At the 2020 Oscars, South Korean director Bong Joon-ho wrote history and swept 4 awards with "Parasite", becoming the first person in the history of South Korea and even Asia. The good news that the whole country of South Korea was excited, causing many fans to re-examine the artistic status of Korean films. In addition to Bong Joon-ho, there are also other excellent directors and film works in South Korea, and "tear-jerking romance" is not synonymous with Korean cinema.
The following is an inventory of 8 god-level Korean movies in addition to "Parasite" and Bong Joon-ho.
<h2 class="Subtitle" >1. "Old Boys" - Park Chan-wook</h2>
Park Chan-wook is the first director in the history of Korean cinema to be shortlisted for the three major film festivals in Cannes, Berlin and Venice, and the most familiar masterpiece for film fans, the first "Revenge Trilogy": "Revenge" starring Song Kang-ho in 2002, "Old Boy" in Choi Min-sik in 2003, and Lee Young-ae's performance of "Kind Of Gold" in 2005. "Old Boy" is hailed as one of the most influential films in South Korea, pushing the proposition of revenge and redemption to a higher level, so that the film won the 57th Cannes Film Festival Jury Prize, starring national treasure actor Choi Min-sik.
Wu Daxiu, who lived an ordinary life, originally lived happily with his wife and daughter, but on his daughter's birthday, he was arrested for drunken trouble and disappeared. In fact, he was placed under house arrest in a hotel where he learned on television that his wife had been murdered and his daughter had disappeared, and that the charges had been blamed on him. When he was suddenly released 15 years later, Wu Daxiu inquired about why he had been imprisoned. He was given five days to find out the truth, but if he couldn't find out, a woman would die because of him.
<h2 class= "Subtitle" > 2. "Kind of Gold" - Park Chan-wook</h2>
The last installment of Park Chan-wook's Revenge Trilogy, Lee Young-ae performed "Gracious Gold" in 2005. In 2004, Kim, a young and beautiful felon, was released from Gyeongju Women's Prison for kidnapping and killing a boy, causing a national sensation. The gold in prison has always been amiable and has been nicknamed "gracious gold" by other prisoners. Although she is in prison, she spends every day planning how to avenge the real culprit of the case, Mr. Bai, the English teacher of the year.
The implication that revenge does not necessarily lead to peace and rebirth is also quite strong. Therefore, gold is equivalent to being in the position of the Virgin, treating people kindly and sending charcoal in the snow, but on the other hand, it is a witch who carries out evil plans, which can be said to be a witch in the name of the Virgin, and there is a killing intention in love. However, Kaneko's image was very different from everyone's expectations of Korean drama culture at that time, which made it difficult for the audience to accept it for a while. However, the film became the official competition film of the 62nd Venice Film Festival that year.
<h2 class= "Subtitle" >3. "Miss" - Park Chan-wook</h2>
"Revenge Trilogy" has been park Chan-wook's founding master status, seven years away from the Korean film industry, and hui Yong's work "Miss" in 2016 did not disappoint the audience. The story is adapted from the classic novel "Finger Picking" by the famous British writer Sarah Waters. Park Chan-wook changed the Novel's Victorian era to North Korea under Japanese rule in the 1930s, and although the second half of the story was greatly changed, it still retained the narrative structure of the novel from different perspectives and advancing layer by layer. It is narrated that Miss Xiuzi, who inherits a huge property alone, is coveted by greedy and cunning swindlers, and in order to obtain her property, she will do whatever it takes to arrange the maid she has found to be arranged by the lady's side, and a suspenseful situation of conspiracy and lust is about to be staged.
It is not so much this erotic drama that promotes dark aesthetics and floods of sensory stimulation, but rather an exquisite device that reveals the truth of lust layer by layer: it will link the desires of the four main characters of miss, daughter, earl and uncle, the desires of the audience, and of course the desires of the director, leading us to frequently go back to reconfirm the truth with the cyclical plot line, and explore the richer meaning of the same scene.
<h2 class="Subtitle" >4.《Life and Death Spy Change》 - Jiang Digui</h2>
Released in 1999, "Life and Death Spy Change" is a spy action film directed by Jiang Digui and starring the three major movie emperors Han Seok-gyu, Choi Min-sik, Song Kang-ho and Kim Yoon-jin. Set against the backdrop of the division of North and South Korea, the film tells the story of the rivalry and love between North and South Korean spies, which is regarded as one of the turning points in the rise of Korean cinema, and has also prompted Korean companies to invest a lot of money to revitalize Korean cinema. Because of the film's box office success ("Titanic" swept the world's top box office charts in that year, the only one in South Korea was suppressed), many film companies once again set off a wave of north and south Korean situation.
Describes the north Korean female agent who left into South Korea to collect intelligence and kill official officials, was jointly pursued by the male protagonist and his partner, and finally found that the real identity was the male protagonist's fiancée, resulting in the end of the lovers. Although this film is an action spy film, it is an uncompromising love film in its bones, portraying love invincible politics as very desolate and tearful. The English name "Shiri" is a bit strange at first glance, but it is mentioned in the film that there is a kind of seasonal love fish, which will swim together in pairs and swim together until death. Even if they are rushed away by the rapids of the river, the rapids of political confrontation that are helplessly blocked will desperately reunite.
<h2 class="Subtitle" >5</h2>
Korean poet and director Lee Cang-dong has switched multiple professional identities in his lifetime, writer, producer, director, professor, and has also served as an official for just 16 months, an official to the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism of South Korea. Li Cangdong's dedication to the film is based on the light life of urban small people, which permeates a strong humanistic care. The film won the Best Screenplay Award at the Cannes International Film Festival, represented South Korea in the Oscars, and was also directed by Lee Cangdong after he resigned as minister of culture, sports and tourism that year. The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival that year, and the heroine Quan Duyan used this film to make Cannes, and Song Kanghao was the male protagonist of the film. Li Cangdong let the actors explain the roles themselves, but in the end it was the director who made the decision.
It tells that Li Shen'ai took his son to Miyang, the hometown of his deceased husband, opened a piano academy, and prepared to start a new life. Unexpectedly, when life was returning to peace, Li Shen'ai once again suffered a heavy blow in his life, and his son Jun'er was kidnapped and eventually killed. Therefore, Li Shen'ai tried to dilute the pain through religious belief and learn to forgive. But when Lee Shin-ae later visited his son's killer and was about to forgive him, the murderer told her, "God has forgiven me." He was hit and fainted. The film criticizes the activities of Christian missionaries in Korea and questions the relationship between man and God, why is God standing on the moral high ground more qualified than the victim to forgive the perpetrator?
<h2 class="Subtitle" >6.The Chaser - Luo Hongyi</h2>
Although Luo Hongyi has only made three films and not many international awards, each film has a very high evaluation and is regarded as one of the potential Korean directors. The first work "The Chaser" won the Best Director Award at the Big Bell Awards. The smoothness of the flat and direct narrative but not the cold field has been compared by many people with "Old Boys" and "Memories of Killing", and the god-level status is evident.
Zheng Hao, a former policeman who runs a pimp, has to force the sick Meizhen to go out to pick up customers because of the recent frequent disappearances of his girls, but accidentally finds that the phone number of the person who picks up Meizhen is the same as the number of the last call before the girls disappeared. He orders Mei Zhen to inquire about the address of the buyer to prepare for the ambush, and later even Mei Zhen loses contact, so Zheng Hao decides to go directly to find the whereabouts of Mei Zhen, and the prisoners in the play escape at Zheng Hao's finger many times, triggering a gripping chase. The film critiques the incompetence of the Korean bureaucracy to expose, in addition, the problem of prostitutes being beaten by guests and the question of no one asking after being killed reflects the exploitation of the bottom who has nowhere to claim justice, and even when the fever is still forced by the boss to pick up customers, it is more labor-oriented.
<h2 class="Subtitle" >7."The Lie of Desire" - Kim Ki-duk</h2>
Kim Ki-duk's films jump out of the box of commercial films, the subject matter often makes the audience in addition to shock, bring reflection on life, than the film is sold, he is more obsessed with excavating the essence of human beings and society, making him a very unique director. He is a frequent visitor to major international film festivals overseas, especially in Europe, and is a popular international superstar. "The Lie of Desire" is one of its relatively easy to enter films, an emotional film starring Sung Hyun-e and Ha Jeong-woo, released in 2006. The film tells the story of a couple who have been in love for two years and have plastic surgery due to lack of trust, but they have plunged each other into greater pain.
Xue Xi (Sung Hyun Eun) and Ji Woo (Ha Jeong Woo) are a pair of very much in love, after two years of love, Xue Xi began to worry that Ji Woo was tired of her for a long time, so he became very sensitive, and even Ji Woo looked at other women, she wanted to dig out his eyeballs. To make matters worse, Ji Woo gradually lost interest in her. Xuexi blames all this on her unchanging appearance, so she decides to temporarily leave Zhiyu for plastic surgery, hoping to develop a new relationship with Zhiyu after becoming a new woman. A few months later, Xuexi seduced her ex-boyfriend with a new identity, not so much as a test, but rather the thought that since he was a flower, it was better to simply become his new lover, and as a result, she herself was jealous of herself, tearing herself apart when she tore his love.
<h2 class = "Subtitle" >8. "Alone by the Sea at Night" - Hong Changxiu</h2>
Hong Chang-so is the first generation of Korean study abroad directors, who is good at integrating the spirit of experimental film learned abroad into the films of his own nation. It has been highly praised by film critics overseas, and has entered the official competition section of the Cannes Film Festival four times. The theme of Hong Changxiu's film works is usually the love between men and women, and there are often recurring elements; film scenes often take place in scenes of daily life, such as streets, coffee shops, restaurants, schools and residential stairs. The characters in the film also seem to be wandering around the city, drinking shochu and making love like they are living their daily lives, and often revolve around intellectuals and literary youth who are engaged in film or art, filming their daily and ambiguous relationships with men and women, and filming the dialogue between the characters in long shots. Therefore, the audience needs to chew slowly with great patience in order to slowly appreciate its indescribable unique charm.
The story of "Alone by the Sea at Night" is mainly divided into two parts, and the Korean actress Young-hee is under pressure because of her love affair with a married man, and she is willing to give up everything to show her heart. During her travels abroad, she had long conversations with friends, but she was not fully understood by others. Walking alone in empty parks and seashores on the days of waiting, she wondered: Would he miss me as much as I missed him? After returning to Korea, Young-hee gathers with some old friends, and at first the atmosphere is a little awkward, and after some drinking, she begins to behave coldly and unkindly, throwing tantrums at people like venting, but they like it instead. When the wine finally dispersed, Young-hee went to the beach alone, and her worries dissipated like a fog, and she gradually saw the meaning of love and identity in life.