The 15 best Korean movies on Netflix right now (original) (raw)

Netflix develops original content from countries all over the world. So if you're only watching the American stuff, you're missing out. Of particular note is the streamer’s selection of Korean movies, from warm rom-coms like 20th Century Girl and Sweet & Sour to twisted chillers like The Wailing and Oldboy.

For those who want to expand their knowledge of K-dramas and beyond, there’s a little something for everyone and every mood. Here are _Entertainment Weekly_’s picks for the 15 best Korean movies streaming on Netflix right now.

Oldboy (2003)

Mary Evans/Egg Films/Show East/Ronald Grant/Everett Collection

For fans of Korean cinema, or cinema in general, Oldboy needs no introduction. But if you're just beginning your Korean movie journey, start here: Oh Dae-su (Choi Min-sik) is held captive in a hotel-like prison for 15 years then suddenly released, tasked with figuring out why he was abducted, and by whom.

It’s a revenge movie, sure, but more so a tale of psychological torment than anything else; the why is what’s most important. Park Chan-wook’s modern classic is legendary for its hallway fight scene and its devastating ending, but beyond all that, it’s also a savagely funny, diabolically clever spin on revenge, guilt, memory, and control.

Where to watch Oldboy: Netflix

Director: Park Chan-wook

Cast: Choi Min-sik, Kang Hye-jeong, Yoo Ji-tae, Kim Byung-ok, Ji Dae-han

20th Century Girl (2022)

courtesy Netflix

If you're ready to get into your feels, 20th Century Girl may be the K-drama for you. High schooler Bo-ra (Kim You-jung) has been tasked with keeping an eye on her best friend’s crush while she’s stuck in America awaiting heart surgery. Bo-ra obliges, paying studious attention to the boy in question… only to develop her own crush on his best friend, Woon-ho (Byeon Woo-seok).

There’s a hint of Jane Austen-esque romantic farce, full of misunderstandings and mistaken identity, but the film also has a wise perspective on friendship that keeps it from being just another teen melodrama.

Where to watch 20th Century Girl: Netflix

Director: Bang Woo-ri

Cast: Kim You-jung, Byeon Woo-seok, Park Jung-woo, Noh Yoon-seo

Related content: The 30 best teen romance movies on Netflix

Burning (2018)

Well Go USA/courtesy Everett Collection

Acclaimed and woefully underseen, Burning is among the best mystery movies on Netflix. Jong-su (Yoo Ah-in) is minding his own business when Hae-mi (Jun Jong-seo) recognizes him from childhood; they connect, they fall into bed, and she leaves town. When she returns, she brings along Ben (Steven Yeun), a handsome, arrogant, and cryptic young man Jong-su just can’t trust — especially after Hae-mi vanishes.

Burning remains ironically placid, even as anxiety turns to dread and the dire implications become increasingly obvious (and yet… invisible). The film brilliantly plays with perception, desire, and fear, harnessing the story’s ambiguity into an oppressive, sinister force.

Where to watch Burning: Netflix

Director: Lee Chang-dong

Cast: Yoo Ah-in, Steven Yeun, Jun Jong-seo, Kim Soo-kyung, Choi Seung-ho, Moon Sung-keun, Min Bok-gi

The Wailing (2016)

Well Go USA /Courtesy Everett

An infectious disease is running rampant in a rural Korean village, causing the infected to murder their families. Local cop Jong-goo (Kwak Do-won) isn’t prepared for this kind of thing. This was a sleepy town that had never seen crimes like this. The film is a slow-burn psychological thriller in which the very nature of understanding, and believing, is called into question, as is the Japanese out-of-towner who arrives on the scene.

The Wailing is so heavy with atmosphere and dread, it’s almost unbearable at times. But the reward is a profound and unsettling depiction of the ways we try to reconcile the inexplicable.

Where to watch The Wailing: Netflix

EW grade: B+ (read the review)

Director: Na Hong-jin

Cast: Kwak Do-won, Hwang Jung-min, Jun Kunimura, Chun Woo-hee, Kim Hwan-hee

Ballerina (2023)

Netflix

Contrary to the movie’s title, tutus are few and far between in Ballerina. There are plenty of guns and knives, though. And a chainsaw.

Ok-ju (Jun Jong-seo) is a professional bodyguard to whom martial arts and gunplay are second nature. Her friend Min-hee (Park Yu-rim) has just taken her own life, laying the blame at the feet of the noxious Choi Pro (Kim Ji-hoon) — trafficker, pimp, drug dealer, you name it. Now heartbroken, Ok-ju sets out to exact vengeance upon him the way only she can. She makes a hell of an icy assassin, and the mobsters meet their match with her twirling high-kicks in some genuinely bad-ass action sequences.

Where to watch Ballerina: Netflix

Director: Lee Chung-hyun

Cast: Jun Jong-seo, Kim Ji-hun, Park Yu-rim, Park Hyung-soo

The Call (2020)

Everett

The Call begins innocently enough until we begin to realize — with curiosity, then horror — what’s actually happening. Seo-yeon (Park Shin-hye) is in 2019; Young-sook (Jun Jong-seo) is in 1999; somehow, through an old phone in the same house, they can communicate across time. They use this to their advantage, at first — after all, who wouldn’t take the opportunity to go back in time and prevent a tragedy? But changing the past is, as it turns out, a double-edged sword. This twisty Korean movie crafts a delirious time-traveling-by-proxy premise, and Jun makes a meal out of a character who is, or becomes, far more than what she seems.

Where to watch The Call: Netflix

Director: Lee Chung-hyun

Cast: Park Shin-hye, Jun Jong-seo, Kim Sung-ryoung, EL, Park Ho-san

Love and Leashes (2022)

Netflix

Don't let the name fool you. While Love and Leashes is about BDSM, it falls more into rom-com territory than anything overly salacious. What you’ll find instead is a more authentic representation of kink and sexual boundaries than, say, Fifty Shades of Grey.

Ji-woo (Lee Jun-young) is a PR professional who has everything going for him… except someone to help him live out his fantasies. When his co-worker Ji-woo (Seohyun) discovers his secret, the two enter a consensual dom/sub relationship, only to (naturally) fall in love along the way. This Korean movie takes a playful approach to its central relationship and its sexual dynamics. It’s a fun rom-com and a soft introduction to a topic that, for many, is still taboo.

Where to watch Love and Leashes: Netflix

Director: Park Hyun-jin

Cast: Seohyun, Lee Jun-young, EL, Seo Hyun-woo, Kim Han-na, An Seung-hyun

Forgotten (2017)

Megabox

Buckle up for a trippy ride! Forgotten is a time-bending thriller about siblings embroiled in a kidnapping and conspiracy told across two different timelines. Teenager Jin-seok (Kang Ha-neul) witnesses his older brother Yoo-seok (Kim Moo-yeol) get abducted, only for him to return unharmed 19 days later. Only he doesn’t seem quite the same — and remembers nothing about his abduction.

Dreams, nightmares, and memories begin to shape the nebulous mystery enveloping the brothers and their family. Forgotten has so many moving parts, it’s a welcome head-scratcher for those who love trying to decipher a puzzle.

Where to watch Forgotten: Netflix

Director: Jang Hang-jun

Cast: Kang Ha-neul, Kim Moo-yeol, Na Young-hee, Moon Sung-keun, Nam Myung-ryul, Lee Eun-woo

Psychokinesis (2018)

courtesy netflix

In his second live-action film, Train to Busan director Yeon Sang-ho trades zombies for superheroes, again proving his gift for placing supernatural or surreal events into distinctly personal dimensions.

A low-level security guard gains telekinetic powers after drinking water from a tainted mountain spring. Seok-heon (Ryu Seung-ryong) isn’t exactly prototypical “hero” material, but after some trial and error, he chooses to use his newfound powers for good, reconnecting with his estranged daughter and helping her take on a villainous real estate conglomerate. Psychokinesis is a classic “hero helps the underdog” story, a visual treat that uses its “accidental superhero” premise to great comedic effect.

Where to watch Psychokinesis: Netflix

Director: Yeon Sang-ho

Cast: Ryu Seung-ryong, Shim Eun-kyung, Go Na-hee, Park Jeong-min, Kim Min-jae

Night in Paradise (2020)

Netlfix

Night in Paradise is a gritty crime drama about Tae-gu (Um Tae-goo), a gangster on the run after killing a crime boss in retaliation for the murders of his sister and niece. But this gangland milieu is also a love story, as Tae-gu takes temporary refuge on the beautiful Jeju Island with an older mobster and his terminally ill niece, Jae-yeon (Jeon Yeo-been).

If you’re looking for whimsy, consider skipping this one, as you’ll mostly find bone-crunching and blood here. The movie is almost Shakespearean in its blend of power, romance, betrayal, and tragedy while truly uncompromising in its carnage — and its fateful ending.

Where to watch Night in Paradise: Netflix

Director: Park Hoon-jung

Cast: Um Tae-goo, Jeon Yeo-been, Cha Seung-won, Lee Ki-young, Park Ho-san

Related content: The 33 best revenge movies to watch this weekend

Pandora (2016)

Netlfix

Far from the over-the-top thrill rides in many disaster movies, Pandora plays like a shrewd cautionary tale. An unnamed town revolves (economically and otherwise) around a deteriorating nuclear plant. When a major earthquake strikes and causes a nuclear meltdown, the implications are massive. When it rains it pours.

The film gives us a heroic protagonist — Jae-hyeok, a young man who works at the plant — but its focus is on the political indifference, incompetence, and corruption that made this catastrophe possible, even inevitable, in the first place. Pandora would make a nifty companion piece to HBO’s Chernobyl.

Where to watch Pandora: Netflix

Director: Park Jung-woo

Cast: Kim Nam-gil, Kim Joo-hyun, Jung Jin-young, Kim Young-ae, Moon Jeong-hee

Related content: 27 of our favorite disaster movies

Wonderland (2024)

Netflix

In Wonderland, AI helps grieving people communicate with partners and loved ones they’ve lost or are losing. Jeong-in (Suzy) uses the eponymous technology to video chat with a simulation of her comatose boyfriend. Bae-li (Tang Wei) signs up after becoming terminally ill, creating an AI version of herself to communicate with her young daughter once she’s gone. An older woman (Sung Byung-sook) simply wants to keep in touch with her deceased grandson.

The movie squarely stares down its central contradiction: that the service provides catharsis while preventing people from actually moving on. There’s no use telling a story about futuristic technology without asking tough questions about it, and Wonderland easily passes that test.

Where to watch Wonderland: Netflix

Director: Kim Tae-yong

Cast: Tang Wei, Suzy, Park Bo-gum, Jung Yu-mi, Choi Woo-shik

Tune In for Love (2019)

Netflix

The cutesy name of this Korean movie doesn't quite capture its unique wavelength. In 1994, Hyun-woo (Jung Hae-in) is fresh out of juvie and lands a job at Mi-soo’s (Kim Go-eun) bakery. The two quickly bond before circumstances take him elsewhere, but they later reunite many times in the coming years. All the while, their connection deepens and splinters as life gets in the way and troubled pasts come to light.

In the spirit of the Before trilogy, One Day, or even Paweł Pawlikowski’s Cold War (without the political backdrop), Tune In for Love memorably puts romantic chemistry to the long-term test.

Where to watch Tune in for Love: Netflix

Director: Jung Ji-woo

Cast: Kim Go-eun, Jung Hae-in, Park Hae-joon, Kim Kuk-hee, Jung Eugene

Related content: The 25 best romantic period movies of all time

Sweet & Sour (2021)

Netflix

This is another Korean romance movie that looks fluffy on the surface but has more substance than you may expect. Da-eun (Chae Soo-bin) and Jang-hyeok (Jang Ki-yong) are trying to make a long-distance relationship work. That comes with fights, breakups, and makeups — not necessarily in that order. It's not a straightforward rom-com; it's more about what happens after they get together, and the work it takes to make it stick.

Sweet & Sour thoughtfully explores the professional complications and practical realities that couples inevitably confront, which should strike an authentic note for anyone trying to navigate romance in the modern world.

Where to watch Sweet & Sour: Netflix

Director: Lee Kae-byeok

Cast: Jang Ki-yong, Chae Soo-bin, Jung Soo-jung

Related content: The 25 best romantic movies on Netflix

Dream (2023)

Netflix

If you're in the mood for something light, Dream is a feel-good sports movie in the vein of The Mighty Ducks, Cool Runnings,and Hardball. After pro soccer player Yoon Hong-dae (Park Seo-jun) gets into legal trouble, he’s assigned to coach a team of unhoused people in the Homeless World Cup as a condition of his probation. Meanwhile, documentary filmmaker Lee So-min (K-Pop star IU) complicates matters when she starts making a docuseries about Hong-dae and the team.

These beats may feel familiar, but Dream earns its redemptive ending and gives us a group of underdogs who are impossible not to root for.

Where to watch Dream: Netflix

Director: Lee Byeong-heon

Cast: Park Seo-jun, IU, Kim Jong-su, Ko Chang-seok, Jung Seung-kil, Lee Hyun-woo

Related content: The best sports movies and TV shows