KOFA Releases Top 100 Korean Films List

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KOFA Releases Top 100 Korean Films List

Jan 16, 2014

Writer by Pierce Conran
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Old and New Classics Recognized by Korean Film Archive

To coincide with its upcoming 40th anniversary, the Korean Film Archive (KOFA) released a list of the 100 most iconic Korean films of all time. A group of 62 leading Korean film experts were surveyed to compile the titles, which were announced yesterday by KOFA director LEE Byung-hoon. There was a three-way tie in first place between KIM Ki-young’s The Housemaid (1960), YU Hyun-mok’s The Aimless Bullet (1961) and HA Gil-jong’s The March of Fools (1975). The only film from after the year 2000 to crack the top ten was BONG Joon-ho’s Memories of Murder (2003), which came in at seventh.

Other classics near the top included Madame Freedom (1956) at number four, The Coachman (1961), Heavenly Homecoming to Stars (1974) and 1980’s Fine Windy Day at number seven, which tied with Memories of Murder. A four-way tie for ninth place included Mother and a guest (1961), Youngja’s Heyday (1975), Declaration of Fools (1983) and Sopyonje (1993).

A total of 17 films made after 2000 were featured, such as JANG Joon-hwan’s Save the Green Planet (2003), PARK Chan-wook’s Old Boy (2003), KIM Ki-duk’s 3-Iron (2004) and LEE Chang-dong’s Poetry (2010). Some directors were featured multiple times with legendary filmmaker IM Kwon-taek receiving the most entries with seven. The oldest film on the list was AHN Jong-hwa’s Crossroads of Youth (1934) while the most recent feature to rank was KIM Ki-duk’s Pieta (2012).

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