Their relationships with their offsprings also couldn’t be further apart. Where one has been surrounded by death most of his life and takes a rather nihilistic approach, the other goes through life enjoying the rain or sunshine, no matter what life may throw at her, with a smile on her face. Sung-gil and Eun-suk could not be any more different from each other with completely different outlooks to life. There is a calm contemplation on mortality and living life the right way until that inevitable happy ending which does not feel preachy in the slightest. Koh Hoon, like his previous films, wrote the script for “ Paper Flower” himself and it is this script that ends up being the film’s real star. *By clicking on the title, you can read the full review of the film

Some films may have premiered in 2019, but since they mostly circulated in 2020, we decided to include them. Without further ado, here are the best Korean films of 2020, in reverse order. This approach also benefitted the country’s indie cinema scene, which took advantage of the lack of tentpole releases in the theatres to promote and release independent films which would otherwise be relegated to small-screen cinemas or within the festival circuit. Where some large productions decided to postpone their releases to next year or even indefinitely, others still cut big-money deals with the likes of Netflix, giving audiences around the world early access to some big films. Yet, South Korea was also among the first countries to throw open the doors of its cinemas back to the public and the releases began coming in slowly but steadily. But the onslaught of the Coronavirus pandemic in March forced cinemas to close down promptly and several important planned releases to be postponed.

It began the year well, with films like “ The Man Standing Next” and “ Beasts Clawing at Straws” releasing early on. South Korea cinema had, by several accounts, a far better year than several other countries.

Korean movies to watch