

During the Japanese occupation of South Korea, a Japanese bureaucrat is ordered to persuade an influential Korean patriarch into obeying the law of changing his Korean surname to a Japanese one.
1979-09-14
5.7
7.2During the Japanese colonial era, roughly 400 Korean people, who were forced onto Battleship Island 'Hashima Island' to mine for coal, attempt to escape.
0.0A man wanders around the mountains with a bleeding leg, holding a rifle in his hand. Seemingly a fugitive, he runs from as-yet unknown pursuers, but he also seems to be following somebody who has already walked the same path. As he hides in a secluded cave, past memories sweep through his exhausted mind, memories of lifelong cowardice and evasion. And this recollection leads to a reconstruction of early 20th century Korean history. Winner of Best Picture (Nam-a Pictures Co., Ltd.), Best Actor (Ha Myung-joong), Best Art Direction (Kim Yoo-joon), Best Lighting (Son Young-cheol) at the 14th Grand Bell Awards. (source: Jiro Hong, koreanfilm.org)
4.0This film is about of the life of the young patriotic martyr Yu Gwan-sun, who fought for the liberation of her country during the Independence Movement in 1919. As the Independence Movement becomes more and more intense among Korean students, the Japanese authorities order schools closed temporarily. Yu Gwan-sun (Do Geum-bong) persuades her neighbors to join the national movement, and continues her aggressive struggle against Japanese rule. An independent campaign at Aunae, a market site, is successful with the passionate participation of many people. She is arrested by the Japanese police for leading the campaign and has to endure horrible tortures. But she never gives up her fight, encouraging her cell mates to participate in the movement. She is finally taken to an underground room by the Japanese police and murdered.
7.1An account of karate competitor Choi Yeung-Eui who went to Japan after World War II to become a fighter pilot but found a very different path instead. He changed his name to Masutatsu Oyama and went across the country, defeating martial artists one after another. This film concentrates on the period when he is still young, and developing his famous karate style, Kyokushin.
6.0A man assists a woman in danger, but through her actions, she unintentionally causes his death. Everyone in the village knows that she visits his tomb every spring, but no one knows the details of her story.
5.2An elderly bell maker reminisces about his life filled with tragedy.
7.4Young Kim Chang-soo is placed behind bars, charged with murdering a Japanese person who took part in Empress Myeongseong's assassination. In prison, Kim Chang-soo sees how Koreans are persecuted and grows into a fighter for Korean independence.
7.4Based on the life of the Korean anarchist Park Yeol, the film shows his struggle to counter the massacre of Koreans by the government during the 1923 great Kanto earthquake, focusing on his activities as the leader of the anti-Japanese organization Bulryeongsa and his relationship with Japanese comrade Fumiko Kaneko.
0.0From the Japanese Occupation a 'comfort woman' returns from China an old woman. At the end of the war she can't return home and spends the next 65 years living as an alien in a foreign country. Even to her own granddaughter she seems to be losing her mind. She only wants to go back to Korea.
7.3In Japanese-occupied Korea, three freedom fighters are assigned a mission to assassinate a genocidal military leader and his top collaborator. But the plan goes completely awry amidst double-crossings, counter-assassinations, and a shocking revelation about one of the assassins' past.
4.0Kim Chang-su, who participated in the Donghak Movement, escapes to Manchuria after being chased by the Japanese army, finally making his way home. Angered by the assassination of Empress Myeong-seong, he murders a Japanese lieutenant and is sent to jail. He escapes from prison turns his focus on the democratic movement by teaching civilians and organizing Sinminheo (a democratic organization), even changing his name to 'Kim Gu.' After he is imprisoned again, he gets out on parole and goes to China, where he participates in establishing a provisional government from which he can direct the anti-Japanese struggle. Kim Gu goes on to play a part in Yun Bong-gil's deeds in Shanghai, the events at Hongkou Park, the encounter with Jiang Jish, and the establishment of the Korean National Army, and leads the struggle for Korea's independence with warm fraternal love and clear national spirit. When Korea is liberated in August 15, 1945, he returns back to his native land.
7.5Pil-ju, an Alzheimer's patient in his 80s, who lost all his family during the Japanese colonial era, and devotes his lifelong revenge before his memories disappear, and a young man in his 20s who helps him.
6.8During the Japanese occupation, a Korean modern boy, who wants to fit in with the Japanese, falls in love with a Korean freedom fighter.
8.21930s Korea, in the period of Japanese occupation, a new girl, Sookee, is hired as a handmaiden to a Japanese heiress, Hideko, who lives a secluded life on a large countryside estate with her domineering Uncle Kouzuki. But the maid has a secret. She is a pickpocket recruited by a swindler posing as a Japanese Count to help him seduce the Lady to steal her fortune.
6.9Jong-bun, in her eighties, is one of the last surviving 'Comfort Women' victims forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese Army during World War II. Back in 1944, at the end of the Japanese occupation in Korea, Jong-bun was a poor but energetic girl while Young-ae was the smart rich clerk's daughter. One day, Jong-bun gets abducted and finds herself on a train for Manchuria. To her surprise, she also finds Young-ae on the train facing the same fate to become a comfort woman. Jong-bun and Young-ae help each other go through the living hell and as the war comes to an end, they finally escape from the comfort women camp, only to face two different paths of life. Decades later, Jong-bun helps out a teenaged girl who is disoriented in life, reminded of her own painful past.
6.5A traumatized girl sees visions of her dead mother in one of three tales set in a 1942 South Korean hospital.
0.0Two Korean conscripts undergo Imperial Japanese Army training, much to the pleasure of their families.
5.0The life of Lee Seung-man, a freedom fighter who struggled to liberate Korea from Japanese rule.
5.2During the country's occupation Choi was only allowed to make Japan-friendly films, but the plot of Hurrah! For Freedom is distinctly different, telling the story of a Korean resistance fighter in 1945.
7.9During the invasion of Normandy the photograph of a slim Korean man in German uniform was found. It transpired that the man had served as a soldier in the Japanese, Russian and German armies. His incredible story inspired director Kang Je-Gyu to create this epic war drama.
6.6Kwon returns to Seoul from a restorative stay in the mountains. She is given a packet of letters left by Mori, who has come back from Japan to propose to her. Kwon drops and scatters the letters, all of which are undated. When she reads them, she has to make sense of the chronology.
7.1An account of karate competitor Choi Yeung-Eui who went to Japan after World War II to become a fighter pilot but found a very different path instead. He changed his name to Masutatsu Oyama and went across the country, defeating martial artists one after another. This film concentrates on the period when he is still young, and developing his famous karate style, Kyokushin.
7.5Pil-ju, an Alzheimer's patient in his 80s, who lost all his family during the Japanese colonial era, and devotes his lifelong revenge before his memories disappear, and a young man in his 20s who helps him.
7.2During the Japanese colonial era, roughly 400 Korean people, who were forced onto Battleship Island 'Hashima Island' to mine for coal, attempt to escape.
6.4Mu-kwang volunteers to be a kitchen police of Sa-taek, the divisional commander, dreaming of success. One day, Mu-kwang meets Su-ryeon by chance, who is a young and beautiful wife of the commander. Soon, he feels a strong attraction by her.
7.0Romances end in blood and the frail hopes of individuals are torn apart in a vile karmic continuity of colonialism, civil war and occupation. After surviving Japanese colonization, Korea became the first war zone of the Cold War. The legacy of war remains today in this divided country.
7.0In the Joseon Dynasty, two friends who grew up together — one the master and one the servant — reunite post-war as enemies on opposing sides.
6.5Once at a pagoda Mongryong Lee, a scion of a well-to-do family, meets Chunhyang, the young daughter of a courtesan and an aristocrat. Despite her low social standing she is smart and well-educated. The young people fall in love and think about marriage so that they could always be together. Mongryong is soon to go to the capital to take the state civil service exam. They part and in Chunhyang's life there appears the greedy and lustful Byun Hak-do, who tries to seduce her.
6.5Film producer Na-eun and director Yeong-tae are on the verge of shelving out cash for an adult film production. They're too busy blaming each other for the messed-up filming. Before another filming begins, Na-eun suggests Yeong-tae to become an actor himself and practice filming. Na-eun leads the shy Yeong-tae very skillfully. How far will the practice go...?
8.1Soo Yeon decides to commit suicide to end the bullying she goes through at school, when a savior appears. A woman punishes the bullies on behalf of Soo Yeon and saves her from the reality of hell.
7.3Young Jin-hee is taken by her father to an orphanage near Seoul. He leaves her there never to return, and she struggles to come to grips with her fate. Jin-hee desperately believes her father will come back for her and take her on a trip.
7.2After losing both her parents, Failan emmigrates to Korea to seek her only remaining relatives. Once she reaches Korea, she finds out that her relatives have moved to Canada well over a year ago. Desperate to stay and make a living in Korea, Failan is forced to have an arranged marriage through a match-making agency.
7.8Two best friends, So-yool and Yeon-hee, dream of becoming the top artists in Seoul together. But their friendship doesn't last long as Yoon-woo, So-yool's first love and songwriter, falls in love with Yeon-hee and her voice. So-yool's feeling of jealousy and inferiority towards Yeon-hee grows by the day, and she eventually makes a drastic decision to bring the two lovers down.
6.7The true story of 20-year-old Colleen Stan, a hitchhiking woman abducted by a young couple and held captive for seven years, during which time she's tortured and forced to live as a slave to her captors.
6.1A teenager pretends to be dying from cancer as a way to cope with the realities of his daily existence and his father's terminal illness.
6.8Defiant young activists take the women's suffrage movement by storm, putting their lives at risk to help American women win the right to vote.
6.3The lives of 4 interconnected South Koreans – a married couple, a novelist the wife is having an affair with, and a second woman the novelist is simultaneously involved with.
7.4Dreaming of making a way station for his sister and the villagers who have no choice but to commute along the dangerous train tracks every day, Joon-kyung sends many letters to the President, but with no reply. Ra-hee, who has a crush on Joon-kyung, does everything she can to help him meet the President.