am i the only person here that really likes korean movies?

[jpmeyer]

Is South Korea still too underground to be cult?  It's by far my favorite national cinema right now.  I try to watch a new South Korean movie every day.

[Dr. Sylvan]

[paraphrase]I try to watch a new South Korean porno every day.[/paraphrase]

My most Asian film experiences are Battle Royale and Shaolin Soccer. I guess I'm stuck in Japan. Though since those are the only two I can remember seeing, it's more like "stuck in america". (Haha, Sugercult pun. I'm here all week, folks.)

[Matt]

It's not too underground, they just suck.

Actually I don't know this for a fact but it stands to reason. It's probably just less popular on the east coast - when I was in Olympia (Washington), every video store had a big section of Asian films from many nations.

[Akki]

You're right - South Korean film is not even "cult".

I see a new one every few months, mostly martial arts stuff. Most of the films I've seen are at least better than what's on TV.

I just saw Volcano High, and that seems like a good one to watch if you've never seen a Korean film before.

[jpmeyer]

Probably the easiest one to find is Shiri (they actually had 3 copies of it at my local Blockbuster) and it's one of the better ones out there for giving a good "feel" to one aspect of South Korean movies.  A real good short list would probably be Shiri, My Sassy Girl, JSA, Failan, and probably Friend.

EDIT: South Korea really is the only East Asian country that really is putting out anything good these days.  Hong Kong's been completely plundered by Hollywood over the last 10 years or so (I mean, you've got the Internal Affairs movies, every 4 years of so when Wong Kar-Wai puts out another movie, and...?)

Japan has been even worse, where for the last like 30 years you pretty much had to settle for something out of a New Wave director once every like 5 years or so and the only decent new stuff any more is from Kitano and Miyazaki.  All it seems to be now are Ringu rip-offs and direct-to-video stuff.  If you look at the Japanese Oscars, like one movie every year takes like almost every award simply because there isn't anything to compete against it.  Shall We Dance anyone?

But South Korea, oh man.  Just about every year they put out a new top grossing movie ever, their ticket sales have doubled in the past 5 years, and they're (AFAIK) the only country in the world where local movies pull in more money than American movies.

[Vegeta2711]

I don't watch many korean movies, but I've seen a few and my friend is going to loan me 'My Sassy Girl' sometime in the near future. They are pretty good for the most part, heh.