32 stunning Korean movies from Female Filmmakers

||| 34 brilliant movies from female filmmakers

night jasmine Nov 13, 2022

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1. A Boy and Sungreen

Korean Movie - 2019
- The debut feature for Ahn Ju-Young provides a lucid portrayal of a special friendship when Bo-hee (Ahn Ji-ho), a timid middle school student, discovers that his birth father is still alive. Feeling betrayed by his mother, Bo-hee teams up with his best friend Nok-yang (Kim Ju-a) to find his father. Highly sensitive, Bo-hee finds himself on an important journey of self-discovery.
2. A Brand New Life

Korean Movie - 2009
- Ounie Lecomte's affecting and powerful debut feature is a very personal story for the director and the audience are the beneficiaries of such a candid view of her childhood. A young girl is suddenly left at a rural orphanage by her father and natural emotions rather than sensationalized set-ups drive this personal story for Lecomte as this was once her fate.
3. Cart

Korean Movie - 2014
- The fifth film from Boo Ji-young propelled her into the global film festival circuit, tapping into her interest in issues related to women and labourers in South Korea. It focuses on employees of a retail supermarket who band together when the contract workers are laid off. The film has that perfect power balance of a superb narrative in its own right while providing a vital social critique.
4. Crush and Blush

Korean Movie - 2008
- Having worked with Park Chan-wook as scripter on Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (2005), Lee Kyoung-mi directed this smart comedy filled with surprises. It is brilliantly bizarre and sometimes dark, but considering who is behind it that can come as no surprise.
5. A Girl at My Door

Korean Movie - 2014
- Jung Joo-ri’s low-budget high-impact debut feature manages to tackle a smorgasbord of social issues, prominently the contentiousness of LGBT rights in Korea. Police officer Lee Young-nam (Bae Doona) is moved from Seoul to a small rural outpost after a personal scandal. There she bonds with Sun Do-hee (Kim Sae-ron), a timid 14-year old who suffers at the hands of bullies and her drunken stepfather Yong-ha.
6. Gull

Korean Movie - 2020
- A market trader becomes the victim of sexual abuse as her family and colleagues struggle to support her in Kim Mi-jo’s confronting debut feature. The concept of sex crimes against elderly people, unpacked in 2019’s excellent An Old Lady (also featured on this list), and how these crimes are underplayed and overlooked, is returned to in this brief but challenging drama.
7. A Haunting Hitchhike

Korean Movie - 2019
- Just 31 years-old when she made A Haunting Hitchhike, Jeong Hee-Jae has crafted an often bleak and unrelenting outing here. Looking for the mother she has never seen, 16-year-old Jeong-ae and her friend Hyojeong begin on a journey. Though she is still unable to find her mother, Jeong-ae meets a man she suspects may be Hyojeong’s biological father instead.
8. Helpless

Korean Movie - 2012
- Based on the bestselling novel 'All She Was Worth' by Japanese writer Miyabe Miyuki, this psychological mystery-thriller stars Kim Min-hee (Right Now, Wrong Then; The Handmaiden), Lee Sun-kyun (Paju, Parasite) and Jo Sung-ha (Spider Forest, The Yellow Sea), so there is absolutely no reason why this film by Byun Young-joo should not be propelled to the top of your must-watch list.
9. Heart

Korean Movie - 2019
- Actor, director and writer Jeong Ga-young takes full ownership of this project, starring as a filmmaker in Heart, a modern tale of love delivered with heaps of awkwardness. Ga-young (Jeong Ga-young herself) arrives at the studio of an old flame to seek his advice about a new crush, a married man. The pair sit down and discuss the predicament, but there are more vital details to emerge.
10. House of Hummingbird

Korean Movie - 2018
- Patient, perfectly pitched and able to present soul-stirring interactions with maximal confidence, House of Hummingbird is an unthinkable debut feature. Yet first outing it is, as Kim Bora manages to announce herself as a modern filmmaker we will be likely viewing and discussing for several years to come in this masterfully crafted and contemplative coming-of-age drama.
11. The House of Us

Korean Movie - 2019
- By Yoon Ga-eun, here we follow Ha-Na, a 12-year-old girl who worries about her constantly bickering parents. During summer vacation, Ha-Na meets sisters Yoo-Mi and Yoo-Jin who hate the fact their family moves so frequently. The trio of girls become friends and start to share their worries in life with each other.
12. Jealousy is My Middle Name

Korean Movie - 2002
- The debut from Park Chan-ok follows Lee Won-sang (Park Hae-il), a lovelorn graduate who finds himself writing for the editor who recently wooed his girlfriend. Despite this, he deeply respects his boss (Mun Sung-kun) and starts to bond with him when another crush comes along in photographer Park Seong-yeon (Bae Jong-ok), but Won-sang seems to be walking into the same trap again.
13. Kim Ji Young: Born 1982

Korean Movie - 2019
- Based on the Korean bestseller of the same name by Cho Nam-joo which charts the daily struggle of women against endemic sexism, this was masterfully bought to the big screen by Kim Do-young, the first directorial gig for the TV and film actress. The book, and then this film, sparked fierce feminist debates across Korea and put such issues front and centre.
14. Little Forest

Korean Movie - 2018
- From Yim Soon-rye, Little Forest is based on the manga series of the same name by Daisuke Igarashi. After failing her test to become a teacher, Hye-Won (Kim Tae-Ri), turns her back on the busy city life in Seoul and moves back to her hometown in the countryside to heal her emotional wounds with her long-time friends.
15. Lucky Chan Sil

Korean Movie - 2020
- After several years as producer to Hong Sangsoo, Kim Cho-hee emerged from his shadow to make this simple yet deceptively profound first film. Tender and funny, it is riddled with its own distinctive charm and held together with its smart shot selection and strong performances. While there are strands of Hong in its portrayal of human interactions, Kim produces something unique and very much her own.
16. Maggie

Korean Movie - 2019
- Yi Okseop's first film is certainly unique. The set-up alone should make that clear when a radiologist is snapped having sex in the X-ray room. The image then circulates in the hospital and a nurse, Yoon-Young (Lee Joo-Young), fears that she might be one of the skeletons. The next day she spends time with her boss, all while mysterious sinkholes pop-up around Seoul.
17. Microhabitat

Korean Movie - 2018
- One of those films where you instantly fall in love with its tone and delivery, and indeed its deeply lovable lead, Jeon Go-woon's debut won her a host of awards.
  It follows Miso (Esom), who when faced with rising rent, decides that her remaining money is best spent on her what she loves most: cigarettes, whiskey and her boyfriend. So she leaves her flat and sofa-surfs with old friends instead.
18. Modern Family

Korean Movie - 2012
- An omnibus of four stories by different directors, Kim Sung-Ho and three female filmmakers in Lee Soo-Youn, Shin Su-Won and Hong Ji-Young.
  'Circleline' centres on a man laid off as his wife becomes pregnant, 'Star Shaped Stain' sees a mother wonder if her dead daughter might be alive, 'E.D. 571' is the return of a possible daughter, while 'In Good Company' is a worker facing an unfair dismissal.
19. Moving On

Korean Movie - 2020
- The family unit is an important topic for Korean cinema and in Yoon Dan-bi's debut feature we are given a natural view of how families interact daily as they deal with festering anxiety and loss. Much of the film is the simple act of the family meal. The group sat crossed-legged at the dining table, enjoying their meals and wrestling with their emotional loads in the process.
20. An Old Lady

Korean Movie - 2020
- Tackling the often-ignored topic of the sexual abuse of the elderly, this is a subtle yet powerful treatment of a harrowing event. While the topic of the sexual abuse of an elderly person may seem too heavy to be lifted out of the bleakness of its subject matter, Lim Sun-ae's film has a tenderness that floods you with empathy. It is also about our treatment of the elderly and our regular failures on that front.
21. Our Body

Korean Movie - 2019
- From Han Ka-ram who tackles another issue prominent on this rundown – Korea's youth and their contemporary worries.
  Here a young woman, Ja-young (Choi Hee-seo), abandons her plans for a career in the civil service after an argument with her mother and instead looks for purpose in her life elsewhere.
22. Paju

Korean Movie - 2009
- Director Park Chan-ok manages to progress her story here, jumbling the time passages we see in the process, while chiefly focusing on the cerebral aspects of our characters’ fortunes. She inverts notions of skipping any psychological aspects, instead placing such angst front and centre as we explore a young girl’s complex relationship with her sister’s husband.
23. The Running Actress

Korean Movie - 2017
- Moon So-ri, who produced that jaw-dropping performance in Lee Chang-dong's Oasis (2002), is behind the camera in this feature which consists of three separate short films made in the course of Moon's enrolment at Chung-Ang University. Moon previously wrote and directed three short films “The Actress” (2014), “The Running Actress” (2015), and “The Best Director” (2015), and they are all together here.
24. Sisters on the Road

Korean Movie - 2009
- The second film from Boo Ji-young, in her debut feature here she manages to perfectly capture female interactions and the atmosphere that is created in such conversations.
  The sudden death of her mother brings Myung-eun (Shin Min-a) back home to Jeju island where she reconnects with her estranged sister Myung-ju (Gong Hyo-jin) and her family.
25. Take Care of My Cat

Korean Movie - 2001
- “What’s so important about the past? The present matters,” states one of director Jeong Jae-eun's fivesome of high school friends transiting into womanhood and finding their once watertight bonds are starting to fissure. Jeong’s debut feature is an understated and deeply naturalistic portrait of the prickly transition from being a carefree gang of girls to inheriting the toil and insecurities of the grown-up world.
26. The Truth Beneath

Korean Movie - 2016
- From director Lee Kyoung-mi, again teaming up with Park Chan-wook to superb effect here.
  The Truth Beneath follows Kim Yeon-hong (Son Ye-jin) and her young politician husband (Kim Joo-hyuk). Just days before the election, the pair's daughter goes missing, leading Yeon-hong down a twisted path of discovery.
27. Very Ordinary Couple

Korean Movie - 2013
- The debut feature for Roh Deok, a script editor for the wild and hilarious masterpiece Save the Green Planet! (2003), who demonstrates considerable directorial chops here and a willingness to blend styles.
  This lively and engaging rom-com boasts several dramatic facets. When the secret relationship of two bank colleagues ends, a toxic aftermath ensues. Interactions between the pair and their individual actions are churlish, selfish and outright malignant. Not just to each other either, but to those in the blast zone of their spiteful attacks too.
28. Waikiki Brothers

Korean Movie - 2001
- The second Yim Soon-rye film on this list after Little Forest is a bittersweet drama which does a brilliant job of depicting ordinary modern day Koreans.
  The film's title refers to a band going nowhere. After another poor gig, the saxophonist quits and the three remaining band members try to trudge on, heading to the lead singer's hometown, Suanbo, to see if their fortunes can change.
29. Way Back Home

Korean Movie - 2013
- Directed by Bang Eun-jin, who starred in 301, 302 and Address Unknown, who manages to demonstrate the emotional pain of Jeong-yeon's situation and the torment of a mother kept from her child.
  Based on the true story of a Korean housewife imprisoned in Martinique after being accused of drug smuggling at a Paris airport, filming took place at a women's prison in the Caribbean island, a genuineness that runs throughout the film. The movie follows Jeong-yeon's struggle to get a trial in France, while the Korean embassy there show nothing but disinterest in her fate.
30. The Way Home

Korean Movie - 2002
- Heartwarming and deeply satisfying to behold, The Way Home was a domestic and international smash and remains one of Korea's most highly rated films. It is a wonderful reminder of the unconditional love that grandparents bestow on their grandchildren, convincingly crafted by Lee Jeong-hyang, who has sadly only provided three films to date, starting from 1998.
31. The Widow

Korean Movie - 1955
- Born in 1923, Park Nam-ok is considered Korea's first female director. Park had to battle a tough industry and gender discrimination to craft The Widow in 1955, a fine film that would prove to be her only feature.
  Widow Min-ja is one of many thousands of Korea War widows. She remains loyal to her husband’s memory, but has her head turned by a new love interest.
32. The World of Us

Korean Movie - 2016
- The second film from Yoon Ga-eun with her chief theme-focus of youth.
  Sun (Choi Soo-in) is an elementary school girl who becomes a transfer student during the summer holidays. When the new school year begins, this bright new friendship is put to test as Sun continues to be the target of bullying by her other classmates.