Vampires, Wrestlers, Murderers and Princesses: A Personal Top Ten

I’ve tried for a long time to write a top ten Korean film film list. At the end of each year it seems like everyone has managed to compile a list of their favourite films, and I’ve tried to join in on numerous occasions but it’s incredibly hard to pick just ten films. It’s difficult to group films and say that I either enjoyed these the most, or that these films are the most important, the best acted, the most well made, the most… whatever. Well, I thought I’d join the first day of the Korean Blogathon by posting a personal top ten list – films which, for the most part, I like to relax with. Some of these are great films. Most of them – by the usual standards – are not. In no particular order these are ten Korean films that I have returned to time after time. In no particular order and with plenty of guilty pleasures…

Vampire Cop Ricky (Lee Si-myung / 2006)

Starting how I mean to go on – this broad comedy is the sort of film that many people will find irritating or just plain bad as it lurches in tone from comedy to action to drama and back again. Vampire Cop Ricky stars Kim Su-ro as a corrupt cop who is bitten by a vampire-blood carrying mosquito only to find that he’s developing a craving for blood, has superhuman strength and an aversion to sunlight. With a lead character who turns into a vampire whenever he gets horny Vampire Cop Ricky might not be high-class but at times it’s laugh-out-loud funny, and the action scenes are pretty impressive. It’s not big nor clever but it’s a favourite…

My Mighty Princess (Kwak Jae-young / 2008)

It’s okay, go ahead and laugh. I don’t care because My Mighty Princess makes me laugh. A lot. The story of a girl who has superhuman martial arts skills but who just wants to be noticed by the Captain of the hockey team. I was one of those people unlucky (well, some were lucky) to be stranded overseas when the volcano stopped all and sundry from flying in Europe. I’d taken a few films with me as I’m capable of being unsociable in holiday and My Mighty Princess was one of them. On this extended break I found that it’s a film that can be rewatched several times and, for me, it only gets funnier…

The Quiet Family (Kim Jee-woon / 1998)

Kim Jee-woon’s debut The Quiet Family is possibly the Korean film that I have seen the most times and it’s one of my all-time favourite films. It might not sound too impressive on paper – a family open a guest-house in the countryside but when their first guest seems to have commited suicide they decide to hide the body rather than report it to the authorities and ruin their reputation before they’ve had the chance to build one. The Quiet Family is one of those films where everything spirals out of control and becomes increasingly worse, it has a brilliant script and a cast that includes Na Mun-hee , Song Kang-ho, Choi Min-sik and Park In-hwan. One of those films where you spot something new everytime, The Quiet Family is for anyone who can potentially see the funny side of murder…

The Foul King (Kim Jee-woon / 2000)

The second Kim Jee-woon film on this list and neither of these are technically his ‘best’ film (personally I would say that was the incredible A Tale of Two Sisters) but his follow-up to The Quiet Family is the wrestling comedy The Foul King. With the same black sense of humour, The Foul King is one of the films that I watch when I’m in need of a little pick-me-up. Song Kang-ho is (as usual) brilliant, as are the rest of the cast including Jang Jin-young (who, on a sad note, died of stomach cancer at the age of 35). The Foul King is pretty dark but has the funniest ever on-screen scene revolving around a fork…

Save The Green Planet (Jang Jun-hwan / 2003)

The film that shouldn’t work, I’ve seen Save The Green Planet on numerous occassions and everytime I’m stunned by how well it works as a comedy, drama, sci-fi, horror – and almost any other film genre you can think of. This story of a couple who kidnap a buisnessman because they believe he is an alien is unlike anything you have ever seen before. It’s not for the faint of heart – again it’s pretty dark (notice a pattern here?) but I have absolutely nothing bad to say about Save The Green Planet. In fact I’m tempted to go and watch it again this minute..

Welcome To Dongmakgol (Park Kwang-hyun / 2005)

A feel-good war film (no really), Welcome To Dongmakgol is one of those films that reminds you why you love film. The story of North and South Korean soliders forced together in a small village called Dongmakgol, it’s an intelligent combination of comedy and drama with brilliant performances – the kind of mix that Hollywood can only dream about putting together. Welcome To Dongmakgol is one of the films I recommend to anyone new to Korean cinema, and I’ve revisited it several times. In fact, it’s so good that the Podcast on Fire network made a show about it…

Christmas In August (Hur Jin-ho / 1998)

While I’m now a big sucker for the seemingly millions of melodrama’s produced by Korea, it took a fair while for me to get hooked. The first film that caught me totally unaware and turned what I always believed to be something resembling a heart of stone into a big soppy mush was Christmas In August. Starring Han Suk-kyu and Shim Eun-ha, Christmas In August is the story of a photographer (Han) who strikes up a friendship with a parking attendant (Shim). She is unaware that the friendship won’t develop further because he never tells her that he is dying. Christmas In August is incredibly moving, perfectly acted and with understated direction I’ve never been able to reach the end without a lump in my throat and ‘something in my eye’…

Take Care Of My Cat (Jeong Jae-eun / 2001)

Okay so I’ll follow Christmas In August with another film that I really never should have liked, being the incredibly macho man that I am (!), but its another favourite. Take Care Of My Cat is the story of a group of friends as they leave school and get on with their lives as mature gown-ups. Okay, I admit, that sounds dull. Just take my word for it that Take Care Of My Cat is a realistic coming of age film with great characters, script and performances – including the completely wonderful Bae Doo-na…

Memories of Murder (Bong Joon-ho / 2003)

Probably still my all-time favourite Korean film, Memories of Murder never ceases to amaze me. Based on the true story of the hunt for a serial killer in the mid-Eighties, it’s a film I saw fairly early in my journey into Korean cinema, and at the time it blew me away as a procedural serial killer film. As my knowledge of Korean history has expanded, so has my appreciation of the film – all of Bong Joon-ho’s films could have appeared on this list, and all (with the possibly exception of Barking Dogs Never Bite, although I personally love it) could appear on a list of essential Korean cinema. Memories of Murder is a film that can be studied – but most importantly can be enjoyed repeatedly…

Sympathy For Mr Vengeance (Park Chan-wook / 2002)

Starring Shin Ha-kyun, Song Kang-ho and Bae Doo-na, directed by Park Chan-wook. Need I say more? The film that hooked me into Korean cinema once and for all, Sympathy For Mr Vengeance remains my favourite Park Chan-wook film. It’s on this list of favourites, but I’ll be honest and say that sometimes I will hesitate before giving this a rewatch, although when I do it still manages to stun me. The story of a kidnapping gone wrong, Sympathy For Mr Vengeance is shockingly bleak. Forget Oldboy or Lady Vengeance, for me Sympathy For Mr Vengeance is the ultimate of all of the revenge films (Korean or otherwise) to have surfaced over the last decade. It’s dark, it’s disturbing and – most darkly and disturbing of all – at times it’s very funny.