japanese stranger who is blamed for a series of gruesome murders in a small town in Gokseong, South Korea. Local police officer Jong-goo (Kwak Do-won) investigates the crime and begins to suspect that the foreigner is a demon or another type of supernatural creature.

Do-won portrays Jong-goo as a bumbling everyman who is so overwhelmed by superstition, xenophobia, gruesome murders and unexplained illness that he can no longer rise to the challenge of his job. This approach allows the audience to identify with him and empathize with his plight.

The Killing Season

When Yeo-rae meets Jonathan, a rich real estate developer with an ego the size of the entire Qualla island, she falls in love and marries him. He’s a douchebag with a plethora of fake mustaches and a portrait that looks like the live-action Kuzco from The Emperor’s New Groove, and his ridiculous self-importance makes him fun to watch.

Lee Young-ae shed her polished image for this quirky drama that doesn’t fit neatly into any genre. She stars as a reclusive, booze-loving gamer who investigates fraudulent insurance claims and soon suspects that a serial killer is disguising perfectly executed murders as accidents. This one-of-a-kind series will keep your eyes glued to the screen and your butt firmly planted in your seat. This is a crime thriller worth watching.

The School For The Deaf

This movie is about a shocking real-life case of sexual violence against deaf children by school faculty. The film doesn’t hold back in its depiction of the horror, and subsequently the courtroom drama that follows.

When new teacher Kang In-ho arrives at the school for the deaf, he quickly realises that the children are being abused. Although he is initially blind to the horrific actions, he eventually decides to devote his life to these children in the most distress.

The performances from the child actors are nothing short of astounding. They convey a combination of pain, hope, resentment and injustice that makes you want to stand up for human dignity. It is no wonder that the movie caused such a stir upon release, with sales surpassing 3 million tickets.