Netflix Streaming Safari: Korean Madness!

The biggest news to hit people who like to sit on the couch and watch Netflix streaming movies (me! me!) just erupted like a volcano yesterday to almost no fanfare: CJ Entertainment has licensed their catalog to Netflix! Effective immediately! What’s a CJ? It’s one of Korea’s massive chaebols, huge conglomerate corporations, and it specializes in everything from airport restaurants to…well, let them say it:

“CJ foods divisions come up with better tasting processed foods and more wholesome ingredients catered to your modern life; pharmaceutical division strives for overall improvement in the health of the global community; animal feeds division is constantly in search for more nutritional formula for cattle; entertainment division seeks to please all our senses by offering entertaining movies and animations.”

Did you see that part about their entertainment division? That’s CJ Entertainment, one of Korea’s biggest film companies which owns the rights to a ton of amazing movies from Korea, some from Japan and even some from China. So what’s this mean for Netflix? Check out this list of movies you have to watch (and some non-CJ movies are included, but only a handful). If you’re tired of boring Hollywood movies, if you want to see films with big budgets, slick production values and great acting. If you want to see movies that turn standard genres upside down and undermine all the cliches and conventions we’ve gotten used to. If you want to watch great movies you’ve never heard of and if you’re capable of reading, then this list is a place for you to start.

Three Movies That Will Rock Your World If You Are Human
These three movies have blown away everyone I’ve known who saw them, from geek to civilian. If they don’t blow you away, then you might be a robot.

 

CASTAWAY ON THE MOON – you can read a longer piece I wrote about it, or you can just cue it up knowing that this is one of the best romances you’ll ever see. The story of a suicidal businessman stranded on an island in the middle of the Han River (he can’t swim) and the agoraphobe who thinks he’s an alien.

 

FISH STORY – the less you know about this movie, the better. But if you’ve ever hit a place in your life where you wonder what the point is, if you’ve ever felt like you’ve wasted your life, if you’ve ever felt like you settled and never achieved everything you thought you would, then this one’s for you. You can watch a subtitled trailer (which reveals a lot about the story) or watch an unsubtitled trailer which keeps it mysterious, or just know that it’s about a punk single from 1975 that saves the world in 2012.

 

THE MAN FROM NOWHERE – personally, I prefer THE UNJUST (see below) but this movie has been a huge favorite of almost everyone I know. Read some more I wrote about it, or just know that this is basically THE DARK KNIGHT meets THE BOURNE IDENTITY and it was the biggest critical and commercial hit in Korea of 2010.

Ten Movies That I Love
The reason I’ve got write-ups for so many of these movies is that a huge number of them have screened at the New York Asian Film Festival. In fact, right now, Netflix’s Korean section looks like an online NYAFF! So if you ever wanted to go, consider this the solo version of the fest.

 

The Unjust – Ryu Seung-Wan is Korea’s greatest action movie director, but in this flick he channels 70′s era Sidney Lumet, turning in a film that’s a portrait of Seoul on the edge. A deeply corrupt cop and a corrupt, showboating public prosecutor are both in the pockets of rival gangs who are starting to lock horns in the run-up to an all-out street war. At the same time, the pressure is on the police to find the serial rapist who’s killing schoolgirls and the cops are having a hard time finding a patsy to take the rap. A sprawling, brawling portrait of a city where everything comes with a price tag attached, this is THE WIRE as a feature film shot in Korea. (read a longer piece I wrote about it)

 

Dasepo Naughty Girls – it’s the sexy, dirty, actually funny version of HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL in this sweetly kinky flick about a school full of the most perverted students in the world groping their way through the fog of adolescence. Multiple plotlines collide, mix their juices and cross over like naked people at an orgy: the prudish headmaster is installing “Instant Virgin Chips” in unlucky students, a cult is abducting students and forcing them to do dirty dances in their underground temple and much more. Corny, and horny, it’s also a musical. (read more I wrote about it)

 

The Show Must Go On – Song Kang-Ho is Korea’s great everyman actor, appearing in everything from JSA to THE HOST, but here he has what might be his best role yet in this movie that tips its hat to The Sopranos. Song is a mid-level gangster who’s trying to pull off a tricky real estate scam while holding his family together. Comedy doesn’t come any bleaker or blacker (a parent-teacher conference starts with him physically threatening the teacher and ends with a bribe) as the movie jumps from microcosmic (the quest for a great flat-screen TV) to the epic (a huge construction site battle between union workers and mafia scabs). The gangster film doesn’t get much better than this. (read a review)

 

The Chaser – the movie that saved the Korean film industry, this low budget thriller (based on a true story) starring some mid-list actors from a first time director was supposed to come and go without a trace, but instead it became a massive word-of-mouth hit and one of the few success stories at the 2008 Korean box office. And why shouldn’t it? Unfolding over 24 hours, it’s the tale of a cop-turned-pimp who bullies one of his girls into taking a late night call despite the fact that she has a nasty cold. As his follow-up calls go unanswered he realizes that the client might very possibly be the serial killer who’s been cutting a swath through local prostitutes. Armed only with a cell phone and a crushing sense of guilt he sets out into the night to correct his horrible mistake. If you like thrillers, this is more of what you like, distilled into its essence and injected directly into your heart. (read more I wrote about it)

 

Barking Dogs Never Bite – director Bong Joon-Ho went on to make movies like THE HOST and MOTHER, which got arthouse releases in the US, but his first film is still, to my mind, his best. BARKING DOGS is about an apartment block where an unemployed college lecturer is being driven nuts by the barking dog next door, where someone is abducting and eating dogs and where one slacker janitor must solve these heinous crimes. One of the funniest movies ever made, it slowly deepens over its running time to become one of the smartest and most gently moving. (read more I wrote about it)

 

Silmido – this lavish, big-budget movie is based on a true story, and that’s what makes it so incredible. Meticulously researched, what makes it special isn’t so much the execution, or the all-star cast, but the story itself. In 1968, North Korea sent commandos to assassinate South Korea’s president. The attempt failed, but South Korea came up with a plan for retaliation. Faking the execution of dozens of prisoners, they then isolated these supposedly dead convicts on Silmido Island and trained them to invade North Korea and kill Kim Il-Sung. When relations between the two countries thawed, the South Korean government decided to “eliminate” their now embarrassing commando team. This didn’t sit well with the team’s commander, who freed the criminals who then…invaded Seoul. I’m leaving out some details, but suffice it to say that this movie is THE DIRTY DOZEN meets THE SUICIDE SQUAD and it is pretty jaw-dropping. (read more about the history behind this film)

 

Chawz – this terribly re-titled movie (originally called CHAW in Korea) is basically JAWS except with a giant killer pig instead of a giant killer shark. One of the funniest stoner horror movies ever made, you really need to read my long write-up of it to get its true flavor. But if you like the idea of dogs with ESP (who only speak Russian), kill teams getting distracted by psychedelic mushrooms and giant pigs attacking a karaoke party, then this flick’s for you. (read my long write-up)

 

Welcome to Dongmakol – it’s like Hayao Miyazaki does the Korean War as a live action film in this movie that was the biggest Korean hit of 2006. Dongmakol is a village in the mountains so remote that its inhabitants don’t even know Korea is being torn apart by civil war. But when a band of North Korean ambush survivors, lost South Korean soldiers and a crashed American pilot all converge on the village, the war finally comes home. Funny, poignant, full of magical realist touches, this is one of the most popular Korean movies of all time, (and you can read my write-up here) but not nearly as popular as…

 

King & Clown – the biggest Korean box office hit ever, this movie is not an action flick, it’s not a romantic comedy, and it’s not a star-packed historical epic. Instead it’s a really funny, low budget, gay romance set in the Chosun Dynasty about two itinerant actors whose satirical routine sending up the King lands them in hot water with the King himself, who is slowly going insane. Things take a turn when the King becomes romantically obsessed with the member of the performing pair whose specialty is impersonating women. It’s hard to believe that a movie this small, sharply-observed and anti-epic still holds the title, six years later, as Korea’s all-time box office champ, but it’s definitely worth watching. (read a review)

 

Marathon – not a movie you’d expect to find on this list full of action flicks and big comedies, but this film is a real surprise and I’m always amazed no American distributor picked it up. It sounds lethally formulaic: a young autistic kid is obsessed with running and he winds up participating in a marathon. But there’s something about the way this movie is handled that elevates it far beyond its Hallmark-Movie-ready tagline. The first 2/3′s of the film is a gentle character drama that sets up the pieces: controlling mother, washed-up running coach, autistic kid who loves zebras and running. Then, in the last 1/3 of the movie it all comes together in a long final sequence (the titular marathon) that underplays, rather than overplays, its drama and pays off beautifully. It’s like the first 2/3′s of the movie is running to the edge of a cliff, and the last 1/3 is when it leaps off and soars. The biggest Korean hit of 2005, this gentle, human movie became a huge hit (beating the Harry Potter movie at the box office) and won six of Korea’s biggest film awards. (read the write-up I did)

The Best of the Rest
There are still a lot of great movies in the CJ library that are available on Netflix, and while not all of them are CJ movies (some of these were previously available) this is a round-up of the best Korean movies on Netflix Instant Watch.

 

Too Young to Die – this documentary-drama is a tough watch for some folks, but it’s also a joyous celebration of life, so phooey on them. It’s a documentary-drama that re-enacts the relationship between two people in their mid-70′s, with the real life couple in question playing themselves re-enacting the stages of their romance. And having sex. A lot of sex. A WHOLE lot of sex. If you want to pretend that 76-year-old couples don’t do it, then avoid this film, but if you want some reassurance that sex doesn’t stop at 60, give it a watch. Rough, artsy, homemade and genuinely touching, TOO YOUNG TO DIE is a real discovery. (read my write-up)

 

Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance – Park Chan-Wook is Korea’s most famous director overseas, and you can get a real kick out of his films like LADY VENGEANCE and his vampire flick, THIRST. But his greatest movie is this austere, stark, brutalist masterpiece about money, poverty, revenge and the horrible things that people do to each other in the name of love. A deaf factory worker is desperate to fund a transplant operation for his sister. After things go really wrong he winds up abducting the daughter of the rich guy who fired him. What happens next will make you decide it’s time humanity just packed it in. Like a hammer to the face, 24 times per second. (read my write-up)

 

I’m a Cyborg, but That’s Ok – Park Chan-Wook doesn’t just make cruel, painful, dark movies. He also makes romantic comedies about people in mental institutions. Never getting the attention it deserved, I’M A CYBORG, BUT THAT’S OKAY is a visually inventive, unexpected turn for director Park. Starring Rain, Korean popstar mega-sensation, it does traffic in some squicky “Being crazy is really just another way to see the world” sentimentality at times, but overall it’s a visually inventive, deeply original, fun love story between a girl who believes she’s a weapons-packed cyborg and a kleptomaniac who got booted out of his mandatory military service. (read my write-up)

 

Going By the Book – not a perfect movie by any measure, but GOING BY THE BOOK is really funny and ripe for a Hollywood remake. If you like bank heist films, this is going to be like a brand new drug for your brain. Stuck in a rural police station, Jeong Do-Man is the kind of cop so stiff and rulebound that he even drops a traffic ticket on the new police commissioner on his first day of work. Widely hated, it’s decided he’ll be “it” when the cops stage a PR exercise to reassure the small town residents after a string of bank robberies throws a blanket of fear over the farming region. The cops get Jeong to pretend to be a bank robber and then, supposedly, they’ll show how they can respond effectively to any emergency. The only problem? Jeong can’t do anything by halves, and he won’t play along: he’s actually going to do his best to rob the bank. Too long by a good 30 minutes (a typical problem with Korean movies in the late 2000′s) this is still a well-acted, surprising movie with great comic performances. (read a review)

 

April Snow – Yonsama! Yonsama! Yonsama! That’s the Japanese nickname for actor Bae Yong-Joon who is popular in Korea but a massive celebrity in Japan. He’s considered the ultimate male romantic lead and here, in the hands of Korea’s great director of romances, Hur Jin-Ho (CHRISTMAS IN AUGUST), he’s at his best. When their cheating spouses wind up in a car wreck, the spurned wife and spurned husband (played by Bae) find themselves falling in love. Gentle, as delicate as a yuppie picking out bathroom tile, full of falling snow and charged silences, this is one of the most tasteful and soft-spoken romantic melodramas ever made which has been compared to Wong Kar-wai’s IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE. (read a review)

 

Memento Mori – everyone in the world is sick of Asian horror movies with their schoolgirl ghosts and their phantoms sporting long black hair, but this movie is one of the most experimental, swooningly romantic teen films ever made, disguised as a ghost story. The second in Korea’s very successful “haunted schoolgirl” movies (that started with WHISPERING CORRIDORS, which is pretty good, and continued with WISHING STAIRS), the director instead delivers a movie that defies conventions and becomes a dose of teen angst delivered straight, no chaser. Full of striking imagery, a mangled timeline and two girls who are so in love they don’t consider who they’re hurting, it’s a really amazing movie. I don’t want to say much more about it, but please read this longer essay I wrote about it.

 

The Housemaid – Im Sang-Soo’s remake of the landmark 1960 Korean film, THE HOUSEMAID is a creature unto itself. Unfairly dismissed when it was released last year, it deserves a watch because it’s so totally and completely over the top. Slick and stylish and super-sexy, it’s about a young housekeeper who gets hired by a super rich family and quickly becomes the kept woman of the man of the house. Before long, violence is being done and bodies are being lit on fire as total class warfare breaks out. It also features a bizarro endings that’ll explode your head like a watermelon at a Gallagher show. Think of it as a Jackie Collins novel with arthouse pretentions. (watch the trailer)