If you liked the American movie Wall Street, 2019 Korean film Money might be up your alley. Based on a Japanese manga series, Alita: Battle Angel looks like what would happen if you could fed a manga into a machine and have it come out at a movie on the other end. Determined to punish those responsible, he takes the fight to them himself. At some point, the John Wick series might start to falter, but if it keeps finding new ways to expand the universe and make action sequences feel fresh, like the addition of Halle Berry and her trained attack dogs, then this franchise will continue to be the top of the action genre for a long time to come. It’s rare you have people from West Virginia to Saudi Arabia united in praise about a Korean movie. Was it one of these, or something else we didn't cover? A rare gem that manages to achieve the holy trinity of box office, awards, and critical success, Parasite might be the most internationally renowned Korean movie thus far. On the action front, it's a great example for how directors can experiment in the genre as well. You can also find our lists for the best Korean films from 2017 and 2018. Lots of movies have action sequences in them, but not every movie with action is an action movie. As Seoul industrializes around her, Eun-hee comes of age. It's too bad the chances of an Alita sequel being made seem slim, for now. The tragedy plunged South Korea into a state of intense national soul-searching, as it surfaced issues of cronyism and government incompetence. Keanu Reeves returned for a third installment of the killer franchise with John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum, and he hasn't lost a step yet. We all do, right? Learn more in our complete review of House of Hummingbird. In this tale of high Korean finance, a young stockbroker named Jo Il-hyun (Ryu Jun-yeol) gets involved with a mysterious insider trading scheme. To maintain cover during a stakeout, they end up buying and operating a fried chicken restaurant. Korean Title: 돈 (Don) | Director: Park Noo-ri | Starring: Ryu Jun-yeol, Yoo Ji-tae, Jo Woo-jin | Genre: Drama, Crime, Thriller. Though House of Hummingbird premiered in October 2018 at the Busan International Film Festival, we’re including it in this list of 2019’s best Korean movies, as its main theatrical release came in 2019. IndieWire published the full critics poll earlier this week, but now we’re giving readers a bigger look at the Best Film category. The actresses who play our teenage protagonists especially stand out; Joo-ri’s actress Kim Hye-jun even won the 2019 Blue Dragon Award (Korea’s equivalent of the Oscars) for Best New Actress. Not all of Hobbs and Shaw's action is automotively based as it is in the main series, but there are plenty of cool car chases. Well, it achieves another rare holy trinity: it’s entertaining, artistic, and socially relevant. Exit became 2019’s third highest grossing Korean movie, and this degree of societal relevance likely helped. Fans of K-pop supergroup Girls Generation ought to see Exit, which stars member Im Yoon-ah (popularly known as Yoona). Updated on 4/24/2019 at 6:15 PM ... That simple fact alone should convince you to watch this scrappy, low-budget action movie about a logger tasked with … Based off an eponymous TV show, The Bad Guys stars A-listers including Ma Dong-seok and Kim Ah-joong as a group of criminals recruited to help bring a yakuza kingpin to justice. Check out our lists of the best romance, action, comedy, and war movies from Korea! Though House of Hummingbird premiered in October 2018 at the Busan International Film Festival, we’re including it in this list of 2019’s best Korean movies, as its main theatrical release came in 2019. Korean Title: 기생충 (Gisaengchung) | Director: Bong Joon-ho | Starring: Song Kang-ho, Lee Sun-kyun, Cho Yeo-jeong, Choi Woo-shik, Park So-dam | Genre: Thriller, Black Comedy. A well-done action sequence can make a good movie great, and a mediocre movie at least worth watching. Lists of recent good movies and award winners. Learn more in our full-length review of Kim Ji-young, Born 1982. It’s impressive how far Extreme Job runs with this unique premise. 2019 closes out an uncommonly strong decade for horror movies with some potential future classics of its own, and we took all of the Fresh and Certified Fresh hits with critics to give you the full list of the 32 Best Horror Movies of 2019. In 2019, South Korea maintained its status as East Asia’s cinematic powerhouse. Korean Title: 벌새 (Beol-sae) | Director: Kim Bora | Starring: Park Ji-hoo, Kim Sae-byuk | Genre: Drama, Coming-of-Age, Romance. Although, to be fair, it's not like the Terminator franchise didn't have several bites at that apple in the past and basically failed every single time. While Korean filmmakers have made multiple documentaries about the Sewol disaster, 2019’s Birthday is the first dramatic feature that explores the incident. One of Korea’s best comedies, Extreme Job dominated 2019’s box office and became the second most watched Korean movie of all time. Future Club 33 Member. Millions of Korean women found Kim Ji-young‘s portrayal of patriarchy highly relatable. 20 minutes. Action movies are one of the major reasons that we like to go to the theater in the first place. The Fast & Furious franchise as a whole has been reaching cartoonish levels of action in recent years, and this movie is no different. Along with last year’s Default, Money shows Korea can make finance-driven flicks that rival Hollywood peers. While this premise sounds simple, it has superb execution. How in the hell did 2019 become the year we got a good Godzilla movie and a good Terminator movie, and nobody cared about either one? Ryu Jun-yeol’s convincing performance as a countryside youngster with something to prove also drives Money forward. Is it over the top and a bit ridiculous at times? Triple Frontier is one of the better action movies we saw in 2019 that nobody ever had the chance to enjoy on the big screen outside of limited engagements. Korean Title: 증인 (Jeungin) | Director: Lee Han | Starring: Jung Woo-sung, Kim Hyang-gi | Genre: Drama, Crime. Based off an eponymous bestselling novel, Kim Ji-young, Born 1982 centers on a woman named Kim Ji-young (Jung Yu-mi). The futuristic and fantastical world is realized perfectly. To no cinephile’s surprise, Parasite tops our list of 2019’s best Korean films. The year 2019 was a pretty good one for action movies, although not all the best examples came from the big screen. We here at Cinema Escapist have compiled this list of the top 11 Korean films from 2019 to help you answer that question. The scene lasts so long it needs like four separate needle drops in the soundtrack just to get through. Starring: Andrew Garfield, Riley Keough, Topher Grace If you enjoy fictional characters that spend the bulk of the film cracking the code to a mystery, this one's for you. In Exit, Yoona and Jo Jung-suk star as two downtrodden Korean millennials named Yong-nam and Eui-ju. Let’s take a look! These 11 Korean movies include both blockbusters and indie gems; they also represent a variety of genres including drama, comedy, thriller, romance, and action. Almost a third of South Korea’s population saw it in theaters, and Hollywood plans an American remake. While some of them have great action, they're not quite the same thing as "action movies." Sign up for our Email Newsletters here. Suspense pervades The Gangster, The Cop, The Devil. Every major character gets fleshed out properly, and excellent acting helps audiences empathize with each of them, regardless of their flaws. She hails from a dysfunctional working-class family on the margins of society, and lives a lonely, muted existence. This was the first Terminator movie in a long time to feel like a worthy part of the franchise. At Cinema Escapist, we value films that have societal significance. Broken families take center stage with Another Child. Sign up for our Email Newsletters here. It's also been shot in one long take, which makes the grueling action sequences even more astounding. As Su-ho’s birthday approaches, father Jung-il and mother Soon-nam struggle to raise their surviving daughter Ye-sol in the shadow of their son’s memory. published the full critics poll earlier this week. The film centers on a squad of five bumbling anti-narcotics detectives. It screened at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, and Sylvester Stallone wants to do a Hollywood remake. Cold Pursuit sees Neeson as a mild mannered man who gets pushed over the edge when his son dies under mysterious circumstances. Those looking for a slower-paced, poignant exploration of loss will find meaning in Birthday. They both got to kick ass. Sometimes, to fully appreciate great action, it need to be experienced on the big screen. As fried chicken orders pile on and social media influencers stream in, the squad must balance culinary success with their ultimate goal to bust a major drug trafficking ring. Nonetheless, Hollywood brought us some fantastic action movies this year, and here are the favorites. One important note on this list, the definition of "action movie" is far from settled. What was your favorite action movie of the year? At the end of every year, IndieWire gathers together film critics from around the world and invites them to pick the best movies and performances of the last 12 months. This time, he's suspected of attempting to kill the President of the Unites Stares, so instead of going after the bad guy, he's on the run himself. Alita: Battle Angel wasn't a sequel nobody cared about, but it was a long gestating dream project for James Cameron that finally became a real thing thanks to Robert Rodriguez... that also not enough people saw. The film taps perfectly into South Korean anxieties around income inequality, and makes them globally relatable. Cold Pursuit isn't Taken, to be sure. To learn more about The Bad Guys: Reign of Chaos, read our full-length review. Angel Has Fallen is clearly the third go-round here, and so while we've seen a lot of this before, it doesn't mean that the action we get here isn't worthy of note. Was... was there really any chance in hell it was anything else? Neeson is clearly enjoying making these movies and that goes a long way to letting the audience go along for the ride. And then, sometimes, you want your action in the form of giant monsters beating the crap out of each other. Enter heartthrob actor Jung Woo-sung as Mi-ran’s defense attorney Sun-ho. Interviews with leading film and TV creators about their process and craft. The film’s feminist message comes at a time where the #MeToo movement has not only inspired many South Korean women to speak out about misogyny, but also sparked virulent backlash from Korean men. Yet, Parasite has made that happen. Want more Korean movies? Despite their expertise in a quintessentially millennial sport, Yong-nam and Eui-ju constantly lose out to privileged brats and baby boomers when rescue helicopters come along. The 50 Best Movies of 2019, Ranked The best of the best. Korean Title: 나쁜 녀석들-더 무비  (Nappeun Nyeoseok-deul: Deo Mubi) | Director: Son Young-ho  | Starring: Kim Sang-joong, Ma Dong-seok, Kim Ah-joong, Jang Ki-yong | Genre: Action, Comedy, Crime. The film topped Korean box offices upon its release thanks predominantly to female viewers. Best Films of 2019, According to IW Critics Poll. The Gangster, The Cop, The Devil also got international attention. Catch it in theaters starting on Christmas Day. Men, however, did not find it so fantastic. It's unlikely that anybody who queued up Triple Frontier on Netflix was looking for solid action sequences. Together, they face the mess their family lives have become. Release date: April 19, 2019. Let us know in the poll and comments below. That’s why Kim Ji-young, Born 1982 made it onto our list of 2019’s top Korean movies. If a John Wick movie ever comes out and it's not at the top of a list like this, it's either a really good sign for action cinema, or a really bad sign for John Wick. Also, somebody needs to give Vanessa Kirby her own action franchise like now. However, Terminator: Dark Fate was the Terminator movie everybody had been waiting for. Those who enjoy Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda‘s movies like Shoplifters and Nobody Knows will find resonance in House of Hummingbird ‘s tender ruminations on family, independence, and the nostalgic travails of adolescence. Korean Title: 미성년 (Mi-seong-nyeon) | Director: Kim Yoon-seok | Starring: Yum Jung-ah, Kim So-jin, Kim Hye-jun, Park Se-jin | Genre: Drama, Family. Her life feels simultaneously bleak yet peppered with flares of human connection. The plot is pretty run of the mill, so the action is basically the only reason to bother if we're being honest. Sure, but what exactly were you expecting? Under the Silver Lake follows Sam (Garfield), a 30-something-year-old man who abruptly meets Sarah (Keough) and ends up uncovering well-hidden secrets of Los Angeles after her disappearance. Hell, none of Liam Neeson's excursions into action have reached that plateau, including the sequels to Taken themselves. Linda Hamilton was back. As our two leads scale Seoul’s labyrinthine urban landscape, Exit also starts feeling like an extended metaphor for millennial Koreans’ existential misery. It has an amazing cast that includes Ben Affleck, Oscar Isaac and Pedro Pascal, and while the film may not break much new ground, it succeeds at everything it tries to do, including putting forth some solid action sequences. Action aficionados may also enjoy The Gangster, The Cop, The Devil. Parasite director Bong Joon-ho imbued the film with a rollicking story about a poor family who scams their way into becoming the household staff of a rich family. Parasite blends meme-able dark humor, memorable acting, and even catchy jingles with top-notch cinematography and intricate set design. 2014's Godzilla was a generally well received movie, but if the film had any faults, it's that the giant monster action was a bit lacking. Sign Up: Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Explore and connect the world through a cinematic lens. Inspired by director Kim Bora’s childhood, the film occurs in the year 1994 and centers on a 14 year-old girl named Eun-hee. In addition to Godzilla we got a bunch of new Titans in the sequel, and they all get to beat the hell out of each other. Like Roland Emmerich, if Michael Bay has a new movie out, then it's something that you need to see, and one should not let the fact that all the action takes place on a small screen detract from that fact. Best Horror Movies of 2019 Ranked by Tomatometer. The movie brings back Gerard Butler as the Secret Service agent who's got John McClane's luck of always being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Arnold was back. Kim Ji-young further intensified this debate around South Korea’s gender expectations—and apparently even caused breakups. The film raises important questions about gender dynamics in Korean society, and has generated more heated opinions and political discourse than any other film in this article. Korean Title: 생일 (Saeng-il) | Director: Lee Jong-un  | Starring: Sol Kyung-gu, Jeon Do-yeon | Genre: Drama, Family, Tragedy. The top 20 movies have already been revealed, but the full list below includes the 50 movies from 2019 that earned the most votes from film critics, ranked from the most voted to least voted. True to his reputation as a muscular action man, Ma Dong-seok throws many mean punches that keep the film’s momentum going. ‘Chicago 7’ Vs. the World: How Aaron Sorkin’s Awards-Friendly Epic Jolted a Strange Awards Season, NYFF Director Eugene Hernandez Explains the Rollercoaster Ride to Programming a Film Festival Without Theaters, How the Academy’s Inclusion Rules Speak to the Challenges Faced by the Film Industry, Introducing ‘Deep Dive’: Damon Lindelof and His Team Go Behind the Scenes of ‘Watchmen’, ‘Succession’: How Editing Helps Every Dinner Scene Come to Life — Deep Dive, Becoming Hooded Justice: The ‘Watchmen’ Craft Team Analyzes the Emotional, Pivotal Scene – Deep Dive, 38 Must-See New Movies to See This Fall Season, The Best Movies Eligible for the 2021 Oscars Right Now, Jessie Buckley Won’t Explain ‘Ending Things,’ but She Will Reveal What Terrified Her Most. The only witness to this supposed act is Ji-woo (Kim Hyang-gi)—a 15 year old girl on the autistic spectrum. Armchair Imagineer. While our titular gangster and cop have the same goal, they employ vastly different methods towards that goal—it’s not clear until the end who might succeed. In a way, she’s like the titular hummingbird—fluttering from flower to flower, searching for the nectars of life. That really should be enough to tell you that, as an action movie, it is worth your time. ... makes Uncut Gems the best movie of the year. And yet, here we are in 2019, with Angel Has Fallen. Perhaps everybody will come around next year when Godzilla Vs. Kong finally arrives. Nonetheless, Hollywood brought us some fantastic action movies … The Has Fallen series feels like it's getting a little long in the tooth. Korean Title: 82년생 김지영 (82nyeonsaeng Kimjiyoung) | Director: Kim Do-Young | Starring: Jung Yu-mi, Gong Yoo | Genre: Drama. Thanks to a young detective’s secret recipe, the restaurant becomes unexpectedly popular. One car chase. War movies are not traditional action movies in the usual sense. We can't wait until John Wick: Chapter 4. Buddy cop jokes and well-crafted fight scenes become complementary ingredients that help the film maintain audiences’ interest. No offense to Roland Emmerich's Midway, but if you are going to see a war movie this year, 1917 is the one you shouldn't miss. When a toxic gas cloud creeps through Seoul, they must use their rock climbing skills to reach safety. I've done my best to stick to films where the action is more than simply there, but where the action sequences themselves are largely meant to be "the point," though, of course, that's a moving target as well. Beyond US$120 million in theatrical takings, Parasite won the Palme d’Or at 2019’s Cannes Film Festival, and has Oscars nominations for Best Director, Screenplay, and International Feature.