Top 10 Best Films of Song Kang Ho You Must See

Parasite (2019) is a South Korean black comedy film, released in 2019 and directed by Bong Joon-ho. The film tells the story of two families with very different financial incomes or what is considered to be the social distance between the rich and the poor. Although it has a length of 2 hours and 11 minutes, director Bong Joon-ho has embedded about a billion metaphors related to Korean society, including all layers from the super-rich to the common people.

The film features an ensemble cast: Song Kang-ho, Lee Sun-kyun, Cho Yeo-jeong, Choi Woo-sik, and Park So-dam. And has excellently won the Palme d'Or award at the Cannes Film Festival 2019 in France, officially becoming the first Korean film in history to receive this award.

In February 2020, the film continued to make history by winning the Oscar for Best Picture and 3 other awards at the 92nd Academy Awards ceremony held in the United States. Winning 4 out of 6 Oscar nominations including the prestigious Best Picture award, Parasite became a foreign-language work and the first Asian film to win this title.

IMDb Rating: 8.6
Tomatometer: 98%

Audience Rating: 90%

A Taxi Driver (2017) is a film based on a real historical event in the 1980s, when the democracy movement flourished in South Korea. The May 1980 events in Gwangju, where a series of students and ordinary people rose up against the authoritarian regime. The story of a taxi driver who drove a German journalist to the center of Gwangju to report on what was happening there and spread the news to the world has been recorded in this film.

The film was released on August 2, 2017, in South Korea. It has been received very positively by critics and was selected as the 'South Korean entry' for Best Foreign Language Film at the 90th Academy Awards. Taxi Driver is not only famous for reaching over 10 million tickets in record time, defeating the blockbuster film also released at the same time, but it is also currently the 12th highest-grossing Korean film in history.

IMDb Rating: 7.9

Tomatometer: 96%
Audience Rating: 91%

The Drug King (2018) is a South Korean crime drama film from 2018 written and directed by Woo Min-ho. The film stars Song Kang-ho as Lee Doo-sam, a small-time drug dealer who became a notorious drug lord in South Korea in the 1970s. The film was released on December 19, 2018.

The movie is based on the real-life story of Lee Doo-sam (Song Kang-ho), a smuggler who built his empire in the criminal underworld in Busan in the 1970s. Lee initially was a member of the Chilsung faction in Busan from Hwanghae Province. In the early 1970s, he smuggled diamonds and other products, and eventually expanded it to drugs for distribution domestically and export to Japan, thereby accumulating a large amount of wealth in the process.

IMDb Rating: 6.2

Tomatometer: 83%

Audience Rating: 62%

Snowpiercer (2013) is an action-packed, science-fiction film released in 2013, based on the French graphic novel Le Transperceneige by Jacques Lob, Benjamin Legrand, and Jean-Marc Rochette. Directed by Bong Joon-ho, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Kelly Masterson, it is a collaboration between South Korean and Czech cinema and Bong Joon-ho's first English-language film, with nearly 85% of the dialogue in the film being in English.

The movie stars Chris Evans, Song Kang-ho, Tilda Swinton, Jamie Bell, Octavia Spencer, Go Ah-sung, John Hurt, and Ed Harris. Set on the Snowpiercer train running on a globe-spanning track, carrying the last remnants of humanity after a climate change effort accidentally sent Earth into another ice age. Chris Evans plays Curtis Everett, one of the desperate passengers in the rear cars, leading a revolt against the upper-class in the front cars. The film was shot at Barrandov Studios in Prague, using a train set mounted on a gimbal to simulate the train's motion.

Upon its international release, the film received critical acclaim, appearing on many top 10 lists of film critics in 2014. Praise was mainly directed towards the film's vision, direction, and delivery, particularly Evan's and Swinton's performances. With a budget of $40 million, it remains the most expensive South Korean film ever made.

IMDb Rating: 7.1
Tomatometer: 94%
Audience Rating: 72%

The Age of Shadows (2016) is a 2016 project directed by Kim Jee-Woon. The movie is a psychological thriller with a star-studded cast including Han Ji-Min, Song Kang‑Ho, Gong Yoo, Lee Byung Hyun.

The setting is the 1920s, when the Korean Peninsula was under Japanese rule. A group of nationalists is determined to fight for independence through violent means. One of their challenging missions is to clandestinely bring explosives from Shanghai back to their homeland.

The film was Korea's entry for the 89th Academy Awards and won the Best Action Film at the 2016 Fantastic Fest held in Austin, Texas.

IMDb Rating: 7.1
Tomatometer: 100%
Audience Rating: 83%

The Good, the Bad, the Weird (2008) is a film that ranks among the top 10 most popular movies in the history of Korean cinema. The movie portrays Manchuria in the 1930s, a time when the world was in chaos. In Asia, Korea fell into the hands of the Japanese invaders. Many Koreans fled to the wild Manchurian plains, bordering Mongolia and China, to escape. To survive in this harsh and barren environment, some became horseback robbers to eke out a living in this barren wilderness.

The film was screened at the Cannes Film Festival in 2008 and had limited release in the U.S. on April 23, 2010, and was later placed on the list of 100 films that the Republic of Korea government must preserve for its cultural-political significance.

IMDb Rating: 7.3
Tomatometer: 82%
Audience Rating: 83%

The Attorney (2013) is a South Korean legal drama film released in 2013. This is the directorial debut of director and screenwriter Yang Woo-suk, with 'The Attorney' breaking box office records, ranking in the top 10 highest-grossing domestic films in South Korea and the second highest-grossing film of 2013.

The movie is set during the real-life political turmoil in South Korea in the early 1980s, when South Korea was almost torn apart by student protests against the country's lack of democracy under the authoritarian Chun Doo-hwan regime. The film's portrayal of the student's trial is reminiscent of the 'Burim case,' an incident in 1981 when the South Korean Legal Affairs Bureau arrested 22 students, teachers, and office workers of a social science club. They were unlawfully detained and tortured.

Of these, 19 were indicted and sentenced to 1-6 years in prison. However, they were later released, and their actions were recognized as a pro-democracy movement. Therefore, 'The Attorney' (2013) is seen by many South Korean audiences as a thank-you letter from the victims to the late President Roh Moo-hyun, who helped rescue a group of students arrested and tortured in 1981.

IMDb Rating: 7.7
Tomatometer: 75%
Audience Rating: 87%

Memories of Murder (2003) là một bộ phim hình sự, giật gân của điện ảnh Hàn Quốc ra mắt năm 2003, được đạo diễn bởi Bong Joon-ho. Phim có sự tham gia diễn xuất của hai ngôi sao điện ảnh Song Kang-ho và Kim Sang-kyung. Tác phẩm lấy cảm hứng từ câu chuyện có thật về vụ giết người hàng loạt đầu tiên được ghi nhận ở Đại Hàn dân quốc từ năm 1986 đến năm 1991 tại thành phố Hwaseong, tỉnh Gyeonggi.

Khi ra mắt, phim ngay lập tức được đón nhận nồng nhiệt từ khán giả và giới phê bình. Memories of Murder mang về nhiều giải thưởng lớn cho đạo diễn Bong Joon-ho và nam diễn viên Song Kang-ho. Bộ phim được đem đi trình chiếu tại nhiều liên hoan phim quốc tế danh giá và được các nhà làm phim, phê bình điện ảnh thế giới đánh giá cao. Đạo diễn Quentin Tarantino chọn Hồi ức kẻ sát nhân là một trong 20 bộ phim yêu thích của ông.

Điểm IMDb: 8.1

Đểm Tomatometer: 95%

Điểm đánh giá từ khán giả: 94%