Run out of good Hollywood thrillers to watch? Then maybe it’s time to experiment with the best Korean thrillers out there. From horror to action, there is something for everyone in this list.
1. The Wailing
This horror-thriller follows the story of a cop who is investigating a series of killings in a remote village in order to save his daughter. This film has a 99% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes and also won the best film award at the Asian Film Awards.
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2. The Handmaiden
An orphaned thief and a con man try to coax a wealthy Korean woman out of her inheritance with an elaborate plan that will leave you with goosebumps. This film won the Vulcan Award at the Cannes Film Festival.
3. The Silenced
Being a new girl at a boarding school, the protagonist soon begins to notice that her classmates are vanishing. Confused and scared, she uncovers a secret that leaves her scarred for life. Park So-dam won the best actress award for her work in the film at the Busan Film Critics Awards.
4. Forgotten
A young man’s brother is kidnapped right in front of his eyes and when he returns, he does not seem the same. This suspicion that one of them is an imposter tears both the brothers apart, but is there any truth to it?
5. The Host
Made by the director of Parasite, Bong Joon-ho, The Host follows the story of something sinister lurking in the Han river. As the monster begins attacking the city, a deadly virus is also on the loose. This movie won the Best Film award at the Asian Film Awards.
6. The Man From Nowhere
This action thriller follows a shady man with a questionable past who begins a journey of revenge when his young friend is kidnapped. This movie was South Korea’s highest grossing film in 2010 and was even remade into a Bollywood movie starring John Abraham, Rocky Handsome.
7. I Saw The Devil
Probably the most gruesome and bloody film on this list, I Saw The Devil follows the story of a trained secret agent whose fiancé is killed by a serial killer. But after he hunts down the killer, he sets him free once again, only to play a game of cat and mouse. This movie won the Best Foreign Language Film Award at the Houston Film Critics Society Awards.
8. Train To Busan
A zombie apocalypse breaks out and the only people safe are those who are in the train to Busan. This horror based thriller starring Gong Yoo premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2016 and became the first Korean film of 2016 to break the audience record of over 10 million theatregoers.
9. The Villainess
This action based thriller follows an unnamed assassin who is recruited to kill without knowing any details of her target. But what happens when her own boyfriend begins manipulating her killings after staging his death? After premiering at the Cannes Film Festival in 2017, this movie won the Daniel E. Craft Award for Excellence in Action Cinema at the New York Asian Film Festival.
10. Perfect Proposal
An illegitimate son of a wealthy casino owner decides to con his father with the help of a waitress. But soon, the two begin to fall in love and the father mysterious dies, leaving them with a murder on their hands. The film is based on the British novel Woman of Straw by Catherine Arley and was a box-office hit grossing $676,000.
Which film will you be watching first?