‘Burning’ Named Best Korean Film Ever, According to Poll of Over 158 Film Critics; ‘Parasite’ Finishes Second

South Korea has been a country consistently on the edge. The threat of nuclear warfare, with its unpredictable neighbour of the North, always looming. You can feel that tension in the movies they make — which depict extreme emotional states with a sense of heightened realism.

The newly-minted South Korean New Wave actually takes some inspiration from American cinema, however, it is also unafraid to subvert and reinvent tired old Western formula. It is the most important cinematic movement to emerge in the international scene since the Romanian New Wave started blossoming almost twenty years ago.

Trevor Treharne, the editor of KoreanScreen.Com, an English-language reviews and features site dedicated to Korean cinema, asked me back in February to participate in a massive poll of international film critics. The aim was simple, to put together a ’100 Greatest Korean Films Ever’ list based on the votes. I was asked to send five South Korean films, unranked, which I consider to be the greatest ever. There is no requirement to rank them, each of the five films I name gets a single vote.

The top 20

1) Burning (2018)
2) Parasite (2019)
3) Memories of Murder (2003)
4) Oldboy (2003)
5) The Handmaiden (2016)
6) Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter and Spring (2003)
7) The Housemaid (1960)
8) Poetry (2010)
9) Peppermint Candy (1999)
10) Aimless Bullet (1961)
11) Mother (2009)
12) The Wailing (2016)
13) Train to Busan (2016)
14) Oasis (2002)
15) Right Now, Wrong Then (2015)
16) A Tale of Two Sisters (2003)
17) Joint Security Area (2000)
18) The Host (2006)
19) Snowpiercer (2013)
20) Seopyeonje (1993)

The Korean New Wave, (which has also been nicknamed “Hallyuwood” with “Hallyu” roughly translating as “flow from Korea”), started in the Aughts and was heralded by a Best Picture Oscar win in 2020 for Bong Joon-ho’s “Parasite. These are startlingly original, and daring films, and picking just five was a nearly impossible task. Below are the five titles I sent Treharne and an additional five that almost made the cut.

“Oldboy” (Park Chan-wook)
”The Handmaiden” (Park Chan-wook)
”Burning” (Lee Chang-dong)
”Parasite” (Bong Joon-ho)
“Right Now Wrong Then” (Hong Sang-soo)

“The Wailing” (Na Hong-jin)
“Memories of a Murderer” (Bong Joon-ho)
”Mother” (Bong Joon-ho)
”Poetry” (Lee Chang-dong)
“The Host” (Bong Joon Ho)