I've been getting into movies/shows made in South Korea recently.

I watched Kingdom on Netflix first, which is what started me down this path. Here's the trailer for it. Zombie outbreak in ancient Korea. I loved it so much I watched it twice. Can't wait for season 2. You can listen with English voiceover dub.

I started watching Rampant too. It's basically the movie version of Kingdom, much faster pace since it's a movie. Here's the trailer.

The folks who made Rampant also have an older movie, Train to Busan, which I'm going to watch too. It's set in the modern day this time around. Here's the trailer for it.

The last one I want to mention is Arthdal Chronicles. Love this show. It's ancient tribes of humans battling for survival and control of the land, the planet reminds me of Avatar. The costumes remind me of Horizon Zero Dawn. Pretty intense action and some very dark themes going on right off the bat, but it's so good. Here's the trailer for it.

They are all available on Netflix, I highly recommend you check them out. They are great to watch.

Any other similar shows you'd recommend?

5 years ago*

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5 years ago
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+1 xD

5 years ago
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View attached image.
5 years ago
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soooo ronery

5 years ago
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Thanks for the blacklist.

5 years ago
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I'm not sure why you had to mention that?

5 years ago
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Im not sure why you have blacklisted me. So why wouldnt I?

5 years ago
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I was pretty scared about the kpop industry and similar things, seeing documentaries and interview such as those taken by Asian Boss and similar youtube channels/websites.. to be fair ç_ç
but that's not my musical genre I think, and reading your thread I'm discovering more and more how much I am ignorant about this world. I don't know almost anything about all those movies, and I should watch them since I watched so many Chinese and Japanese movies in the past years and especially when I was a teenager, I really loved that cinema. thank you for the suggestions, I'll try to get more information about the whole s. korean entertainment industry..
the main thing that has always kept me a bit far from south korea is the kpop phenomenom of these last 4-5 years.. it's not just a musical thing, it's just electronic pop most of the times with girls and boys dancing and it's not my genre, but it seems that everyone's crazy about that even here in europe and I'd love instead to take a look as you were writing at other kinds of entertainment - action movies, historical shows.. but I keep on encountering guys excited about kpop so I never really went deep into korean's entertainment industry =P

5 years ago
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Train to Busan is great, and also the only thing I've watched from all the above. I'm gonna try and check out the rest soon.
Thanks for the recommendations! :)

5 years ago
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Yup, same here and I also loved Train to Busan :D

5 years ago
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I only read about it in my newspaper: Burning -

one of the best movies of all time

(Warning German): Source Article

5 years ago
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Korean cinema is among the best, I haven't tried any tv show though.

Some movies I'd recommend:
Memories of Murder
The Man from Nowhere
3-Iron
The Wailing
Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring
A Bittersweet Life
Castaway on the Moon

Some like Castaway on the Moon or 3-Iron are kind of special and won't suit everyone. Certainly no simple action flicks.

5 years ago
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Add also I Saw The Devil.

5 years ago
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That's already on my watch list. Somewhen I'll get to it!

5 years ago
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Amazing movie. Props for recommending it.

5 years ago
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All of those. Haven't watched The Wailing yet, though I don't know what I am waiting for. The director is probably my favorite and if you haven't seen his other two movies, The Chaser and The Yellow Sea, I can highly recommend.

5 years ago
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Nice, I didn't expect to see so many other fans of Korean movies.
The two you mentioned are on my (Asian)watchlist.. There generally is just too damn much to watch! :)

5 years ago
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That's a very good list. Nice to see some of the classics on there as well. I share your admiration for Koreeda btw :)

5 years ago
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+1

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The Man from Nowhere was so very dark but so very, very well done. It is one of the few movies "for mature audiences" I would recommend other people watch.

5 years ago
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+1 for A Bittersweet Life and The Man from Nowhere. Anyone looking for good Drama/Action should start there. 👍

I'm really surprised no one mentionned Snowpiercer. I believe the original story comes from a french book but the movie is made by South Korea. Great acting and great atmosphere, i really liked it.

5 years ago
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IRIS + Athena: Goddess of War (Spin off) + IRIS 2
Time between dog and wolf
City Hunter
Secret Garden
Rooftop Prince
Sorry, I Love You

And I stop here, there's a lot more good kdramas.

5 years ago
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You should definitely watch Train to Busan! Watched it like two years ago, really enjoyed it. I think I even cried or teared up once or few times during it. Kingdom came out more recently and oh boy, it was crazy. The pacing & cinematography in this one is great too.

Might check out the other two as well, so thanks for sharing them on here ~

A suggestion to for you is 'I Saw The Devil'. Less action, a bit more story focused. But still its fighting/action segments are intense and brutal. The antagonist is a disgusting offender/murderer, so it's good to see him get beaten up lol. Though I still gotta finish watching this one actually, but it's worth giving a try if you have time.
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwWgp1bqVwE
Not on Netflix unfortunately (here in the U.S. at least)

Another one suggestion (not Korean, but still Indonesian/Asian) is 'The Raid' movie.
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6Q7KnXpNOg
Also not on Netflix unfortunately (here in the U.S. at least)

I streamed most of these on 'illegal' free movie websites haha, so if the Netflix option doesn't work out, hopefully you're able to watch them somewhere else ~

5 years ago
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Now I am really missing the old Blockbuster Video! I would always buy random foreign film they would have for sale. Not sure which country is more disturbing when it comes to the horror genre though... For me, it's a toss-up between Japan and France.

5 years ago
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Park Chan-wook's movies are great. Oldboy is really good, and The Handmaiden is amazing.

5 years ago
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Big fan of Choi Min-Sik

the way he can portray an evil guy i like it.

I would suggest watching a lot of his movies if you like dark themes
Old Boy
I Saw the devil
Nameless Gangster: Rules of time to mention a few

5 years ago
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Yep he's amazing. Him and Byung-hun Lee are easily my fav, such charisma and presence.

He was also great in Lady Vengeance.

5 years ago
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Lots of good recommendations here. I would add, just about anything by Chan-wook Park or Joon-ho Bong would be worth your time, though not all classify as action films.

Just saw Revenger last night. While it's very light on plot and doesn't make much sense, the fight scenes are outstanding (think The Raid or Man form Nowhere) and there are a lot of them.

Not action, but just for fun, I'd throw in The Quiet Family - a very dark comedy that you might appreciate as your getting into Korean movies.

5 years ago
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I don't watch tv shows that much, I can recommend you some films: The Man From Nowhere, Berlin Files, My Sassy Girl, Fighter in the Wind, The City of Violence, Moss (2010), The Good the Bad the Weird, Moby Dick (2011), The Chaser (2008), Memories of Murder (2003), Midnight Runners (2017), Oldboy (2001), 4th Period Mystery (2009), Troubleshooter (2010), The Suspect (2013), Private Eye (2009), Silk (2006).

5 years ago
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I also watched City of Violence, and it wasn't too bad :)

5 years ago
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I strongly recommend The Man From Nowhere, Moss, Oldboy, The Suspect, My Sassy Girl. Not that the rest are bad, but those are above the others imho.

5 years ago
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Thanks I will have to take a look :)

5 years ago
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The Handmaiden. Can't recommend it enough.

5 years ago
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A few good ones that haven't yet been mentioned (not all action movies):

5 years ago
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I almost skipped Joint Security Area due to the silly name and cover art, would have been a huge mistake, it has a great and very human story.

5 years ago
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The Host, and as others have mentioned, I saw the Devil, Oldboy and the Handmaiden. All are excellent.

5 years ago
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I did watch The Host. I enjoyed it!

5 years ago
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I'm almost completely clueless when it comes to South Korean movies aside from usual suspects, Park Chan-wook, Bong Joon-ho and Kim Ki-duk, and some other hits like Burning. The last one I've watched was the recent Cannes winner, Parasite. Definitely not an action movie though.

5 years ago*
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but but but
there's NO netflix in my country....

5 years ago
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Have you ever tried a VPN Service? ;-)

5 years ago
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that possible?

5 years ago
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There are a few trustworthly services out there. Not sure if the site rules here allow me to call their names out, so i wont.

5 years ago
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no problem, i know some vpn
rarely used one though

5 years ago
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Train to Busan also has an animated prequel called Seoul Station.

Few others:

My Way
I Saw the Devil
The Battleship Island
The Chaser
War of the Arrows
Memoir of a Murderer

5 years ago
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Netflix?
There are many North Korean nonfiction documentaries.
That's not fiction, it's real.
You can see.
It's funny and you can see it.

https://www.netflix.com/title/80100869
https://www.netflix.com/title/80097376

We exist in reality, not fiction.
However, reality is something that most people do not want to see as much as possible.
We seek "happy depiction" for ourselves.
But what do you get?
Nonfiction documentaries should have something to gain.

When you get bored with such things, it's a fun game time. :D

5 years ago
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I would have suggested The Host but I see somebody has already done that and you've seen it. I don't have a lot of experience with Korean film but it does seem to have similarities with some Japanese film from similar times, so unless you're specifically focussed on the Korean aspect of it such as language, you might find a lot to entertain you from Japan. If you prefer the blockbuster stuff over the festival art films and landmark cinematography like those from Akira Kurosawa, you might like to check out Japanese films like Battle Royale (2000) (which totally didn't inspire The Hunger Games) or Death Note (2006) (which is a far better adaptation than the 2017 American version).

5 years ago
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Haven't seen these mentioned.

Daeho

The Admiral

5 years ago
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seems that rampant isn't active in my country, because i can't watch it.

5 years ago
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5 years ago
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I've seen maybe one or two, but can't remember specifically.
But I've watched a few foreign films that were great.
With Hollywood mainly focusing on blowing up everything in site with The Rock at the helm, I started finding different source of movies with more meaning and realism (if possible). India movies are also a great source.

5 years ago
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I cant stop remembering the scene of the power slidding horse, every time someone make reference to the Indian cinema

5 years ago
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I meant to write "Indie" films. Hahaha. :P
Although, I have seen a few Bollywood films. Maybe one or two decent, most I just watch for the laughs.
Do yourself a favour and Youtube the Indian Thriller music video from a Bollywood film.

5 years ago
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Yeah, every time I think of Bollywood movies, I can't help sniggering.

5 years ago
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Train To Busan is a really good movie!

And I love Park Chan-Wook, you have to see the Vengeance Trilogy (Sympathy for Mr Vengeance, Old Boy, Lady Vengeance).

5 years ago
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Closed 4 years ago by VEF215.