South Korean Cinema has been something that has fascinated me since I first saw the works of Bong Joon Ho as a teenager. The way that these films dig deep into human nature while also balancing multiple genres was appealing. Since those introductory films, i’ve found that Asian Cinema, and specifically Korean Cinema digs deeper than most of the cinema that we produce in North America. That’s not to say that we don’t have any deep cinema of our own, but asian filmmakers seem to understand it better than us.
The filmmaker who’s work resembles its North American counterparts is someone that has already been noted. That body of work being the one of Bong Joon Ho. His most notable films to date are Parasite, Memories Of Murder, The Host, Mother and Snowpiercer. The Host follows a family trying to escape a monster that is attacking Seoul. Many would find similarities between this film and Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of “War Of The Worlds” or even Matt Reeves’ “Cloverfield” as they are all about people trying to survive the end of the world at the hands of a monster. The reason Bong’s “Host” is so much stronger and unique than the others is because he uses the monster movie aesthetic to examine how Americans invaded Korea trying to “help them” when in actuality they did more harm than good. Parasite follows a family who use an elaborate plan to take advantage of a rich family that comes into their life. You could compare this film to works like Sofia Coppola’s “The Bling Ring” , Edgar Wright’s Baby Driver, Steven Soderbergh’s “Oceans Eleven” or Soderbergh’s other heist film “Logan Lucky” as they both follow a group of people who create a scheme to win big, but Bong has a different approach. His film uses this aesthetic to tackle the Korean class system while also balancing multiple genres that many would see as to different to even work together. Films that would be similar in style include Kim Ki Young’s The Handmaid and Lee Chang Hyun’s The Call.
Another prominent filmmaker from South Korea is Park Chan Wook. Park’s most notable films are Decision To Leave, Oldboy, Sympathy for Mr Vengeance, The Handmaiden and Thirst. Sympathy for Mr Vengeance is a revenge film that follows a dad trying to get his daughter back from kidnappers. This sounds very similar to Denis Villeneuve’s Prisoners as they both contain the same basic concept. What makes them different is that Park uses his film to examine the health care system and the way that the police operate in South Korea. The idea that these characters have to do it themselves because the other avenues don’t work. Decision To Leave is Park’s latest film and it could be compared to those of Alfred Hitchcock, specifically his mystery thrillers like “Vertigo”, “Dial M for Murder”, “Rope” and “Rear Window” Decision follows a man who begins to fall in love with a woman that he’s investigating for murder. This film is similar to those of Hitchcock and the erotic thrillers that came after, but Park once again uses this medium to throw out some social commentary about Korea and the perspectives on love and relationships. Kim Jee Woon’s work is very similar to Park in terms of Korean Cinema. Specifically I Saw The Devil, A Tale Of Two Sisters, The Good The Bad and The Weird, and A Bittersweet Life. Kim examines the dark sides of humanity akin to how Park does. I would even throw in Squid Game, The Wailing, Project Wolf Hunting and The Villainess as projects that feel similar aesthetically to those of Park’s.
There are many Korean filmmakers that decide to tell down to earth stories that get to the heart of family and relationships. Those notable filmmakers are Hirokazu Koreeda with Shoplifters and Broker, Lee Chang Dong with Secret Sunshine, Burning, Oasis and Peppermint Candy, Hong Sang Soon with Right Now Wrong When and On The Beach at Night Alone. Shoplifters follows a family who take in a child from the cold and raise it as their own. This is definitely similar to Hirokazu’s other film Broker which sees a man trying to find a home for an unwanted baby. Easy comparisons for this subject matter would be Les Miserables by Tom Hooper, “Game
Of Thrones”, “Three Men and A Baby” by Leonard Nemoy or Charlie Chaplin’s The Kid as all films stated are about taking care of a child that isn’t yours and examines the idea of a family structure. What makes the films of Hitozaku different is that he puts us with characters that might not be the most morally respectable. The parents in Shoplifters are former crooks and the film asks you to decide whether they are truly good parents while Broker takes a look at the faulty foster care system. Another South Korean film similar in aesthetic would be “A Taxi Driver” as it follows a father who drives a taxi during a very turbulent time in Korean history.
As the above examples have shown, Korean Cinema and Asian Cinema in general follows storylines that are definitely prevalent in North American Cinema, but they use the styles to examine deeper subjects that exist in their respective society. Many North American films take these concepts and examine them with only one layer while these notable South Korean films examine the concepts with multiple layers. As I have states before, South Korean Cinema has something that a lot of North American Cinema doesn’t have and that’s depth in the perspectives. These filmmakers take the concepts that they are discussing and they get to the heart of the ideas through their approaches in how they showcase their characters and the environments. To put it simply, these films share similar concepts on a thematic level, but the South Korean counterparts are strikingly different as to how they examine human nature and the environment around their characters. They take a message or social commentary and run with it as far as they can, even to the point of alienating some of their audience and that to me is a much bolder way of telling a story thematically.
Films Covered
South Korean Films
Decision To Leave (Park Chan Wook)
Oldboy (Park Chan Wook)
Sympathy for Mr Vengeance (Park Chan Wook)
The Handmaiden (Park Chan Wook)
Thirst (Park Chan Wook)
Parasite (Bong Joon Ho)
Memories Of Murder (Bong Joon Ho)
Mother (Bong Joon Ho)
The Host (Bong Joon Ho)
Snowpiercer (Bong Joon Ho)
Shoplifters (Hirokazu Koreeda)
Broker (Hirokazu Koreeda)
Secret Sunshine (Lee Chang Dong)
Burning (Lee Chang Dong)
Peppermint Candy (Lee Chang Dong)
Oasis (Lee Chang Dong)
The Housemaid (Kim Ki Young)
Train To Busan (Yeon Sang Ho)
Squid Game (Hwang Dong Hyuk)
The Wailing (Na Hong-jin)
A Tale Of Two Sisters (Kim Jee Woon)
A Bittersweet Life (Kim Jee Woon)
I Saw The Devil (Kim Jee Woon)
The Good, The Bad and The Weird (Kim Jee Woon)
A Taxi Driver (Jang Hoon)
Project Wolf Hunting (Kim Hong Sun)
The Villainess (Jung Byung gil)
The Call (Lee Chung hyun)
Right Now, Wrong When (Hong Sang Soo)
On The Beach At Night Alone (Hong Sang Soo)
North American Films
War Of The Worlds (Steven Spielberg)
Cloverfield (Matt Reeves)
The Bling Ring (Sofia Coppola)
Baby Driver (Edgar Wright)
Oceans Eleven (Steven Soderbergh)
Logan Lucky (Steven Soderbergh)
Prisoners (Denis Villeneuve)
Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock)
Dial M For Murder (Alfred Hitchcock)
Rope (Alfred Hitchcock)
Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock)
Three Men and a Baby (Leonard Nemoy)
The Kid (Charlie Chaplin)
Game Of Thrones
Les Miserables (Tom Hooper)
Comments