Best South Korean war movies

Two North Korean soldiers are killed in the border area between North and South Korea, prompting an investigation by a neutral body. The sergeant is the shooter, but the lead investigator, a Swiss-Korean woman, receives differing accounts from the two sides.

When two brothers are forced to fight in the Korean War, the elder decides to take the riskiest missions if it will help shield the younger from battle.

Admiral Yi Sun-sin faces a tough challenge when he is forced to defend his nation with just 13 battleships against 300 Japanese enemy ships in the Battle of Myeongryang.

A squad of soldiers fight in the Korean War's crucial Battle of Incheon.

During the Japanese colonial era, roughly 400 Korean people, who were forced onto Battleship Island 'Hashima Island' to mine for coal, attempt to escape.

Kingdom of Goguryeo, ancient Korea, 645. The ruthless Emperor Taizong of Tang invades the country and leads his armies towards the capital, achieving one victory after another, but on his way is the stronghold of Ansi, protected by General Yang Man-chu, who will do everything possible to stop the invasion, even if his troops are outnumbered by thousands of enemies.

Diplomats from the North and South Korean embassies in Somalia attempt a daring joint escape from Mogadishu when the outbreak of civil war leaves them stranded.

During the invasion of Normandy the photograph of a slim Korean man in German uniform was found. It transpired that the man had served as a soldier in the Japanese, Russian and German armies. His incredible story inspired director Kang Je-Gyu to create this epic war drama.

After the assassination of President Park, martial law has been declared. A coup d'état bursts out by DefenseSecurity Commander Chun Doo-gwang and a private band of officers following him. Capital Defense Commander Lee Tae-shin, an obstinate soldier who believes the military should not take political actions, fights against Chun Doo-gwang to stop him. The conflict between the two grows while military leaders are holding their decision and Defense Minister is gone. In the midst of chaos, the spring of Seoul that everyone longed for heads to unexpected direction.

Ancient Korea, 17th century. The powerful Khan of the Jurchen tribe of Manchuria, who fights the Ming dinasty to gain China, becomes the first ruler of the Qing dinasty and demands from King In-jo of Joseon to bow before him; but he refuses, being loyal to the Mings. On December 14th, 1636, the Qing horde invades Joseon, so King In-jo and his court shelter in the mountain fortress of Namhan and prepare to defend the kingdom.

In 1592, admiral Yi Sun-sin and his fleet face off against the might of the invading Japanese navy and its formidable warships. As the Korean forces fall into crisis, the admiral resorts to using his secret weapon, the dragon head ships known as geobukseon, in order to change the tide of this epic battle at sea.

In 1951 ceasefire is declared, but two remaining armies fought their final battle on the front line Towards the end of the Korean War, a South Korean battalion is fiercely battling over a hill on the front line border against the North in order to capture a strategic point that would determine the new border between two nations. The ownership of this small patch of land would swap multiple times each day. Kang is dispatched to the front line in order to investigate the tacit case that’s been happening there.

Based on the long running play by Jang Jin, the story is set in Korea during the Korean War in 1950. Soldiers from both the North and South, as well as an American pilot, find themselves in a secluded and naively idealistic village, its residents unaware of the outside world, including the war.

In August 1950, waiting for UN troops to arrive, the South Korean army assembled to protect Nakdong River. Only 71 student-soldiers are left behind to guard the city of Pohang. Now they are on a mission to defend the country from North Korean troops.

The Imjin War reaches its seventh year in December of 1598. Admiral Yi Sun-shin learns that the Wa invaders in Joseon are preparing for a swift withdrawal following the deathbed orders of their leader Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Determined to destroy the enemy once and for all, Admiral Yi leads an allied fleet of Joseon and Ming ships to mount a blockade and annihilate the Wa army. However, once Ming commander Chen Lin is bribed into lifting the blockade, Wa lord Shimazu Yoshihiro and his Satsuma army sail to the Wa army's rescue at Noryang Strait.

Korean War, September 1950. In order to fight the enemy forces based in the South of the peninsula, General MacArthur orders the start of the Incheon Landing Operation, deploying diversionary attacks in other locations. Without real military forces to spare, 772 very young Korean student soldiers, barely trained, are sent to Jangsari Beach, where they will face a heroic fate and discover the value of friendship. (A sequel to Operation Chromite, released in 2016.)

Rebellious Ki-soo from North Korea is mesmerized by tap dance in prison camps. Ki-soo joins as a team member of a dance team named 'Swing Kids'. Yet suddenly, their dreams about dancing in prison camps are put in danger.

In 1375, China was in chaos between Yuan Dynasty and Ming Dynasty. Coryo (an ancient kingdom of Korea then) sent a delegation of many diplomats, soldiers and a silent slave to make peace with the new Chinese government. However, this delegation got charged as spies and sent in exile to a remote desert.

In this true story from 2002, South Korean patrol boats engaged in a deadly battle with North Korean patrol boats who crossed the maritime border known the Northern Limit Line and attacked.

Over a 4 day period, a fierce battle takes place between Korean independence militias and imperialist Japanese forces in Manchuria, China. The militia includes a master swordsman and an expert marksman.

A futuristic film about a crisis near the brink of war after three leaders are kidnapped by a North Korean nuclear submarine in a coup d’état during a summit between the two Koreas and the United States.

A member of Coast Guard Platoon 23, Private Kang monitors a high-infiltration stretch of beach lined with barbed-wire fencing. Driven by the belief that killing a spy is the highest honor, he waits for a chance to prove his worth.

In 1909, several years after Korea is forced into becoming a Japanese colony, freedom fighters plot the daring assassination of Japan's prime minister during their quest for independence.

A crown prince emerges as a leader during the war between Korea and Japan in 1592.

Every Wednesday at noon, women who were kidnapped for sexual purpose by the Japanese army during its imperialism and their supporters demonstrate against Japanese government to request official apology and indemnity for their crimes. This documentary portrays sexually abused old women's suppressed story of overcoming of their shame and forced silence.

Nam-bok, a middle-aged South Korean farmer is conscripted and assigned a mission to deliver a classified military document that may decide the fate of the war. After losing it while under attack from the enemy, he then faces a teenage North Korean soldier named Yeong-gwang who happens to acquire the secret document on his way to the North.

With hopes of reuniting with her husband, who left for the Vietnam War without telling her, a young wife joins a traveling band as the lead singer.

Second Lieutenant Han Sang-yeol leads his platoon during the Korean War in the early 1950s. He carries emotional scars and pain within. So when he meets some children from a choir, who have lost everything in the war, Sang-yeol is deeply moved and tries to protect to them.

This film tells the story of three young women from South Korea, Japan, and China who were ravaged after becoming comfort women in the Japanese army.

How do these people live, how do they endure the confinement and pain of the country's borders ? Under the splendor of the landscapes we can feel the constant threat of a cold war In the heart of Caucasus. The villagers have learned to live with the sound of reports, while knowing that the next bullet may be for them. Scenes from ordinary life, in a country where the threat of war may never be forgotten: yet a feeling of life prevails: resident forever, forever. This film talk about the current state of the world and humanity with respect to imposed violence, in a set of border areas.

This story unfolds 8 years after 'Battle of Hwangsanbeol', which destroyed Baekjae, when Silla-Tang Dynasty union attacks Goguryeo.

I will call you! So you better answer your phone! In the year 2020, a homestay is being conducted for male and female teenagers in preparation for a union between North Korea and South Korea. North Korean girl Ha-jin goes to South Korean boy Woo-yeong's house to homestay. Woo-yeong starts to bully Ha-jin who has taken his room, but alas! First love has found its way to these children. Woo-yeong runs away to Seoul with Ha-jin to help her meet her father.

The populace of a South Korean island rebels against police brutality. The protesters are labeled as communists, and the army is dispatched.

Detective Oh goes searching for the murderer of Yang, a small-time brewer bludgeoned to death by a quiet riverside with no witnesses, no apparent motive. As he wanders about the winter landscape of South Jeolla Province and Seoul, he finds himself caught in a story of treachery, rape and murder.

In June 1950, soon after the start of the Korean War, a troop of North Korean soldiers enter a small South Korean village. Captain Jeong-woong proclaims that they came to liberate the villagers but their true agenda is to ferret out the reactionaries. The villagers and Seol-hee, who is separated from her fiance on her wedding day, offer them heartfelt hospitality and cooperation to avoid falling out of the army's favor. Eventually friendships starts to build up between the soldiers and the villagers.

A Vietnam war veteran writes a series of articles about his war experiences for a local newspaper. As he does so, another veteran, drawn by the articles, begins randomly appearing in his life.

Based on a radio drama, this wartime melodrama revolves around a woman caught between two men: her husband, a South Korean lieutenant, and her former lover, a North Korean officer who defects to come find her. The film portrays not only their tragic love triangle but also the empathetic bond that develops between the two men.

The Korean war does not start well for the US. They are being routed by the North Koreans and In July 1950, the early stage of the Korean War, at the Jugok Village in the middle of the Korean Peninsula, Chang-yee and his friends grow excited over the amateur singing contest knowing nothing about what is going on around them. At the time, the US Army keeps losing and are pushed back to the village, evacuating all villagers to head south. The villagers took refuge like going on a picnic believing that the US Army is protecting them, they just follow their orders moving south bound.

Set in the 7th century AD during the Korean peninsula's division into three perpetually warring kingdoms, Once Upon A Time In A Battlefield focuses on the Shilla's king Kim Choon-chu efforts to conquer his rivals: Koguryo and Baekche. To achieve this goal, he allies with mainland China's Tang empire, the superpower of the era, and together the two polities plan to attack first the weakest Baekche at its main fortress of Hwangsanbul, guarding the only easy access to the mountainous interior. But the fortress commander General Kye Baek (Park Joong-hoon) will be resisting to the end...This comedy relays on clash between ancient time and modern language combined with irony and distance to the war.

A division of marines survive a battle with the Chinese army but find themselves stranded without contact on the wrong side of the front.

Reporter for a North Korean news service joins the partisans when the Americans and UN forces invade South Korea.

During the Japanese occupation, a Korean modern boy, who wants to fit in with the Japanese, falls in love with a Korean freedom fighter.

Two friends in the Korean Navy, Lee and Kim are both part of an elite diving squad, specialising in emergency deep sea salvage dives. Lee is straight-laced and takes his duties seriously, while Kim treats the Navy as a lark. When Kang, a diving instructor and Kim's former girlfriend, is posted to the unit, this creates tension between the friends as they compete for Kang's affections. The tension is heightened when Lee is promoted ahead of Kim, creating a rivalry between the two. Kim's gung-ho approach to diving, and the danger he poses for himself (and his fellow divers), leads to further problems. Matters come to a head when an incident at sea causes the sinking of a submarine, requiring the unit to attempt a dangerous salvage rescue of the sunken submarine.

During the country's occupation Choi was only allowed to make Japan-friendly films, but the plot of Hurrah! For Freedom is distinctly different, telling the story of a Korean resistance fighter in 1945.

A man tries to raise his two sons and two daughters under some of the most adverse conditions known to man. The father operates a horse-drawn cart, but in a city that is modernizing after the destruction of the Korean War, automobiles are making carts obsolete. The children are experiencing difficulties as well. The eldest son has flunked the bar exam twice and is not hopeful of passing it a third time to become a lawyer. The eldest daughter is mute and married to an abusive husband. The younger daughter tries to pose as a rich university student to move up in life. The youngest son has a penchant for petty theft.

A group of communist guerillas encounter jealousy and rivalry among themselves because of the presence of the female compatriot while one of their members plots to desert their band.

The film exposes the atrocities of war through the eyes of two children who are stranded in the DMZ after the end of the Korean War. The DMZ, strewn with abandoned tanks, dead bodies, land mines, and unexploded shells, is an exceedingly dangerous place for children. But what most endangers them in the end are not weapons but people.

Set in 1951 at the height of the Korean War it tells the story of a group of soldiers who are being replaced in the front line after serving their rotation. But on the way home they find enemy troops are about to make a breakthrough and it is up to them to pull together to save the country.

Yu-mi applies to a marine outfit to become their first female member. Finding out about their NO woman-policy, she pushes herself to the extreme and fils a petition. After overcoming many obstacles, she is finally accepted for her outstanding performance. However, conflicts never cease between sergeants and Yu-mi, who’s new to the tradition and culture of the marines. Following the sudden death of a trainee, Sergeant HA, she is appointed to the head of the team. Highly motivated Yu-mi loses her troupe's trust after losing IBS. The team is in danger of dissolution due to the loss of a magazine.

Based on the great river story, The Taebaek Mountains chronicles the lasting generational conflict between proprietors and peasants in South Korea.

Sang-hun, a painter, and Yeong-hun, a doctor, are brothers. Sang-hun's girlfriend left him for another man, and he draws her portrait everyday. Yeong-hun, the older of the two, makes a medical mistake, and his young patient dies. Because of the guilty conscience, he abandons the career as a doctor and devotes himself to writing a novel. However, the brothers have high self-esteem and finally overcome their weaknesses to make a fresh start.

A story about two village boys, Sungmin and Changhee, in the summer of 1952, during the Korean War.

Cheol-Su, an assassin disguised as a patriot, Tae-Ho, a gangster, and Dal-Gun, a spy, are kind of people who can turn their backs from each other for the sake of their own interests. Now they are cooperating to find a golden Buddhist statue. They gets to think about the nation's wellbeing during their search for the statue, and decide to fight for their mother land, returning the statue to Lance.

In this sweeping swordplay saga from Korea, a dedicated band of warriors from the Baekje Dynasty travel to Japan in hopes of mending the broken Heaven's Sword and restoring Baekje to its former glory. 30 years later, the only surviving warrior Woo-do vows to complete the task by seeking out Kanemaru, the master of swords, and bring the Heaven's Sword back to life. SAULABI is a spectacular Samurai epic with action choreographed by longtime Akira Kurosawa collaborator Eizi Takakura (Samurai Fiction).

A group of elite soldiers is sent across the border to South Korea to destroy a military base.

Gen. Douglas MacArthur leads a Korean War campaign, and the war tests a married couple's relationship.

During the Korean War, a widow living in a village in a mountainous region in the South of the Korean Peninsula that has lost most of its men to the war finds a Communist guerilla gone AWOL hiding in a bamboo grove and develops a relationship with him.

Patriotic university student Youngwoo and his friends, led by their teacher Lee Sung, along with a British friend bid farewell to their families and become freedom fighters in Manchuria fighting against the Japanese occupation around the Tumen River.

In 1943, Yang Chunsoo, a descendant of a Koryo celadon maker, lives in a small village in the countryside, His younger son, Jongil, makes pottery without his father's approval in order to marry Poonim. When Chungsoo finds this out, he breaks every ceramic piece that his son has made. Poonim, without the money that was supposed to be given by Jongil leaves the village, angry and frustrated. Seven years later, when the Korean war erupts, Jongil returns to the village as an officer of the triumphant communist army. Later his elder brother, Jongsik, returns to the village as a South Korean army officer, Chunsoo stabs himself in the eye in order to stop the two brothers from fighting. The two brothers are, however, executed as scapegoats of an ideology. Twenty years later, Jinhyung, Chunsoo's grandson, takes over his grandfather's pottery business. He then learns about h is ancestor's mysterious past.

A North Korean soldier is severely wounded. He surrenders and is rescued by the South. The North Korean soldier surrendered to meet his father in the South. The soldier's last name is Han. He is 31 years old. His hometown is Heungnam. With those words, the soldier falls into unconsciousness. Meanwhile, the Heungnam Refugees Association sets out to find the father. They find three possible matches.

Movie despicting the life and accomplishments of Korean Admiral Yi Sun Shin.

A look at the Korean War through the eyes of a mute boy who was kept as a mascot by a regiment of soldiers near the front lines.

Before the Korean War (1950-1953), a daughter of a Russian soldier stationed at Heungnam falls in love with a young Korean anti-Communist. Their love story shows how cruel the Russian soldiers were and how badly many North Koreans craved for freedom.