Top Ten Korean Movies of 2017 (Sort of)

Followers of my blog — and I know you're out there... somewhere — may have noticed this year that not only did I review more documentaries than usual but I also watched a goodly number of North Korean movies (thanks to the discovery of the DPRK Video Archive on YouTube). And while only one North Korean film made my final list, two missed it by a hairsbreadth: Wolmi Island and O Youth! . Who knows what next year has in store?!

1. The Drop Box: Although their existence is apparently nothing new, I was unfamiliar with drop boxes f.k.a. foundling wheels which allow mothers to anonymously give up unwanted babies without questioning or judgment. This documentary on one in South Korea kind of blew my mind.

2. A Good Rain Knows: Director Hur Jin-ho's wondrous little romance wastes no time in getting to the heart of the matter: Former lovers Dong-ha (Jung Woo-sung) and May (Gao Yuanyuan) are meant for each other.

3. The Lovers & the Despot: A world-class director (Shin Sang-ok) and his muse/ex-wife (Choi Eun-hee) are kidnapped by the North Korean government and forced to make movies. Sounds implausible. And yet it's reality. (This is a documentary, after all.)

4. Man on High Heels: Unable to imagine continuing a career in the police department post-op, the department's fiercest officer (who happens to be trans) has visions of escaping to a new life. Naturally, complications arise.

5. Nameless Gangster: You have to admire acting legend Choi Min-sik's willingness to not only play, but revel in playing, such a thoroughly unlikable, amoral, sleazy character this late in his career without even the hint of a wink to the audience.

6. Okja: The ever-dependable, oh-so-imaginative auteur Bong Joon-ho is back in fine form with this heart-pounding parable about the inhumanity of the meat industry that will turn anyone with a heart into a vegan... at least for a week.

7. Order No. 027: O Youth! was a zany sitcom; Centre Forward, a rousing sports flick; Wolmi Island, an unexpectedly feminist war pic. But the best of the North Korean movies this year was this espionage thriller which had good fight scenes and a strong female lead.

8. Red Carpet: This incredibly wise romantic comedy — set in the world of low-budget porn — knows how hard it is to shrug off imposed shame and stay true to your heart.

9. The Silenced: This movie about an all-girls school run by Japanese scientists with military backing has all the makings of a classic B-movie. And it delivers on that front and then some.

10. The Wailing: When it comes to horror movies, some like witches, some like devils, and some like zombies. For those who reply "all of the above" when asked to pick a preference, this movie is for you.

Nameless Gangster: Rules of the Time: Buoyant Slime

Choi Min-sik's career encompasses a rogues' gallery worth of tough guys: the serial killer in I Saw the Devil, the title character in The Admiral, the washed-up pugilist in Crying Fist, and — perhaps most hauntingly — the vigilante/victim in Park Chan-wook's messed-up masterpiece Oldboy. Yet as tough as all these guys were, Choi's character in Nameless Gangster could probably beat them all. It's not that he's physically stronger, more intellectually limber, or naturally bloodthirstier. It's simply that he's a shameless slime-ball who backstabs like nobody's business, an evil Everyman with a chip on his shoulder. Never has an ingratiating laugh felt more like a secret weapon.

Indeed there's something so believably sleazy about Choi Ik-hyun, the wheeling and dealing gangster played by the actor, that your disgust rises and rises each time he gets out of another jam by screwing somebody else over. His one-upmanship of a younger, more seasoned gangster (Ha Jung-woo) is ingenious; his self-serving coercion of his brother-in-law (Ma Dong-seok) into a life of crime is heartless; his outmaneuvering of an ambitious prosecutor (Kwak Do-won) is infuriating. When you're loyal to none, evidently, there's no place to go but up! As the old adage goes: "Poop floats."

Writer-director Yun Jong-bin has presented us with an uncomfortably cynical point of view of every level of society: the judicial system, the police department, organized crime, the workplace, your family, your hometown, you name it. And yet, despite Choi's continual deceits, at no point do you feel, "Oh this could never happen" or "someone would have caught on by now." We've all lived with and/or worked with reprehensible success stories like Choi's double-dealer. He's our relative, our boss, our elected official, our next door neighbor, our social studies teacher. Humanity is horrible.