20 Highly Recommended Korean Film Thrillers

11. A Dirty Carnival (Yoo  Ha, 2006)

Byung-du is a 29-year-old career criminal, working for the middle-rank enforcer Sang-chul. Burdened with a terminally ill mother and taking care of younger siblings, Byung-du is feeling financial pressure as a substitute patriarch. When the big boss President Hwang is cornered by a corrupt prosecutor, Byung-du volunteers for a whack job and wins the big man's trust. However, his real trouble begins when friend Min-ho, an aspiring movie director, asks him to be a consultant for the latter's debut film.

Buy This Title

12. The Yellow Sea (Na Hong Jin, 2010)

Na Hong-jin maintained most of the elements that made an impression in his debut, by incorporating great characters, desperation and agony, and impressive fighting scenes. The latter benefit the most from the impressive cinematography of Lee Sung-je, which also presents artfully the surroundings in both China and Korea, and the fast editing by Kim Sun-min, which allows the film the retain a very fitting pace, that slows down or speeds up according to the lack or presence of action sequences. (Panos Kotzathanasis)

Buy This Title

13. No Mercy (Kim Hyeong Joon, 2010)

Kim Hyeong-joon signs a magnificent debut in both direction and scriptwriting. His style is characterized by directness, without any compromises in depiction, as it becomes evident with the scene of the autopsy and a number of sex scenes, whose purpose is not to shock, but to strengthen the element of agony. Additionally, the script entails a plethora of plot twists that keep the tension throughout its whole duration. Another point of excellence, which only Korean filmmakers seem to include so frequently in their films, is that the culprit is known from the beginning and the film focuses on the effort for his conviction rather than the search for the guilty one, as is usually the case in Western productions. (Panos Kotzathanasis)

Buy This Title

14. National Security (Jeong Ji-yeong, 2012)

Chung Ji-young directs a cruel film, which takes place almost exclusively in a claustrophobic environment that consists of a cell and a torture room. He pulls no punches in the depiction of the various tortures, thus resulting in a truly grotesque spectacle. In that aspect, he is largely assisted by the detailed and realistic cinematography of Seo Min-soo, which at times, results in a spectacle that touches the borders of the documentary. Furthermore, he focuses on the psychosynthesis of the torturers, in a rare tactic for characters like that. As he had stated, “I wanted to show how torture affects both the torturer and the victim.” (Panos Kotzathanasis)

Buy This Title

15. No Mercy for the Rude (Park Chul-hee, 2006)

Park Chul-hee in his second and last, until now, work, directs an unusual film, that seems to try to combine Japanese aesthetics in terms of character creation and script, as exemplified in films like Sabu's “Postman Blues” and Toshiaki Toyoda's “9 Souls”, with notions and tendencies from Korean action thriller and melodrama. The amazing about this effort is that he actually succeeds and the result is quite entertaining, despite the fact that the dramatic turn in the ending is a bit excessive

Buy This Title

16. Children… (Lee Kyu-man, 2011)

Despite being released in 2011, the production manages to perfectly encapsulate 1991's rural South Korea, as if the movie was shot that same week. This gives it a certain extra pull, using modern techniques and storytelling, without diverting too much from what the story originally must have felt like. Besides that, the screenplay by Lee Kyu-man and Lee Hyeon-jin is surprising in one defining way. Split through the middle, both halves feel like completely different movies. Both good, but entirely different. (Reinier Brands)

17. A Hard Day (Kim Seong Hoon, 2014)

Kim Seong-hun directs a film that constantly lingers between dark comedy and thriller, succeeding in the portrayal of both and thus creating a highly entertaining picture, where the spectator laughs and at the same time has a constant sense of agony for the protagonist. (Panos Kotza

Buy This Title

18. Nameless Gangster: Rules of the Time (Yun Jong Bin, 2012)

Yoon Jong-bin presents a highly realistic and entertaining depiction of the crime world of the aforementioned decades, and creates a truly masterful crime thriller with constant plots, intrigues, betrayals, and violence. The usual narrative of the rise and fall of the criminal is present once more in this film, but Yoon manages to transcend it by making a clear and somewhat satirical commentary on the era. Furthermore, the fact that he presents, from the beginning, the protagonists and the rest of the crime world, as pitiable is another original notion.

Buy This Title

19. Secret Reunion ( Jang Hun, 2010)

Jang Hoon directs a thriller that benefits the most from its cinematography, with the fast pace and the impressive action scenes, including car chases, lots of shootouts, blood, and its artfully choreographed brawls. Furthermore, he entailed almost every theme S.Korean find entertaining, including the struggle between the two Koreas, and the combined elements of thriller, comedy and drama, with the general style explaining the film's commercial success. (Panos Kotzathanasis)

Buy This Title

20. Confession of Murder (Jeong Byeong-gil, 2012)

Despite the uncommon script, Jung Byung-gil shot a film that stands apart due to some social remarks about the pop culture and the media's obsession with ratings. The fact that Doo-seok becomes popular due to his general appearance, despite murdering a number of women, is a clear mockery of the aforementioned tendencies. Jung Jae-young as Choi Hyung-goo and Park Si-hoo as Lee Doo-seok portray their rivalry elaborately, with the latter's depiction of a self-conscious celebrity being one of the film's biggest assets.

Buy This Title