Whether you’re new to K-dramas or fully clued in, you’re missing out if you’re not watching Korean movies, too. There’s no denying that the South Korean film industry has been on the rise for years, thanks in no small part to the unprecedented success of Bong Joon-ho’s award-sweeping, bitingly comic Parasite — but that’s only the start of what’s out there.

In his acceptance speech at the 2020 Golden Globes, Bong said: “Once you overcome the 1-inch-tall barrier of subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films.” From dark thrillers to carefree rom-coms, here are our picks to add straight to your queue.

20th Century Girl

Starring Kim You-jung and Byeon Woo-seok, 20th Century Girl is perfect if you’ve been looking for a YA rom-com set in the ’90s. It follows the story of Na Bo-ra (You-jung), a high school senior who, at her best friend’s request, keeps a close eye on her friend’s high school crush after she departs to the US to get heart surgery. Not one to be swayed by romance, Bo-ra is more than focused on her task… until she starts to develop feelings of her own. (We don’t want to give too much away, but you might want to have tissues on hand for the back half of this movie.)

20th Century Girl

2h 1m   13+   2022

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Ballerina

Ballerina is a revenge thriller from Lee Chung-Hyeon, who also directed The Call. It follows the story of Ok-ju (Jun Jong-seo), a former bodyguard who excels in martial arts. After her ballerina friend Min-hee (Park Yu-rim) asks her to avenge her death, Okju sets out on a merciless hunt for Pro Choi (Kim Ji-hun) that’ll see her risking her own life.

Ballerina

1h 33m   16+   2023

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The Call

In 2019, after she loses her cell phone while visiting her sick mother out of town, 28-year-old Kim Seo-yeon (played by Park Shin-hye) scours her childhood home to find a replacement. Her hasty search is successful, and she finds an old cordless phone she uses to call her own number to retrieve it, to no avail — but then that phone rings, with a woman named Oh Young-sook (Jun Jong-seo) on the line saying she’s being tortured by her mother. The call is, literally, coming from inside the house… from 1999. Connected though living two decades apart, Seo-yeon and Young-sook plot to change their fates in this time-bending mystery thriller — but should one tamper with such things? 

The Call

1h 52m   16+   2020

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Dream

Sports dramedy Dream was highly anticipated in Korea and abroad ahead of its 2023 release, with posters featuring the leading actors plastered across Seoul and fans following the film’s every update online. Starring Itaewon Class’s Park Seo-jun and Lee Ji-eun (also known by her stage moniker IU), Dream follows the story of Yoon Hong-dae, a short-tempered football player turned coach who’s begrudgingly tasked with training a group of homeless men to compete in a global tournament, and Lee So-min, an aspiring director and dedicated filmmaker who’ll capture the team’s journey.

Dream

2h 7m   13+   2023

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Forgotten

If you’re looking for a good thriller, you’ve come to the right place. Starring Kang Ha-neul and Kim Moo-yeol, this film follows the story of a family with two brothers, Yoo-seok and Jin-seok, who move into a new house. One day, Yoo-seok gets kidnapped in front of Jin-seok. After 19 days, he returns home with seemingly no recollection of it all — but things don’t seem quite right for Jin-seok. With plot twists galore, a gripping storyline, and impeccable acting, we can guarantee you’ll remember Forgotten.

Forgotten

1h 48m   16+   2017

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JUNG_E

If sci-fi dystopian stories are your thing, JUNG_E should be on your to-watch list — just be warned: It’s an emotional one. Written and directed by Yeon Sang-ho (Train to Busan), JUNG_E takes place in the 22nd century. The effects of climate change have made life on Earth as we know it impossible, so humans now live in artificial shelters built in space that soon start operating like their own individual regions. When a civil war breaks out between shelters, the only option is for a researcher (Kang Soo-youn) to create the best AI combat warrior by cloning the brain of humanity’s best soldier, who just so happens to be her mother (Kim Hyun-joo).

JUNG_E

1h 39m   13+   2023

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Kill Boksoon

What’s easier, being a lethal salaried killer or a single mom with a teenage girl? That’s the question crime action thriller Kill Boksoon sets out to answer. Jeon Do-yeon plays the titular role of Gil Bok-soon, a highly skilled assassin with a perfect kill rate working for M.K. Ent, a company run by Cha Min-kyu (Sol Kyung-gu). Shortly before she’s set to renew her contract with M.K. Ent, Bok-soon gets assigned a tricky task that leaves her with only two options: kill or be killed.

Kill Bok-soon

2h 19m   16+   2023

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Pandora

If you need a film to make you experience the entire range of human emotions in just over two hours, then Pandora is the one for you. The action drama follows Jae-hyeok (Kim Nam-gil), an ordinary worker at a local nuclear power plant who’s forced to become a hero after an earthquake sets off major explosions in town, causing chaos that quickly spreads nationwide.

Pandora

2h 16m   16+   2016

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Love and Leashes

Starring Girls’ Generation’s Seohyun and former U-KISS member Lee Jun-young, Love and Leashes is the BDSM Korean rom-com we never knew we needed. Based on the webtoon Moral Sense, the film follows the story of Jung Ji-woo and Jung Ji-hoo, two co-workers who first enter a contractual relationship as partners in consensual play after a not-so-discreet package gets misdelivered in the office — and then develop into much more.

L'Amour en laisse

1h 58m   16+   2022

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Night in Paradise

This noir film follows gangster Park Tae-gu (Um Tae-goo), who murders the leader of a rival mob to avenge his family. He soon flees to Jeju Island, where he meets Kim Jae-yeon (played by Vincenzo’s Jeon Yeo-been). A tale of revenge, betrayal, and pride, Night in Paradise is as action-packed as it is gory, but it’s perhaps the characters’ complex dynamics, as well as the wondrous cinematography, that take the cake in this slow-burner.

Night in Paradise

2h 12m   18+   2021

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Parasite

Parasite centers on the Kim family, who struggle to make ends meet in Seoul, until they each find a way to work for the wealthy Park family. The Kims’ son Ki-woo (Choi Woo Shik) is the first to secure a job tutoring the Parks’ son after lying about his education. Over time, each member of the Kim family becomes employed by the Parks through deceitful means — their daughter Ki-jung (Park So Dam) pretends to be an art therapist, the father Ki-taek (Song Kang-ho) schemes his way into working as the chauffeur, and the mother Chung-sook (Jang Hye-jin) takes over the housekeeping duties. But the Kim family’s plans risk falling apart when the Parks start to catch on. The Korean black comedy thriller, directed by Bong Joon-ho, made history at the 2020 Oscars as the first foreign language film to ever win Best Picture, and took home four Oscars total. 

Parasite

2h 12m   16+   2019

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Psychokinesis

Another title from Train to Busan’s Yeon Sang-ho, Psychokinesis is the perfect mix of action and comedy with a human touch — or should we say superhuman touch? The film follows the story of Shin Seok-heon (Ryu Seung-ryong), a security guard and father who gains telekinetic powers from a meteor and uses them to save daughter Shin Roo-mi’s (Shim Eun-kyung) fried chicken shop from getting demolished by a shady construction company.

Psychokinesis

1h 41m   13+   2018

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Revelations

Starring Reply 1988 alum Ryu Jun-yeol and Hospital Playlist’s Shin Hyun-been, Revelations combines mystery, religion, and suspense in one multilayered story. A troubled pastor who believes God is sending him messages to act on his will, a detective haunted by visions of her dead sister, and a mysterious man who connects them both are the key players in this missing-person case where everyone must fight their own demons to see the light.

Revelations

2h 2m   13+   2025

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Space Sweepers

Set in the year 2092, Space Sweepers follows a crew of space scrap dealers who strike gold when they find a precious little girl in the debris of a crashed space shuttle. They soon realize she’s a highly valuable humanoid robot wanted by UTS, a governmentlike corporation that leads the new world, and immediately start plotting to maximize their ransom before their hearts get in the way. Space Sweepers is a fun and heart-tugging intergalactic ride that features more than one familiar face, including Twenty-Five Twenty-One’s Kim Tae-ri, Vincenzo’s Song Joong-ki, and Squid Game’s Anupam Tripathi.

Space Sweepers

2h 16m   13+   2021

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Sweet & Sour

Starring Jang Ki-yong and The Fabulous’ Chae Soo-bin, this fast-paced romantic comedy tells the story of a couple who slowly but surely starts to drift away after life (i.e., work) gets in the way. Jang plays a hardworking engineer who lands a job in Seoul, meaning he’d have to make the daily hours-long commute from Incheon, where he lives with his caring and supporting partner. As work gets tougher, so does spending time together — and it doesn’t help that he starts to develop feelings for his work nemesis, played by f(x) member Krystal Jung.

Sweet & Sour

1h 42m   10+   2021

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Time to Hunt

Time to Hunt is an action thriller set in a dystopian Korea that follows a group of struggling best friends as they plot their way to riches with a money heist. The only problem? They already did one, and it failed miserably, which landed one of them in prison. After being released, the value of the South Korean won has plummeted, meaning their old loot is practically worthless. The only option is to go for the tempting US dollars stored in their town’s illegal gambling house — but the heist is just the beginning. Time to Hunt’s stellar cast features Lee Je-hoon, Ahn Jae-hong, and Park Jung-min, as well as Squid Game’s Park Hae-soo and Parasite’s Choi Woo-shik.

La Traque

2h 15m   16+   2020

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Tune in for Love

Starring Kim Go-eun and Jung Hae-in, director Jung Ji-woo’s Tune in for Love perfectly depicts how beautifully mundane a relationship can be. The film follows the story of Cha Hyun-woo, a young man who has just been released from prison, and Kim Mi-soo, the part-time worker he almost immediately falls in love with after a chance meeting at the bakery where she works — but their love story has to wait a bit. A decade, to be exact.

Tune in for Love

2h 2m   13+   2019

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Unlocked

Our phones know everything about us, so what would happen if someone got ahold of yours and pretended to be you? That’s the premise of Unlocked, a psychological thriller with a murderous twist that will make you never want to lose sight of your phone. After Lee Na-mi (Chun Woo-hee) loses her phone on a bus, it ends up in the hands of Oh Jun-yeong (Yim Si-wan), a man who has less-than-pure intentions and who crafts a meticulous web of lies to hack her life — literally and figuratively.

Unlocked

1h 57m   16+   2023

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Uprising

Co-written by Oldboy’s Park Chan-wook, who also served as a producer, Uprising tells the story of two unlikely friends turned enemies. Set during the Imjin War, a series of Japanese invasions of Korea in the 16th century, the movie centers on class unrest and recounts the tale of slave Cheon Yeong (Gang Dong-won) and his master Lee Jong-ryeo (Park Jeong-min) as they grow to join opposing sides. Cheon Yeong becomes a skilled swordsman in the rebellion, while Lee Jong-ryeo serves as the highest military official for the Joseon Dynasty.

Soulèvement

2h 8m   16+   2024

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Additional reporting by Erin Corbett