Tae Guk Gi: The Brotherhood of War (2004) Action, Drama, War | 140min | September 24, 2004 (United States) 8.0
Director: Je-kyu KangWriter: Richard Epcar, Ji-hoon Han, Je-kyu KangStars: Jang Dong-Gun, Won Bin, Eun-ju LeeSummary: In 1950, in South Korea, shoe-shiner Jin-tae Lee and his 18-year-old old student brother, Jin-seok Lee, form a poor but happy family with their mother, Jin-tae's fiancé Young-shin Kim, and her young sisters. Jin-tae and his mother are tough workers, who sacrifice themselves to send Jin-seok to the university. When North Korea invades the South, the family escapes to a relative's house in the country, but along their journey, Jin-seok is forced to join the army to fight in the front, and Jin-tae enlists too to protect his young brother. The commander promises Jin-tae that if he gets a medal he would release his brother, and Jin-tae becomes the braver soldier in the company. Along the bloody war between brothers, the relationship of Jin-seok with his older brother deteriorates leading to a dramatic and tragic end. —Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

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The Beast (2019) Action, Crime, Thriller | 131min | June 26, 2019 (South Korea) 6.1
Director: Jung-Ho LeeWriter: Jung-Ho Lee, Dominique Loiseau, Franck MancusoStars: Lee Sung-min, Yoo Jae-Myung, Daniel ChoiSummary: A murder case takes place that shook the nation, veteran detective, Han-Su, begins investigating the case and does whatever necessary to catch the culprit, along with his junior detective, Jong-Chan. In the midst of the ongoing investigation, the drug-broker, Chun-Bae, gives Han-Su a definitive clue involving the murder case, in return for covering her relation to a murder. Han-Su's rival cop, Min-Tae, smells something fishy, and the investigation starts to take a wrong turn. —stavrosalo

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A Hard Day (2014) Action, Crime, Thriller | 111min | May 29, 2014 (South Korea) 7.2
Director: Seong-hun KimWriter: Seong-hun Kim, Hae-jun LeeStars: Sun-kyun Lee, Cho Jin-woong, Man-sik JeongSummary: Detective Go Geon-soo is having a hard day, and the following events happen to him in less than 24 hours: He receives a divorce notice from his wife. His mother passes away. He and his coworkers are investigated by police inspectors over alleged embezzlement. Then on his way to his mother's funeral, he drives recklessly and commits a fatal hit and run. He tries to cover-up the accident by hiding the man's corpse in his deceased mother's coffin. But someone has been watching all along, and Geon-soo gets a mysterious call from a person claiming that he was the sole witness to the crime, who now begins to threaten him. —Anonymous

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The Man from Nowhere (2010) Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller | 119min | August 5, 2010 (South Korea) 7.8
Director: Jeong-beom LeeWriter: Jeong-beom LeeStars: Won Bin, Sae-ron Kim, Kim Tae-hoonSummary: An ex-special agent CHA Tae-shik's only connection to the rest of the world is a little girl, So-mi, who lives nearby. Her mother, Hyo-jeong smuggles drugs from a drug trafficking organization and entrusts Tae-shik with the product, without letting him know. The traffickers find out about her smuggling and kidnap both Hyo-jeong and So-mi. The gang promises to release them if Tae-shik makes a delivery for them, however it actually is a larger plot to eliminate a rival drug ring leader. When Hyo-jeon's disemboweled body is discovered, Tae-shik realizes that So-mi's life may also be in danger. Tae-shik becomes enraged at the prospect that So-mi may already be dead and prepares for a battle, putting his own life at risk. —Anonymous

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Parasite (2019) Comedy, Drama, Thriller | 132min | November 8, 2019 (United States) 8.6
Director: Bong Joon HoWriter: Bong Joon Ho, Jin-won HanStars: Kang-ho Song, Sun-kyun Lee, Yeo-jeong ChoSummary: The Kims - mother and father Chung-sook and Ki-taek, and their young adult offspring, son Ki-woo and daughter Ki-jung - are a poor family living in a shabby and cramped half basement apartment in a busy lower working class commercial district of Seoul. Without even knowing it, they, especially Mr. and Mrs. Kim, literally smell of poverty. Often as a collective, they perpetrate minor scams to get by, and even when they have jobs, they do the minimum work required. Ki-woo is the one who has dreams of getting out of poverty by one day going to university. Despite not having that university education, Ki-woo is chosen by his university student friend Min, who is leaving to go to school, to take over his tutoring job to Park Da-hye, who Min plans to date once he returns to Seoul and she herself is in university. The Parks are a wealthy family who for four years have lived in their modernistic house designed by and the former residence of famed architect Namgoong. While Mr. and Mrs. Park are all about status, Mrs. Park has a flighty, simpleminded mentality and temperament, which Min tells Ki-woo to feel comfortable in lying to her about his education to get the job. In getting the job, Ki-woo further learns that Mrs. Park is looking for an art therapist for the Parks' adolescent son, Da-song, Ki-woo quickly recommending his professional art therapist friend "Jessica", really Ki-jung who he knows can pull off the scam in being the easiest liar of the four Kims. In Ki-woo also falling for Da-hye, he begins to envision himself in that house, and thus the Kims as a collective start a plan for all the Kims, like Ki-jung using assumed names, to replace existing servants in the Parks' employ in orchestrating reasons for them to be fired. The most difficult to get rid of may be Moon-gwang, the Parks' housekeeper who literally came with the house - she Namgoong's housekeeper when he lived there - and thus knows all the little nooks and crannies of it better than the Parks themselves. The question then becomes how far the Kims can take this scam in their quest to become their version of the Parks. —Huggo

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Inside Men (2015) Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller | 130min | November 19, 2015 (South Korea) 7.0
Director: Min-ho WooWriter: Min-ho Woo, Tae-Ho YoonStars: Lee Byung-hun, Cho Seung-woo, Yun-shik BaekSummary: Lee Kang-hee is an editorialist of a influential newspaper in South Korea. With the power of the press, he makes the congressman Jang Pil-woo to one of the candidates of the next presidential election. That is the result of a secret deal between Lee and Ahn Sang-goo, a political henchman of Jang Pil-woo. But Ahn makes an almost fatal error, when he gets caught pocketing the record on the Jang's slush fund. The prosecutor Woo Jang-hoon is about to investigate and becomes absolutely determined, because the case would help him making big steps in his career. Ahn gets in real trouble, when he gets dropped by Jang and should have been killed, but is able to flee. Now a bitter war starts between one who is lusting for power, the one who wants vengeance and the one who is eager for success. —Anonymus

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New World (2013) Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller | 135min | February 21, 2013 (South Korea) 7.6
Director: Park Hoon-jungWriter: Park Hoon-jungStars: Jung-jae Lee, Choi Min-sik, Jung-min HwangSummary: As Korea's biggest crime organization 'Goldmoon' expands its powers, Kang, the head of police investigation planning department, orders the undercover cop Ja-Seoung to participate in project "New World", that will take down 'Goldmoon'. Ja-seong must choose either to follow Kang's orders as a cop or to keep his loyalty with Jeong Cheong, the under-boss of the 'Goldmoon' crime organization. —Bin

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Bumchoiwaui junjaeng: Nabbeunnomdeul jeonsungshidae (2012) Action, Crime, Drama | 134min | February 2, 2012 (South Korea) 7.1
Director: Jong-bin YoonWriter: Jong-bin YoonStars: Choi Min-sik, Ha Jung-woo, Cho Jin-woongSummary: On the verge of being fired, a corrupt customs official finds a haul of drugs and teams up with a vicious gangster to become the most powerful crime partnership in Busan.

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Default (2018) Drama, History | 114min | November 28, 2018 (South Korea) 6.6
Director: Kook-Hee ChoiWriter: Seong-min EomStars: Kim Hye-su, Yoo Ah-in, Joon-ho HuhSummary: Si-hyun (Kim Hye-su), the monetary policy manager at the Bank of Korea, predicts a massive national financial crisis and reports it to the Director. The Director doesn't schedule an emergency summit until 10 days later and does it without notifying the public of the situation. Si-hyun urges for the crisis to be announced in order to warn people of the looming disaster, but her plea is ignored. The summit is held behind closed doors. Jung-hak (Yoo Ah-in), a financial consultant, notices Korea is suddenly hemorrhaging foreign funds, and he learns the reason is that international finance firms have ordered an all-out investment withdrawal from the country, which has caused its credit rating to plummet. He hands in his resignation and decides to play the odds on what he's sure is a coming crisis. He secretly starts gathering investors willing to do the same. Gap-su (Joon-ho Huh), a family man who runs a small tableware factory, has a big break and wins a contract with a department store. The fact that the price settlement terms equal to little more than a promissory note concerns him only briefly, and oblivious to the looming financial upheaval, Gap-su signs the contract. The Managing Director of the IMF (Vincent Cassel) comes to Korea just one week before the country goes bust, and that is when those who try to prevent the crisis, those who seek to take advantage of it, and those only trying to protect their livelihood are caught in the wake of a national bankruptcy. —anonymous

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Midnight Runners (2017) Action, Comedy, Crime | 109min | August 25, 2017 (United States) 7.3
Director: Joo-hwan KimWriter: Joo-hwan KimStars: Seo Jun Park, Kang Ha-Neul, Ha-seon ParkSummary: Two friends who are students at Korean National Police University, find themselves in an endless race against time after they witness a kidnapping and decide to use their knowledge.

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Forgotten (2017) Horror, Mystery, Thriller | 108min | November 29, 2017 (South Korea) 7.5
Director: Hang-jun JangWriter: Hang-jun JangStars: Kang Ha-Neul, Yeon Je Hyung, Mu-Yeol KimSummary: When his abducted brother returns seemingly a different man with no memory of the past 19 days, Jin-seok chases after the truth behind the kidnapping.

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