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The 40 Best South Korean Movies of the 21st Century

While modern auteurs like Lee Chang-dong, Kim Ki-Duk, Hong Sang-soo, and Im Kwon-Taek have garnered praise for their masterful direction in the film festivals, they have carved an inviolable niche. South Korean cinema has found a balance between competitive contemporary mainstream and art films that shape world cinema. Here is the exhaustive list of the best South Korean movies of the 21st century that redefined the medium.

Click here to read the write-ups on these films.

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  • Poetry

    1

  • Memories of Murder

    2

  • Peppermint Candy

    3

  • The Wailing

    4

  • The King and the Clown

    5

  • Secret Sunshine

    6

  • Treeless Mountain

    7

  • Burning

    8

  • Decision to Leave

    9

  • The Handmaiden

    10

  • Moonlit Winter

    11

  • Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring

    12

  • Mother

    13

  • Microhabitat

    14

  • Take Care of My Cat

    15

  • Past Lives

    16

  • Parasite

    17

  • Painted Fire

    18

  • The Day He Arrives

    19

  • The Way Home

    20

  • House of Hummingbird

    21

  • Broker

    22

  • Oldboy

    23

  • Oki's Movie

    24

  • I Saw the Devil

    25

  • Oasis

    26

  • Scattered Night

    27

  • A Bittersweet Life

    28

  • The World of Us

    29

  • A Taxi Driver

    30

  • The Bow

    31

  • Dark Figure of Crime

    32

  • Hill of Freedom

    33

  • New World

    34

  • Il Mare

    35

  • On the Occasion of ing the Turning Gate

    36

  • The Host

    37

  • Thirst

    38

  • Pieta

    39

  • Hope

    40