Song Kang-ho Movies

Rejecting current trends in mainstream genres and the conventions of commercial cinema, Choyonnghan-Kajok, an experimental black comedy, follows an eccentric story line with some surprise attacks on the audience. Comedy and horror elements are used intermittently to create a thriller in a family setting. The events are seen through the eyes of seventeen-year-old Mi-na, daughter of the Kang family, who decide to run Mt. Lodge in the suburbs of Seoul after the father is dismissed from his company. Contrary to expectations, there are no guests lining up at the door, and the youngest daughter is upset by a strange noise she hears at night. After two weeks, the first guest appears, but he is found dead the next day. The family buries him in a hurry to avoid bad publicity. Then a couple arrives and commits double suicide and they have to bury them, too. By the time they get used to digging, it's announced a road construction will pass beside their property. The set of the film, Mt. Lodge, was created in real size by a set specialist and architect large enough for camera equipment to move around. Although the subtexts are not labored, the sanctity of family solidarity and the capacity for sudden violence in the very conservative Korean society are some of the themes the audience is left to reflect. Choyonnghan-Kajok was screened as part of the International Forum of Young Cinema at the 49th International Berlin Film Festival, 1999. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, All Movie Guide

Riding the trend of Korean action blockbusters after the phenomenally popular Swiri, Park Chan Wook directs this murder mystery thriller about death on the DMZ. The film opens with a shooting along the heavy militarized border between North and South Korea, which leaves a North Korean soldier (Shin Ha- Kyun) dead and a South Korean soldier injured. Hoping to reduce the potentially explosive political fallout by solving the crime quickly, both countries agree to an investigator of Korean-Swiss descent named Sophie Jean (Lee Yeong-Ae). As she methodically sifts through the evidence, Sophie learns that the testimony of two other soldiers -- North Korean Oh Kyeong Pil (Song Kang-Ho) and South Korean Lee Soo Hyeok (Lee Byung-Hun) -- are completely contradictory. Another witness (Kim Tae-Woo) tries to commit suicide rather than divulge information. Sophie soon concludes that a group of guards from the North and South, after years of eyeing each other, started meeting in the North Korean guard house to chat, fawn over porn, and to play cards. Why this informal détente dissolved into bloodshed is a thornier question. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

An oddball group of unlikely athletes become Korea's winning force in baseball in director Kim Hyun-seok's YMCA Yagudan (aka YMCA Baseball Team). When Ho-Chang (Song Kang-ho) loses a ball and sneaks into the yard of an American missionary in an attempt to retrieve it, he catches his first glimpse of the sport that will soon change his life and lift the spirit of his downtrodden nation. Soon learning that the lovely Jung-rim (Kim Hye-su) is currently in the process of organizing Korea's first baseball team, Ho-Chang eagerly signs-up along with best friend Kwang-tae (Hwang Jeong-min) and Dae-hyeon (Kim Ju-hyuk), who also strives for Jung-rim's affections. Despite his father's wishes that he follow a more scholarly path, Ho-Chang and his team are soon at the top of their game. As Korea begins to feel the bleak realities of the Ulsa Treaty and the team's playing grounds are usurped by Japanese soldiers, one game may prove a nation's final hope to achieve triumph in the face of adversity. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Memories of Murder is a policier based on the actual case of the first recorded serial killer in Korea's history. The rape murders began in 1986 in Hwaseong, a small village south of Seoul, and continued for several years during a time of political upheaval in South Korea. Detective Park Doo-man (Song Kang-ho of Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance), an overconfident local cop, is assigned to the case, taking along his partner, Detective Cho Yong-koo (Kim Rwe-ha), whose interrogation methods involve covering his boot with a cloth so it won't leave scratches on detainees' necks. After the first few murders, they quickly narrow their sights on a suspect (Park Noh-shik). Seo Tae-yoon (Kim Sang-kyung of Turning Gate), a young detective from Seoul, volunteers to work on the case. Park resents his presence, but Seo quickly realizes that the locals have the wrong man. Before he can share his ideas, the department is humiliated, and the police chief is replaced. Seo quietly begins to piece together a pattern to the murders. For one thing, they all took place in the rain, and the victims all wore red. But the murderer seems to be one step ahead of the cops. Working independently (they disdain each other's methods), Park and Seo stumble upon another suspect, and the two local cops work on beating a confession out of him. But it's soon clear that they've arrested the wrong man yet again. They become more desperate, and the case begins to take a devastating toll on the policemen's lives. Memories of Murder, directed by Bong Joon-ho from a script by Bong, Kim Kwang-rim, and Shim Sung-bo, was a huge box-office hit in South Korea. The film won several awards at the 2003 San Sebastián Film Festival and was also shown at the 2004 New York Korean Film Festival. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide

A woman looks for both revenge and redemption after spending 13 years in prison in this offbeat thriller from South Korea. Lee Geum-ja (Lee Yeong-ae) was in her early twenties when she was found guilty of kidnapping and killing a young boy, and though she confessed to the crime under duress, while behind bars she dreamed of one day being able to clear her name -- and even the score with the people who railroaded her, including the police officer who brought her in (Nam Il-woo) and Mr. Baek (Choi Min-Sik), a teacher who wronged her in a number of ways. Lee Geun-ja teams up with a number of friends she made during her time in lock-up, including Woo So-yeong (Kim Bu-seon), a thief with a gunsmith for a husband; Oh Su-heui (Ra Mi-ran), who was saved from assault at the hands fellow inmates by Lee; and Preacher Jeon (Kim Byeong-ok), an eccentric man of the cloth who was struck by her gentle nature in jail. As Preacher Jeon helps Lee seek salvation for all she had to do while in prison, her other friends stand by her side as she gets even with her rivals and searches for the daughter she was forced to leave behind when she was convicted. Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (aka Chinjeolhan Geum-ja-ssi) was the third film in a series, preceded by Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, and Old Boy. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

In this somber Korean drama, a young mother and widow, Shin-ae, moves with her young son, Jun, from Seoul to a small town called Miryang following her husband's death. Having given up on her career as a concert pianist when she married her husband, she starts up a piano school, but soon it begins to feel like the polite people who inhabit her new home aren't as friendly as they seem on the surface. Judgmental whispers and disapproving gossip begin to reach Shin-ae's ears, and pressure to join the Christian cult that thrives in the town begins to mount. She's hesitant until an unimaginable tragedy alters her life forever, setting Shin-ae on a dark path of withdrawal from society as a whole. ~ Cammila Albertson, All Movie Guide

As the Koran peninsula falls into the hands of Japanese imperialists and countless Koreans seek refuge in the vast wilderness of Manchuria, a determined thief, a cold-blooded hit-man, and a mysterious bounty hunter all vie for an elusive map that could lead them to a buried treasure from the Qing Dynasty. Tae-gu is "The Weird," a thief who comes into possession of the sought-after map while boldly robbing a train of Japanese military officers. But at the very same time Tae-gu attacks the train, relentless assassin Chang-yi and his violent gang of bandits beset the locomotive as well. Chang-yi is "The Bad," and he'll kill anyone who tries to come between him and the untold treasures of the Qing Dynasty. Just as the cloud of gunpowder begins to clear, a shadowy stranger suddenly appears and rescues Tae-gu from certain death. That stranger is Do-won, "The Good." Do-won has been chasing Tae-gu in hopes that he can capture him and collect the reward money. Now, as these three resolute strangers converge in a sprawling landscape that none of them can truly call home, they quickly discover that Korean resistance fighters, resilient mountain bandits, and the Japanese army also covert the prized map. The fight on the train was only the beginning too, because when the stakes are this high the action is bound to get bloody. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide