10 Must-Watch Korean Psychological Thriller Films

These are twisted tales with fierce underpinnings; they often prioritize art and drama above rationale. The unique aspect of Korean psychological thriller movies, I feel, is how discreetly they grow more ominous step by step, catching you off-guard here and there. Your fear builds in sync as you engage in their racks of awful horror, but you stay tied through to the last. Such is the draw. The 10 very renowned, lauded, and revered examples of this kind are included in the list below.

 Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002) – Park Chan-wook

Despite the contentious consequences that director Park Chan-wook‘s predilection for savagery and dark satire often produces, his approach to matters and distinctive take on them is unequaled, and it is incomprehensible how he weaves together several layers into a cogent story as he does in this movie—his superbly shot depiction of violence and gore. We meet Ryu (Shin Ha-kyun), a deaf-mute factory worker, in a dire bind for cash to cover the costs of his sickly sister’s kidney transplant. In a fit of desperation, he and his love interest seize business tycoon Park Dong-jin’s (Song Kang-ho) daughter, and a subsequent tragedy spurs Dong-jin to wreak havoc in vengeance.

A Tale of Two Sisters (2003) – Kim Jee-woon

Two sisters, Su Mi (Yum Jung-ah) and Su Yeon (Im Soo-jung), are shocked at their widower father’s (Moon Geun-young) remarriage to Eun Joo (Kim Kap-soo) upon their return from a sanitarium. They try to make peace with it and recover equilibrium, only to run into inexplicable, ghastly events plaguing their house. Things get more eerie as they wrestle through the perils of the past and present. The film is an ideal blend of suspense and psychological thrills, convoluted to the core courtesy of various angles interacting through backstories. As expected, it holds your curiosity, undoing the knots in time in a string of unexpected disclosures.

Old Boy (2003) – Park Chan-wook

Old Boy, the tense neo-noir action picture, is an unbelievable thriller that will shock you viscerally, as well as for its peculiar open-ending, bolstering perplexity. Oh Dae-su (Choi Min-sik), its protagonist, is held captive for 15 years in a setting that looks like a hotel room. He is unsure of why or who keeps him incarcerated. After being freed, he sees that he is still enmeshed in an intricate web of violence and deceit. Ironically, his bitterness makes things worse once he starts feeling for the attractive chef Mi Do (Kang Hye-jung).

Memories of Murder (2003) – Bong Joon-ho

A probe into murders is set up in an obscure Korean region where detectives Park Doo-man (Song Kang-ho) and Cho Yong-koo (Kim Roi-ha) are digging into women’s rapes and murders, and the suspected culprit is an elusive serial killer who must be apprehended. The mystery lines and image of social depravity in the movie add to a cult classic of director Bong‘s knack for rendering polarities and a fluid mix of humor, satire, and crime.

The Chaser (2008) – Na Hong-jin

The film races through a massacre while pursuing a disgraced former cop who is now a pimp. After one of his prostitutes mysteriously disappears, he becomes the subject of a heart-pounding chase. It is a dark, gripping serial killer narrative awash in unnerving situations, relentless tension, and explosive action.

Mother (2009) – Bong Joon-ho

Mother is a paradox: stunning yet scary. We witness the upheaval in a widow’s (Kim Hye-ja) tranquil life with her mentally ill son (Won Bin) until the dead body of a murdered young girl turns up. A shoddy police inquiry leads to the plausible belief that the son is to blame. The mother feels duped by this and the legal system and resolves to defend her son herself.

I Saw the Devil (2010) – Kim Jee-woon

A psychotic serial killer (Choi Min-sik) and a National Intelligence Service agent (Lee Byung-hun) play rivals when the killer kills the agent’s fiancée and he sets out on a mission of vengeance. The Korean horror film vividly nails the methodically prepared bloody mayhem and palpitating adrenaline of the genre. It is immersed in chills and dwells on profanity, abuse, slaying, and awful and graphic sexual scenes, but there is also a deeper tone of unremitting misery.

The Wailing (2016) – Na Hong-jin

When an enigmatic man and his dog land in Gokseong, South Korea resulting in an unknown virus spread, The Wailing—often hailed as director Na Hong-jin’s best—kicks off with an upsurge of madness. Police Sergeant Jong Goo (Kwak Do-won) appears on the scene to address the issue and save his daughter. He and the local police are baffled by an ongoing series of brutal, incomprehensible killings by the villagers, who have turned zombie-like and are viciously preying on their families.

The Handmaiden (2016) – Park Chan-wook

Handmaiden is a sensual psychological thriller with a scenario that has been switched from Victorian-era Britain to Korea under Japanese colonial control, based on the novel Fingersmith by Welsh author Sarah Waters. Kim Min-hee plays the role of a Japanese woman who is the target of a con man’s (Ha Jung-woo) scheme and a thief (Kim Tae-ri) to entrap her for her fortune. Handmaiden is also tinged with sapphic sensibilities through director Park’s lens—the two women getting intimate doesn’t look particularly erotic, but rather passionately in love, I’d say.

Parasite (2019) – Bong Joon-ho

The top four Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best International Feature Film went to Parasite at the 92nd Academy Awards, making it the first film in a language other than English to do so. This honor was just one of many that the film received. It examines the interactions between the prosperous Park family and the impoverished Kim family, the latter of whom is disguising their true identity. What comes to light is a sardonic storytelling of class hatred that alludes to the word “parasite,” a creature that coexists with or feeds on the organism of another species (its host) to survive.