5 pre-Parasite Korean thrillers I love

It’s the dawn of 2022 and I think we’ve all seen it by now, and if you haven’t, well, you have for sure heard about it from your friends and the internet. Yes, I am in fact talking about the Queen Series of 2021, the global sensation, Squid Game. Most watched Netflix series ever and all that jazz. I loved it, I thought about it a lot, I talked about it some, but I won’t be talking about it anymore. Today I am here to tell you that Squid Game is neither a miracle nor a surprise; it’s just a lucky example of South Korean cinematography. And with Netflix investing more and more in South Korean content, we get to easily enjoy many beautiful pieces of k-entertainment.

But it’s not just the series that are good though, it’s the movie productions too. We’ve had proof of how great the state of South Korean cinema is in early 2020, when Parasite won Best Picture (and 3 more categories) at the Academy Awards, making history as the first non-English language film to ever achieve this goal. But the state of South Korean cinema has been great for a very long time now.

In my opinion the genre in which South Koreans really excel is thriller – no matter whether it’s pure thriller, action thriller, supernatural or horror thriller, you know if it’s from South Korea then there’s a great chance that it won’t disappoint. It’s not just the photography that draws you in, or the natural and credible acting: it’s the stories and the storytelling, the characters, the often-present social commentary the plots dive in. Korean thrillers are generally brutal, it’s true, but they’re also beautifully tragic and heartbreakingly sad. Here’s a list of 5 pre-Parasite Korean thrillers I love, in no particular order.

1. I Saw the Devil (2010)

I Saw the Devil (Korean title Akmareul Boattda), directed by Kim Ji-woon, is a revenge story told the Korean way. When his pregnant girlfriend becomes the latest victim of a psychopath serial killer, NIS agent Kim Soo-hyun (Lee Byung-hun) goes on a mission to avenge his deceased lover and all the other victims. It doesn’t take long for him to find the murderer among the list of suspects: Jang Kyung-chul (Choi Min-sik), bus driver. What we get to witness from this moment on is a sick hunt, almost a game of tag, between killer and bereaved agent, where brutality is the means and the goal. The level of violence this movie portrays is sickening and animalistic, and there’s really no hero in the story. Just raw, brutal, murderous instinct fueled by lost love and grief.

2. The Wailing (2016)

Also known by its original title Gokseong, this movie falls under the supernatural/psychological thriller category. Directed by Na Hong-jin, The Wailing tells the story of a village in the mountains, Gokseong indeed, where weird things – namely, people catching a disease that makes them go uncontrollably violent and eventually kill their own families – start happening after a Japanese man, known by villagers as “the stranger” (Jun Kunimura) moves there. Police officer Jong-goo (Kwak Do-won) starts investigating, becoming increasingly more worried when his daughter Hyo-jin (Kim Hwan-hee) falls ill with those same symptoms. The Wailing is the type of movies that keeps you interested, confused and on the edge of your seat right up until the end.

3. Memories of Murder (2003)

Written and directed by our favorite Oscar winner Bong Joon-ho, Memories of Murder (original title Salinui Chueok) is the tale of a series of killings perpetrated against women in a rural town in South Korea. Detective Park Du-man (Song Kang-ho, who starred in Parasite as Mr.Kim) and his team, plus detective Seo Tae-yoon (Kim Sang-kyung) conduct a frustrating investigation, trying to find and stop the culprit. The film is based on the true story of the first South Korean serial murders, which took place in Hwaseong, where 10 women were visciously violated and killed between 1986 and 1991. Real life spoiler: the case remained unsolved until very recently!

4. A Tale of Two Sisters (2003)

Another haunting movie by Kim Ji-woon, A Tale of Two Sisters (original title Janghwa, Hongryeon) is loosely based on a folktale from the Joseon era, “Janghwa Hongryeon jeon” (“the story of Janghwa and Hongryeon”). When teenager Soo-mi (Im Soo-jung) finishes her period of treatment in a mental facility, she goes back home to her sister Soo-yeon (Moon Geun-young), their widower father and their stepmother Eun-joo (Yum Jung-ah). The sisters don’t like their father’s wife, and Soo-mi becomes especially wary of her when she finds bruises on Soo-yeon. It’s a beautiful horror thriller that explores trauma and sadness, and family dynamics after tragedy.

5. Oldboy (2003)

2003 was a lucky year for South Korean cinema. Oldboy, directed by Park Chan-wook and based on the manga series by Garon Tsuchiya and Nobuaki Minegishi, is perhaps the most known out of all the films listed, and another tale of revenge. It is the second installment of director Park’s Vengeance Trilogy (along with Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance and Lady Vengeance) and it has become a proper cult movie through the years. It tells the story of Oh Dae-soo (masterfully portrayed by Choi Min-sik, whom we meet again), troubled father to a young daughter, who gets abducted by a man with a purple umbrella and locked up in an odd-looking prison on the night of his child’s birthday. He has no idea where he is nor why, but he ends up spending 15 years in there. Once he’s finally released, he goes on a mission to find his abducter and discover the reason behind his captivity. Shocking revelations ensue.

A final TRIGGER WARNING: all these films are extremely violent and sad and may be considered upsetting by many, so watch only if you can stomach raging ferocity and human misery . If you can, then enjoy!