The 16 best Korean movies on Netflix

20th Century Girl (2022)

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. —Megan Vick

Where to watch 20th Century Girl: Netflix

Director: Bang Woo-ri

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

Ballerina (2023)

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. —M.V.

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)

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. —M.V.

Where to watch The Call: Netflix

Director: Lee Chung-hyun

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

Dream (2023)

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-joon) 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. —M.V.

Where to watch Dream: Netflix

Director: Lee Byeong-heon

Cast: Park Seo-joon, IU, Kim Jong-su, Ko Chang-seok, Jung Seung-kil

Forgotten (2017)

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. —M.V.

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

Good News (2025)

Director Byun Sung-hyun uses the real-life hijacking of a Japanese plane in 1970 as a springboard for this cleverly devised comedic thriller. The film begins with the Japanese communist organization Red Army Faction holding members of a passenger plane hostage, leading to a mad scramble by authorities to diffuse the situation. The Korean CIA sends in a fixer nicknamed „Nobody“ (Sul Kyung-gu), who comes up with a plan to trick the hijackers into thinking they’re landing in North Korea. The result is an exceedingly entertaining send-up of how governments and organizations respond to crises with high political implications. —Kevin Jacobsen

Where to watch Good News: Netflix

Director: Byun Sung-hyun

Cast: Sul Kyung-gu, Hong Kyung, Ryoo Seung-bum

Lost in Starlight (2025)

This visually arresting film, the first South Korean animated film produced by Netflix, tells a poignant tale of star-crossed lovers — so to speak. Nan-young (Kim Tae-ri) is a NASA scientist who still carries the trauma of losing her mother in space decades earlier. Her life becomes further complicated upon meeting Jay (Hong Kyung), a musician with whom she enters a relationship, though their future together hangs in the balance as Nan-young prepares for a dangerous mission to Mars. Gorgeously animated and emotionally rich, Lost in Starlight is sci-fi romance done right. —K.J.

Where to watch Lost in Starlight: Netflix

Director: Han Ji-won

Cast: Kim Tae-ri, Hong Kyung, Kang Koo-han, Ahn Young-mi, Sharon Kwon

Love and Leashes (2022)

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. —M.V.

Where to watch Love and Leashes: Netflix

Director: Park Hyun-jin

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

Night in Paradise (2020)

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. —M.V.

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

Pandora (2016)

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. —M.V.

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

Psychokinesis (2018)

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. —M.V.

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

Silenced (2011)

This hard-hitting crime drama doesn’t just stand on its own as a sobering look at abuse in Korean schools — it also brought about real, positive change in the country. Gong Yoo stars as Kang In-ho, an art teacher hired at a school for the Deaf, who quickly learns that the students have been subjected to physical and sexual abuse perpetuated by teachers and staff. As In-ho investigates, he discovers the extent of the cover-up and resolves to seek justice for the victims. With powerful performances and sensitive treatment of its subject matter, the public reaction to Silenced led to the passing of a bill in South Korea, removing the statute of limitations for people with disabilities who are affected by sexual abuse. —K.J.

Where to watch Silenced: Netflix

Director: Hwang Dong-hyuk

Cast: Gong Yoo, Jung Yu-mi

Sweet & Sour (2021)

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. —M.V.

Where to watch Sweet & Sour: Netflix

Director: Lee Kae-byeok

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

Train to Busan (2016)

A country-wide zombie outbreak is already high stakes. Now, combine that with a bullet train in which the infected are on board. This propulsive dystopian thriller primarily focuses on a workaholic father (Gong Yoo) and his estranged daughter (Kim Su-an), who try to survive amid the chaos while traveling via high-speed rail from Seoul to Busan. Fast-paced and cleverly designed, the film also makes room for cogent social commentary, exploring the Korean class system and humanity’s capacity for selfishness — and selflessness — in extreme circumstances. —K.J.

Where to watch Train to Busan: Netflix

Director: Yeon Sang-ho

Cast: Gong Yoo, Jung Yu-mi, Ma Dong-seok, Kim Su-an, Choi Woo-shik

Tune in for Love (2019)

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. —M.V.

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

Wonderland (2024)

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. —M.V.

Where to watch Wonderland: Netflix

Director: Kim Tae-yong

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