Information technology seems safe to say that Due south Korea is quickly taking over the entertainment industry. With the rise of K-pop, K-dramas gaining popularity on streaming platforms, and Korean films winning major international awards, what's adjacent? So if you're simply dipping your toes into the world of international movie theater or are already in deep with Korea's entertainment exports, y'all might be looking for some bang-up Korean movies to stream.

With international hits similar Train to Busan , The Handmaiden , and Parasite , to name a few, Korea has proven itself a force to be reckoned with when it comes to movies. The state keeps churning out hits, and while Korean creators clearly have a knack for specific genres similar psychological thrillers and zombie films, in that location are many fantastic Korean movies of all genres. And then if you are looking for a flick to lookout while browsing Netflix, cheque out these great Korean movies that the streaming platform has on offer.

Honey and Leashes

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Image via Netflix

When you retrieve rom-com, BDSM isn't exactly what springs to mind. And yet this is the topic explored in Park Hyun-jin's Dear and Leashes . This 2022 romantic comedy tells the story of Ji-woo (Seohyun), who becomes inducted into the world of BDSM past her colleague Ji-hoo (Lee Jun-young). The picture has been praised as having a refreshing and accurate representation of kink and is surprisingly sweet and wholesome. It makes an effort to erase the stigma behind BDSM on top of existence genuinely informative. Likewise the endeavor it makes to be authentic and respectful, Dearest and Leashes as well differentiates itself from films such as 50 Shades of Gray by having Ji-woo exist the dominant one in her and Ji-hoo's contractual relationship. Additionally, Lee and Seohyun accept a palpable chemical science that makes it hard not to root for them and their relationship. Looking for a experience-good part romance with a bit of a twist? Dear and Leashes is sure to satisfy. – Olenka Wellisz

Veteran

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Paradigm via CJ Entertainment

The setup of Veteran is a familiar concept: tough police force detective Seo Do-cheol (Hwang Jung-min) is determined to bring big-headed millionaire Jo Tae-oh (Yoo Ah-in), who runs his own crime syndicate and tried to murder Hwang'due south friend, to justice despite overwhelming odds. However, Veteran doesn't feel derivative, instead, it mixes its own unique characters with a exciting mixture of activeness and suspense. A blank-knuckled face-off between Hwang and Jo in one of the concluding scenes of the moving-picture show is particularly exciting. Veteran also has a securely moral core, exploring social divisions and abuses of power within Korean society. Despite the serious topics the film deals with, notwithstanding, it's likewise genuinely funny, seamlessly switching between one-act and drama. The cast as well is excellent: Yoo Ah-in in particular is deliciously evil as Jo, and Seo Do-cheol provides a powerful performance as the unrelenting policeman intent on taking him downwardly. Overall, Veteran is a thoroughly enjoyable action flick that volition pair especially well with a large bowl of popcorn. – Olenka Wellisz

Night in Paradise

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Epitome via Netflix

If you lot are looking for a archetype crime thriller, the likes of which Due south Korean filmmakers are known for, then the Netflix Original movie Night in Paradise is a great choice. Directed by Park Hoon-jung, the dark drama stars Uhm Tae-goo every bit Park Tae-goo, a mobster who denies an offer to join the rival Bukseong gang, resulting in the murder of his entire family unit. Tae-goo and then retaliates past killing the men responsible earlier fleeing to the picturesque Jeju Island. There he meets a adult female named Kim Jae-yeon, played past Jeon Yeo-been, who suffers from a terminal illness and has niggling time left to live, and the ii form a connectedness. Unfortunately, Tae-goo'due south troubles follow him to the island every bit the Bukseong gang hunts him down. South korea has a talent for creating complex and heady revenge stories with fascinating antiheroes. Tae-goo is a skilled assassinator whose life gets turned upside downwardly past his loyalty, and the 1 affair he cares about — his family — is taken abroad from him. In Jae-yeon, Tae-goo finds someone who has gone through a like situation and ends upwardly alone, but doesn't want to be, and so they begin to form a life together. Their human relationship becomes the emotional centerpiece of an activeness-packed, violent story of vengeance.

Time to Hunt

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Image via Netflix

Another Netflix Original, Time to Hunt is a thriller set up in a dystopian nearly-future in which poverty is even more widespread and destructive. A grouping of friends, desperate to get out of the metropolis and beginning a better life, decide to commit one concluding heist together to get the cash they need, with a popular gambling firm their target. While they successfully pull off the heist, stealing a large sum of coin and the security hard drives, the owners of the gambling house decide to retaliate, hiring a ruthless assassinator to hunt down the 4 friends and become back what they stole. Directed by Yoon Sung-hyun, the movie stars Choi Woo-shik, who yous might recognize as the son from Parasite, Lee Je-hoon, Ahn Jae-hong, Park Jung-min, and Park Hae-soo. The thriller Time to Hunt is perfect for people who like heist films or activeness-filled dramas, and the movie is sure to continue you on the edge of your seat equally the four friends fight for their lives.

Space Sweepers

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Image via Netflix

Korean movies embrace all genres, including sci-fi. This 2021 film, Space Sweepers , is set in the year 2092, after Globe has become nearly unlivable, when anybody who is able to has gone out to infinite to live. A big corporation called UTS has started building an orbiting structure that would bring selected citizens to live in the synthetic utopia. But those without riches or privilege are pretty much out of luck, and that includes the many who piece of work as "infinite sweepers," or people who collect debris from the space around Earth to sell in club to survive. Space Sweepers focuses on a close-knit crew of these workers who must face off against UTS when they find a stowaway fiddling girl known as Dorothy (Park Ye-rin) who is highly desired past the corporation. UTS claims that she is really a robot weapon, but the coiffure tin can't help only fall in dearest with the girl, and then they go on to argue whether they should sell her for riches or protect her from UTS. The moving-picture show stars Vocal Joong-ki as Kim Tae-ho, a former soldier who now works with Captain Jang, played by Kim Tae-ri of The Handmaiden, on her ship, aslope Jin Seon-kyu as Tiger Park and their robot friend Bubs, voiced by Yoo Hae-jin. Too in the motion-picture show is Richard Armitage, who plays the greedy, controlling CEO of UTS, James Sullivan.

Tune in for Love

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Epitome via Netflix

Starring Jung Hae-in as Hyun-woo and Kim Go-eun, who some might know from the popular Korean drama Guardian: The Lone and Cracking God , every bit Mi-soo, Tune in for Love is a sweet love story that takes identify over years, following star-crossed lovers Hyun-woo and Mi-soo through the many ups and downs of their relationship. Get-go meeting at a baker where Mi-soo works in 1994, the ii grow close, but strange situations seem to always drag them apart. Whether it's a lost email password, a broken phone, or even jail fourth dimension, the ii tin't seem to catch a break. Despite that, Mi-soo and Hyun-woo continue to search for one another over the years, determined to be with the other person no matter what obstacles of life stand in the way. If you are in the mood for a heartfelt, subtle romance, Tune in for Honey is the perfect pick.

Okja

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Epitome via Netflix

While a majority of this film is in English, information technology is still very much a S Korean film. Directed by Bong Joon Ho and co-written past him and Jon Ronson, Okja is the story of a young daughter named Mija (Ahn Seo-hyun) who makes it her mission to rescue the "super hog" she raised, named "Okja." The animal is part of a major experiment for the meat industry, led past a power-hungry American company, with the finish goal beingness Okja's consumption. It'due south definitely a commentary on capitalism in America, along with the savage handling of animals in the food industry, most notably pigs. The film is star-studded, featuring longtime Bell collaborator Tilda Swinton, along with Paul Dano, Byun Hee-bell, Jake Gyllenhaal, Steven Yeun, Lily Collins, Giancarlo Esposito, and more. The movie is Bong's 2d English language-language film later on 2013's Snowpiercer , and although he will definitely continue to focus on Korean films like the Oscar-winning Parasite, Okja represents his increasing presence in Hollywood and the American film manufacture. The story of Okja is heart-wrenching, funny, and beautiful, and information technology definitely forces you to think about what sort of food we consume and how information technology gets from the farm to the stomach. Subsequently seeing Okja, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Gyllenhaal, Dano, and Yeun all squad upward with Bong again in the time to come.

Forgotten

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Epitome via Netflix

The psychological thriller Forgotten focuses on a boyfriend named Jin-seok, played by Kang Ha-neul, who lives a humble life with his parents and older brother Yoo-seok (Kim Mu-yeol). Ane dark, Jin-seok sees his brother kidnapped by men on the street, only 19 days after, Yoo-seok returns, seemingly fine and acting like nothing fifty-fifty happened. While everything returns to normal, Jin-seok notices stark differences in the way his brother is interim, and soon enough he's convinced that it's a dissimilar person. As other strange things start happening, Jin-seok works to uncover the truth of what really happened the night of his brother'due south kidnapping, but his search leads him downwards a deep rabbit hole that digs upwards more revelations most himself than Yoo-seok. Overall, Forgotten is a flake difficult to explicate, because if I were to get whatever deeper than this, I might just reveal some of the shocking twists and turns of this puzzling thriller. Written and directed by Jang Hang-jun, Forgotten is a truly unpredictable story that anyone who loves movies like Memento or I Saw the Devil should immediately add to their Netflix watchlist.

The Bros

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Paradigm via Megabox Plus M

The Bros is a hilarious misadventure of ii very dissimilar, estranged brothers who are forced to work together after their father dies every bit they become through all of the traditions of a Korean funeral. The film is directed past Chang You-jeong and stars Ma Dong-seok, who Curiosity fans volition see as Gilgamesh in Eternals , as Lee Seok-bong and Lee Dong-hwi every bit Lee Joo-bong, the two brothers in question. Seok-bong is the older, more young brother, a history teacher whose 1 large dream is to discover secret treasure on the family'south land, while Joo-bell is the meticulous, aggressive younger brother who attempts to use the funeral to convince his family to sell the country. The 2 haven't seen or talked to one some other since their mother'due south funeral, and so there'southward a lot to work through, and to make matters worse, the brothers hit a woman named Oh Ro-ra, played by Lee Hanee, on the way to their father's funeral, causing her amnesia. The Bros is a dramedy that focuses on the brothers as they rebuild their relationship amongst this crazy state of affairs. It's extremely funny, and after their whole story is revealed, you tin can't help but root for these meddlesome siblings and the adult female who brings them back together.

Psychokinesis

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Paradigm via Netflix

Written and directed by Yeon Sang-ho, who too directed the 2016 hit zombie moving picture Train to Busan, Psychokinesis is i of Korea's offset superhero movies. The picture show stars Ryu Seung-ryong every bit Shin Seok-heon, a downwardly-on-his-luck security guard who isn't exactly the type of person who you'd recollect would become a hero. But later a strange meteor grants him the power of telekinesis, Seok-heon attempts to turn his life around and help his estranged daughter Shin Roo-mi, played by Shim Eun-kyung, save her business from a mob-controlled construction company trying to kicking her out. Psychokinesis is filled with enough of action and comedy as Seok-heon bumbles his way through both becoming a hero for the city and a better father for Roo-mi. The 2018 moving-picture show is an underrated and thoroughly entertaining alternative superhero story, and it's certainly one of Netflix'south current hidden gems.

The Reservoir Game

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Image via Netflix

The only documentary on the list, The Reservoir Game is the story of journalist Joo Jin-woo's investigation into the whereabouts of a rumored stash of funds held by the former Republic of korea president, Lee Myung-bak. In 2013, a major development deal was made between a big Korean bank called Nonghyup Bank and a bunch of investors, but it "fell through" before the project could be constructed, and the investors lost huge amounts of coin overnight. As president from 2008 to 2013, Lee was direct involved in the scheme and suspected of squirrelling abroad a huge sum of money. While the former president was recently sentenced to jail fourth dimension for his decadent, illegal activities, the question of the missing money remained on reporter Joo'due south mind, and so he began a deep investigation that led him and director Choi Jin-seong to travel all the way to Canada to follow a tip they received. The documentary presents a deep dive into the case and how the scam was created and put in motility. The true story of The Reservoir Game is interesting and circuitous, and information technology's a bully expect at another instance of political and financial abuse of those in high positions of power, along with a group of people who are determined to not let them get away with it.

The Drug King

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Image via Netflix

The Netflix Original crime drama The Drug King stars two of Korea'south best actors, Song Kang-ho, Bong Joon Ho's most frequent collaborator who appears in hits like Snowpiercer and Parasite, and Bae Doona, who starred in Netflix hitting shows Sense8 and Kingdom . Written and directed past Woo Min-ho, the movie depicts the life of Lee Doo-sam, played by Vocal, a low-level drug dealer who rises up to get an infamous drug kingpin. The character is based on a existent man of the same name who built a drug empire in the 1970s, basing his operations in Busan. Bae plays a lobbyist with influential social connections who falls in love with Doo-sam and helps him gain power and command. The Drug King is an intense, stylistic movie, really embracing the 1970s setting in Korea, while never falling brusque on activeness and drama equally Doo-sam fights to maintain his position of power. If you're looking for something exciting and gritty, The Drug King is the movie to watch.

The Call

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Image via Netflix

If you want to watch a truly mind-melting mystery thriller, The Call is it. The 2020 film is directed by Lee Chung-hyeon, starring Park Shin-hye every bit a young woman named Kim Seo-yeon who finds an quondam phone at her childhood home that she starts getting calls on. The strange thing is, the adult female on the other line is named Oh Young-sook, played by Jeon Jong-seo, and claims that she's calling from 20 years in the past. Both women live difficult and sorry lives, and so they find comfort and support while talking to ane another. But when Seo-yeon tries to assistance Young-sook through her cognition of the futurity, Seo-yeon finds out that the consequential changes to her own life are much worse than she could've ever imagined, and the adult female on the other end of the line isn't quite who she thought she was. With a story that revolves around the complicated concept of fourth dimension manipulation, The Call is a thrilling worst-case scenario nearly what might happen if we could change the past. The motion-picture show is led by two fantastically complex primary characters, with constant twists that you lot honestly will not see coming.

Wish Yous

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Paradigm via Viki

Some other romance on the list, Wish You follows a shy, music-obsessed keyboardist named Yoon Sang-yi (Lee Sang) who works at a major record label. One day he sees a man named Kang In-soo (Kang In-soo, a singer playing a fictionalized version of himself) singing on the street, and he falls in honey at first sight. Luckily for In-soo, who is on the verge of giving up on his music career, Sang-yi introduces In-soo'southward music to his dominate, giving him a huge opportunity. In order to work on his music, In-soo moves into his new label's employee housing, with Sang-yi equally a manager of sorts. As they spend more than and more time together, romantic feelings start to develop, and Sang-yi discovers that his dearest might not be as one-sided as he idea. Written and directed by Seong Practice-joon, Wish You is a straightforward movie, but the beloved story between Sang-yi and In-soo is very charming and cute, and information technology'due south a great movie to spotter if you need a quick pick-me-up. Wish Yous is a function of the slow progress of Korea becoming more open to queer people and relationships. While information technology was almost impossible to find any LGBTQ+ stories in Korean entertainment just a few years ago, it is slowly growing more mainstream and accepted, and Wish You is evidence of that.

#Alive

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Paradigm via Netflix

While more zombie movies and TV shows come up out every twelvemonth, some recent Korean hits prove that there are still plenty of entertaining and innovative stories to tell in this genre. In #Live , directed by Cho Il-hyung, Yoo Ah-in (from the picture Burning ) plays Oh Joon-woo, a video game streamer who becomes stranded in his apartment later on a zombie apocalypse breaks out in Seoul. As he slowly succumbs to hunger, thirst, and depression, Joon-woo connects with some other survivor, Kim Yoo-bin (Park Shin-hye), who lives in the apartment edifice across from his. The 2 gather together and try to concord on to hope as they do what they can to survive. Released in 2020, #Alive accurately embodies the fearfulness and low of isolation that many certainly felt or are feeling due to the coronavirus, presenting a starkly human story of Joon-woo and Yoo-bin within a very inhuman premise. Merely don't worry, if you lot are even so looking for the trademarks of zombie films, at that place's even so enough of creepy, dangerous zombies running rampant through #Live, with the two survivors doing their all-time to fend them off and stay alive.

The Witch: Part 1. The Subversion

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Image via Netflix

Coming out in 2018, The Witch: Function i. The Subversion is too from the manager of Nighttime in Paradise, Park Hoon-jung. The film is a mystery thriller centered around an 18-yr-old girl named Ja-Yoon, played past Kim Da-mi, whose secluded life with her adoptive parents is upended when a grouping of people come up after her, challenge that she's the product of an experimental program that trained children to get violent weapons, giving them supernatural abilities. Equally Ja-yoon does all she can to protect her family unit from this organization, she begins to consider whether or not they might be telling her the truth, and the memory loss of her early childhood might exist hiding a very unnatural and violent start. As you tin can probably guess from the plot summary, it'south a barbarous, no-holds-barred movie, with amazing action sequences and an emotive, complicated central graphic symbol. The Witch: Role 1. The Subversion also stars Choi Woo-shik, Become Min-si, Jo Min-su, and Park Hee-before long. The picture show has a sequel, The Witch: Part ii. The Other Ane , which will likely be released sometime in 2022, and the follow-up film adds Jin Goo and Park Eun-bin to the cast, while Da-mi and Min-su volition be returning. Seriously, if you lot want to watch a fast-paced and really unique mystery thriller, you lot need to bank check out The Witch: Part ane. The Subversion now.

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