6 Best Korean Films to Watch On a Rainy Day

Here are six Korean movies to watch on a rainy day. How many have you seen?

Decision to Leave 헤어질 결심 (2022)

Park Chan-wook’s films are fascinating for their combination of exaggerated emotion, black comedy and irony, and expressionistic cinematography. The New York Times once called Director Park Chan-wook “The Man Who Put Korean Cinema on the Map”.

This film tells the story of a detective who is assigned to investigate the death of a woman in the mountains and is both suspicious and intrigued after meeting the deceased’s wife.

The film was in competition at the 75th Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Palme d’Or for Best Director.

• Director : Park Chan-wook
• Writers : Park Chan-wook, Chung Seo-kyung
• Casts : Park Hae-il, Tang Wei, Lee Jung-hyun, Go Kyung-Pyo

The Classic 클래식 (2003)

It is a South Korean romance film released on January 30, 2003. It’s a movie about classic sentimentality and love, and Koreans still go back to it from time to time. If you want to see pure, basic, and precious emotions, this is the movie to watch.

• Director : Jae-young Kwak
• Writers : Jae-young Kwak
• Casts : Son Ye-jin, Zo In-sung, Cho Seung-woo, Ki-woo Lee

Christmas in August 8월의 크리스마스 (1998)

This critically acclaimed film tells the story of the love between Jung-won (Han Suk-kyu), a young man who runs a photo studio in a small town, and Darim (Shim Eun-ha), a parking attendant, in an understated way. The film has been praised for breaking new ground in Korean melodrama by adopting a completely different strategy from the existing style of Korean melodrama. With a neo-faithful storyline of ‘a man sentenced to life imprisonment meets a new love just before he dies’, the film is presented in a calm and slow tempo.

• Director : Jin-ho Hur
• Writers : Jin-ho Hur, Seung-uk Oh, Dong-hwan Shin
• Casts : Han Suk-kyu, Eun-ha Shim, Goo Shin

The Handmaiden 아가씨 (2016)

The Handmaiden is a South Korean psychological thriller film directed by Park Chan-wook and co-written by Jung Sung-kyung. It is one of the most notable non-English-language films of 2016. It’s a movie with a pretty strong love-hate relationship, so I’m curious to know what you think. One U.K.-based reviewer called it “a milestone in conservative Korean LGBT cinema,” so if you like thrillers, I definitely recommend it.

• Director : Park Chan-wook
• Writers : Sarah Waters, Chung Seo-kyung, Park Chan-wook
• Casts : Kim Min-hee, Ha Jung-woo, Cho Jin-woong

Poetry 시 (2010)

It’s a very artistic movie, so it didn’t do well at the box office. However, it was widely loved by artists and moviegoers alike, with many commenting that it was a work of sublime suffering and smiles.

The simple plot follows Mija, who lives with her grandson in a small city in Gyeonggi Province. One day, she stumbles upon a “poetry” course at a local cultural center and tries her hand at writing poetry for the first time in her life. However, unexpected events come her way, and she realizes that the world is not as beautiful as she thought.

• Director : Lee Chang-dong
• Writers : Lee Chang-dong
• Casts : Yun Jeong-hie, Lee Da-wit, Kim Hee-ra

Parasite 기생충 (2019)

Director Bong Joon-ho had this to say about the movie in an interview: “This movie is a tragedy without a villain, a comedy without a clown.” Yes, it is. It’s a tragic, visceral movie about real people. As is typical of Bong Joon-ho, the movie succeeds in being both popular and artistic.

The simple plot goes like this.

It’s about the Ki-Taek family, who are poor but friendly. The eldest son’s friend at a prestigious university lands him a high-paying tutoring job, a hope for a steady income for the house. With the support and expectations of the whole family, Kiwoo heads home. When he arrives at the mansion of the CEO of a global IT company, he is met by his young and beautiful wife. After the two families meet, an unexpected event awaits them.

• Director : Bong Joon Ho
• Writers : Bong Joon Ho, Han Jin-won
• Casts : Song Kang-ho, Lee Sun-kyun, Cho Yeo-jeong