1. South Korea: Focused on Excellence
A documentary about the some athletes of South Korea and how can they inspire a new generation.
2. North Korea: The Great Illusion
This is a journey like no other, after several months of wrangling with North Korean authorities in Paris reporters Michaël Sztanke and Julien Alri obtained a visa for Pyongyang but as soon as they arrived the scene was set by a compulsory photo shoot. Journalists are kept under close surveillance and to go to North Korea is to accept the presence of guides who provide supervision 24 hours a day, their primary role is to protect the countries image. In North Korea’s eyes every foreigner is a potential enemy who must be closely watched, this being said Sztanke and Alri attempt to delve deeper into the inner workings of the hermit kingdom, discovering the real nature of this political regime and how life is for your everyday North Korean.
It has an average vote of 8 on TMDB.
3. I Wish I Could Be Japanese (日本人になりたかった…)
The film deals with the rights of Japanese-Koreans -born in Japan but without Japanese passport or nationality- and the social rejection that they face if they don’t integrate completely, abandoning their Korean identity. The film’s main thread is the story of a Korean man, who in the times of the Japanese occupation of the Korean peninsula, is sent to Japan to fight along with the Japanese in the Philippines, but after the war and fearing discrimination, creates a Japanese identity for himself and manages to get married and have children without his family ever knowing about his origins for 50 years until he is arrested in 1985 for forging official documents and in suspicion of being a spy from North Korea. © timegoesbyin.wordpress.com/tag/i-wanted-to-be-japanese
It has an average vote of 4.5 on TMDB.
4. Mrs. B., a North Korean Woman (마담 B)
Portrait of Mrs. B., a tough charismatic North Korean woman who smuggles between North Korea, China and South Korea. With the money she gets, she plans to reunite with her two North Korean sons after years of separation.
It has an average vote of 6.1 on TMDB.
5. A Long Farewell (집의 시간들)
Dunchon Jugong Apts. at the edge of the metropolis, Seoul. It has been over 10 years since discussions of rebuilding these old apartment complexes began. The inhabitants tell us about their soon-to-be-demolished houses and apartments. Some of them have spent long spans of time here and some of them short. Some people are now raising daughters in the house they lived in since their childhood, some families came from other places and struggled to adjust. Each add their different forms of love to this space in their own way. As the long-postponed reconstruction nears reality, the day-to-day scenery of the apartment complexes and households is quietly coming to a close.
6. Army (군대)
"You belong to the country for the next two years." The film describes Woo-cheol's struggles with becoming part of a group while trying to maintain his individuality throughout his military service period. A humorous yet cynical portrait of military groupism.
7. North Korean Labor Camps
Founder of VICE Shane Smith spends an eternity on a train and hops out at the end of the line in Siberia to investigate logging camps that use North Korean slave labor.
It has an average vote of 9 on TMDB.
8. North Korea: All the Dictator's Men (Corée du Nord : les hommes du dictateur)
North Korea has nuclear weapons. How did it manage to get them quietly? Donald Trump is under the impression that as US president he could convince Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, to disarm his nuclear weapons and make peace with South Korea. But how was it possible that one of the poorest countries in the world could acquire the knowledge to produce nuclear-tipped rockets?
It has an average vote of 6.9 on TMDB.
9. Full Metal Village (Full Metal Village)
The film describes the microcosmos of the small village Wacken and shows the clash of the cultures, before and during the biggest heavy metal festival in Europe.
It has an average vote of 6.632 on TMDB.
10. Things That Do Us Part (우리를 갈라놓는 것들)
Things That Do Us Part is a documentary that reframes the stories of three women fighters who dove into a tragic war in modern Korean history, using witness statements and reenactments.
11. Nora Noh (노라노)
Nora Noh, the best fashion designer, who dominated the scene of Korean women’s fashion and culture of the time. She was the first person ever to hold a fashion show in Korea and to make designer readymade clothes. She boldly dressed the Korean singer Yoon Bok-hee in a miniskirt and styled the duo vocal group Pearl Sisters in pantallong . One day, when Noh was preparing for her show, a young stylist named Suh Eun-young comes to see her out of the blue. What kind of show will the two of them create amidst their differences and conflicts?
12. Children Gone to Poland (폴란드로 간 아이들)
Tracing the footsteps of North Korean orphans who went to Poland during the Korean War, two women, one from the North and the other from the South, bond through the solidarity of wound and forge together a path toward healing.
It has an average vote of 10 on TMDB.
13. A Dream of Iron (철의 꿈)
Korea's past was whale worship; its present is industry. Is the future whales AND industry?
It has an average vote of 6 on TMDB.
14. A War of Memories (기억의 전쟁)
Recording Nguyen Thi Thanh, the only survivor of Phong Nhi Phong Nhat massacre, where civilians were killed during the Vietnam War. Having lost all of her family at the age of eight and survived by herself, she is an open witness to the massacre of Vietnamese civilians and demands an official apology from the Korean government.
It has an average vote of 10 on TMDB.
15. The Women Outside
They're called bar women, hostesses, or sex workers and "western princesses." They come from poor families, struggling to earn a decent wage, only to be forced into the world's oldest profession. They're the women who work in the camptowns that surround U.S. military bases in South Korea. In 40 years, over a million women have worked in Korea's military sex industry, but their existence has never been officially acknowledged by either government. In The Women Outside, a film by J.T. Orinne Takagi and Hye Jung Park, some of these women bravely speak out about their lives for the first time. The film raises provocative questions about military policy, economic survival, and the role of women in global geopolitics
It has an average vote of 1 on TMDB.
16. The Lark Ascending (종달새의 비상 김연아)
The Lark Ascending
17. Bitter, Sweet, Seoul (고진감래)
Over 98 days from August 20th to November 25th 2013, 2821 people from around the world sent 11,852 video featuring many different faces of Seoul. 154 were selected, edited, and made into a movie.
18. The Empire of Shame (탐욕의 제국)
A documentary about the continuing case of Samsung semiconductor plant. The film is a story about nameless people wearing white coat, hat and mask worked in a clean room exposing eyes only.
It has an average vote of 8 on TMDB.
19. Kim Jong-un: The Unauthorized Biography (Le Dernier Prince rouge)
A journey through several countries to find those who really know Kim Jong-un, North Korea's leader, in an attempt to profile a contradictory dictator who seems to rule his nation with both disturbing benevolence and cold cruelty while being worshipped as a living god by his subjects in exalted displays of ridiculous fanaticism.
It has an average vote of 7.5 on TMDB.
20. Liberation Day
Under the loving but firm guidance of an old fan turned director and cultural diplomat, and to the surprise of a whole world, the ex-Yugoslavian cult band Laibach becomes the first rock group ever to perform in the fortress state of North Korea.
It has an average vote of 7.806 on TMDB.