CrimeReads' Korean Noir: A Guide to the Classics

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"South Korean cinema is a wild, confounding hydra. There is the art house fare winning accolades at international festivals; the steady flow of mainstream, industry-approved movies filling theaters; and the boundless riches of a genre cinema that never ceases to astound. Of course, these types of movies most assuredly overlap as well. South Korean crime films, in particular, are an arsenic-laced delight. Expect investigations proceeding on rainslick streets at night; elaborately choreographed gun duels and all-out brawls with everyday items; and entangled relationships among friends, lovers, and enemies. That’s not all; these tales of crime and woe frequently mutate, becoming something else, mixing their DNA with strands of action, thrillers, police procedurals, comedy, and that staple of Korean cinema: melodrama. By the new millenium, Korean crime films became stranger, bloodier, and more uncontainable, rivaling Hong Kong and Japan for singular genre output. This survey is simply a guide, a sample platter of the delectable works in Korean film history. It shines a spotlight on both landmark films and deepcuts from the 1950s to the ‘00s."