North Korea: Witness to Transformation

The Busan Film Festival's Top 100 Asian Films

Stephan Haggard (PIIE)

I am a firm believer that art can say as much or more about the human condition than the frozen tundra of the social sciences, where Marc Noland and I generally labor away. In connection with the 20th Busan International Film Festival, an event which has continued to grow in stature, the organization released a a top-100 list of Asian films. The project involved polling 73 prominent film professionals, festival executives, programmers, and directors. Each recommended their top 10 films, generating 113 selections from 106 directors. (The consensus is interesting and the list reflects a lot of ties as a result).

We will not give away the top of the list, but note here the Korean entries, which range from the extraordinary films of the 1950s (a brief introduction here thanks to Christina Klein) to more contemporary fare (in this case, a Wikipedia link is just as much information as you need to get going). From a quick look at the many films I did not know, none appear to deal centrally with North-South issues even when the division of the peninsula looms in the background. Rather, those dealing with political and social themes focus on the travails of South Korea’s remarkable—but often bumpy—transformation.

  1. Kim Ki-young, The Housemaid (1960).
  2. Kim Ki-duk, Spring, Summer. Fall, Winter...and Spring (2003)
  3. Park Chan-wook, Oldboy (2003)
  4. Im Kwon-taek, Seopyeonje (1993)
  5. Bong Joon-ho, Mother (2009)
  6. Lee Chang-dong, Poetry (2010)
  7. Im Kwon-taek, Mandala (1981)
  8. Lee Chang-dong, Peppermint Candy (1999); one of my personal favorites, a tour-de-force introduction to the history of South Korea from the Seoul Spring in 1980 through the financial crisis of 1997-98.
  9. Lee Chang-dong, Secret Sunshine (2007)
  10. Lee Man-hee, Holiday (1968)
  11. Hong Sang-soo, The Day a Pig Fell Into the Well (1996)
  12. Im Kwon-taek, Chunhyang (2000)
  13. Park Chan-wook, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002)
  14. Bong Joon-ho, Memories of Murder (2003)
  15. Bong Joon-ho, The Host (2006)

In a future post we will look at some of the films that do focus on the division of the peninsula.

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