14 Korean Movies Worth Watching Before Being Ruined by an American Remake
According to Parasite director Bong Joon-ho, “… once you break the 1-inch subtitle barrier, you will experience many more amazing films.” Fortunately, in the field of streaming, many of these awesome films are more accessible than ever before – of course, there is no shortage of great South Korean films from Bon Jun-ho available at the touch of a button. It’s easy ( very easy ) to complain about the lack of originality in popular cinema culture, but there is a whole world of films waiting to air, with a style and perspective that is striking and distinct.
Naturally, American producers are watching all of this and, as we speak, are planning to create English-language remakes designed to make these foreign-language films “more accessible” to American audiences. This usually means removing everything that makes them unique cultural artifacts and replacing that with Chris Pratt.
The Train to Busan (which will soon be the last train to New York ) was the last to receive this treatment, and frankly … you can just watch Train to Busan . Fine. The remake may work, but there is a reason the original was popular enough to inspire a remake. This is true of the many South Korean films that hungry Hollywood producers watch (and the TV show too – the excellent Crash Landing on You , which was a bit of a streaming phenomenon this year, will soon receive a US version).
Some of these films have remakes, some are actively speculated on, and the rest are so popular in the world that someone somewhere, no doubt, is thinking about how to tame them. Each one is worth seeing before Hollywood takes action.