Best movies like Return to Seoul

Sang-hui has run away to Seoul from her quiet country life. She feels no regrets as she becomes nightclub hopper. In one of these clubs she meets the hard and bitter Yu-na who had suffered from many years of abuse at her father's hands. They become close friends and eventually meet a young man Yang-gu who seems to be a perfect match for Yu-na. However he is carrying a torch for a former lover. Sang-hui and Yu-na decide to hunt down and eliminate the competition...

Three disaffected youths live in Datong in 2001, part of the new "Birth Control" generation. Fed on a steady diet of popular culture, both Western and Chinese, the characters of Unknown Pleasures represent a new breed in the People's Republic of China, one detached from reality through the screen of media and the internet.

Handed over to foster care by his mother—who's unwilling to give up permanent custody—the now-adolescent François understands that nothing in life is permanent, and his increasingly erratic actions reflect this knowledge.

Kim Seong-nam travels to Paris to escape an arrest, leaving his wife behind in Korea. After he arrives, he meets an ex-girlfriend and is introduced to a small community of Korean artists.

Chun-Soo arrives in Suwon one day earlier than scheduled. He has a special lecture to give the next day. Chun-Soo decides to visit a palace and meets Hee-Jung there. Hee-Jung is a painter and she lets Chun-Soo see her workroom with her paintings. In the evening, they go out eat and drink together. There, Chun-Soo reveals something unexpected to Hee-Jung.

Vanessa proudly shares all her personal information, selfies and family photos with her online friends and is thrilled to welcome her 10,000th follower. Little does she know that her new fan is actually the biological mother of her adopted daughter Lacy and has been trying to track her down for seven years. Now that she knows all the family's movements and whereabouts, her cyber stalking turns into the real thing. Inserting herself into the family's lives and affections, she soon becomes indispensable as sous chef in Vanessa's restaurant and is always ready to babysit Lacy - just waiting for the right moment to abduct her - For she will stop at nothing to get her daughter back - not even murder.

Tim and Cheryl Broadbent are excited to finally adopt Mona, a beautiful baby girl. But when the baby's biological father starts stalking them, their world turns upside down: through intimidation, manipulation, and violence, he is determined to take his daughter back. Written by Anonymous (IMDB.com).

Amanda and Jason are happy marriage now, after years of frustration have finally managed to take a beautiful girl from a country in Eastern Europe through an international adoption agency. But when the doctor will perform a DNA test to small, finds that there have been irregularities in the adoption process.

A young woman is returned home to her biological parents after living with her abductor for 17 years.

This remarkable animated documentary traces the unconventional upbringing of the filmmaker Jung Henin, one of thousands of Korean children adopted by Western families after the end of the Korean War. It is the story of a boy stranded between two cultures. Animated vignettes – some humorous and some poetic – track Jung from the day he first meet his new blond siblings, through elementary school, and into his teenage years, when his emerging sense of identity begins to create fissures at home and ignite the latent biases of his adoptive parents. The filmmaker tells his story using his own animation intercut with snippets of super-8 family footage and archival film. The result is an animated memoir like no other: clear-eyed and unflinching, humorous, and above all, inspiring in the capacity of the human heart.

A 13 year old girl who lives with her widowed mother in a town in Korea. Somewhat withdrawn and living in dreams, her main dream is that her real mother is a famous pop singer. Soo-ah falls in with a delinquent schoolgirl, and after a tense argument with her mother, blurts out that she is not her real mother. She runs away on a train to Seoul to see her "real mother" at a concert and be with her.

In 1994 Seoul, a teenage girl's life is changed when a new teacher enters her life.

An aging poet, Younghwan, summons his two estranged sons to a solitary hotel beside the Han River because he feels his death is near. While waiting for them to arrive, he meets two women out walking in the new-fallen snow and is struck by their angelic beauty. But the women have come to the hotel to do some healing of their own.

An African American couple (Winfield and Alice) adopt two orphans from a Vietnamese refugee camp. After twenty-two years, the children are reunited with their birth mother, bringing deeply submerged resentments and misconceptions to the surface and forcing the characters to reexamine their identity and relationships in both comical and poignant situations.

Young Jinhee is taken by her father to an orphanage near Seoul. He leaves her there never to return, and she struggles to come to grips with her fate. Jinhee desperately believes her father will come back for her and take her on a trip. The film is based on the experiences of the director, an ethnic Korean who was adopted by a French couple in the 1970s.

Jeremy Rodock is a tough horse rancher who strings up rustlers soon as look at them. Fresh out of Pennsylvania, Steve Miller finds it hard to get used to Rodock's ways, although he takes an immediate shine to his Greek girl Jocasta.

A young girl is caught up in the 1980 Gwangju massacre, where Korean soldiers killed hundreds, if not thousands, of protesters who opposed the country's takeover by the military the year before. Flashbacks show the girl seeing her mother shot to death in the massacre. The film spurred the Korean public to demand the truth behind the incident, and their government eventually opened previously classified files on the massacre.

A division of marines survive a battle with the Chinese army but find themselves stranded without contact on the wrong side of the front.

Hong Sang-Soo’s Lost in the Mountains (South Korea, 32min) the visitor is the supremely self-centred Mi-Sook, who drives to Jeonju on impulse to see her classmate Jin-Young – only to discover that her friend is having an affair with their married professor, who Mi-Sook once dated herself. The level of social embarrassment goes off the scale. In Naomi Kawase’s Koma (Japan, 34min), Kang Jun-Il travels to a village in rural Japan to honour his grandfather’s dying wish by returning a Buddhist scroll to its ancestral home. Amid ancient superstitions, a new relationship forms. And in Lav Diaz’ Butterflies Have No Memories (Philippines, 42min) ‘homecoming queen’ Carol returns to the economically depressed former mining town she came from – and becomes the target of an absurd kidnapping plot hatched by resentful locals. Serving as his own writer, cameraman and editor, Diaz casts the film entirely from members of his crew and delivers a well-seasoned mix of social realism and fantasy. —bfi

What limits does Malena cross to get what she wants most? Malena is a 38 year old middle class doctor from Buenos Aires. One afternoon she receives the call from Doctor Costas, who informs her that she must travel immediately to the north of the country: the baby she was waiting for is about to be born. Unexpectedly Malena decides to embark on an uncertain journey, full of crossroads, facing all kinds of legal and moral obstacles that will make her constantly wondering how far she is ready to go.

Keith and Kim Lussier are a childless couple who are given custody of a 3-month-old foster child, Brittany. However, tragedy strikes when Kim dies of cancer in the middle of the adoption process, leaving Keith to fight for Brittany's custody alone.

An artist who lives in an old mansion imagines that her dead husband has been reincarnated as her son.

They're called bar women, hostesses, or sex workers and "western princesses." They come from poor families, struggling to earn a decent wage, only to be forced into the world's oldest profession. They're the women who work in the camptowns that surround U.S. military bases in South Korea. In 40 years, over a million women have worked in Korea's military sex industry, but their existence has never been officially acknowledged by either government. In The Women Outside, a film by J.T. Orinne Takagi and Hye Jung Park, some of these women bravely speak out about their lives for the first time. The film raises provocative questions about military policy, economic survival, and the role of women in global geopolitics

Julia, a 25 year-old university student, two weeks pregnant, with no criminal record, is sent to prison. Julia murdered the father of her child. This story addresses maternity, jail and Justice; confinement, guilt and solitude; but above all it deals with Julia and her son, Tomas, born inside an Argentinean prison.

At the request of his dying father, Zhenchen, a Chinese student, goes to Seoul in search of his mother, whom he has not seen for fourteen years. He soon discovers that she is working as a hostess in a bar…

Théo is given up for adoption by his biological mother on the very day he is born. After this anonymous birth, the mother has two months to change her mind… Or not. The child welfare services and adoption service spring into action… The former have to take care of the baby and support it during this limbo-like time, this period of uncertainty, while the latter must find a woman to become his adoptive mother. She is called Alice, and she has spent the last ten years fighting to have a child.

English-language remake of the South Korean zombie film "Train to Busan" (2016).

Ho-bin and three friends were born and raised in Mokpo. They decide to take part in the band contest held in Jarasum after they formed the band, ‘Road No.1’. Then they come up with a plan to go there on foot in 30 days, doing busking on the road. They also contact broadcasting and join Hye-kyung, who is the producer of the broadcast company, on their journey. However, Hye-kyung looks down on what they are doing. What is worse, Ho-bin suddenly breaks away and the band ‘Road No.1’ is in crisis. Will they get through it and take part in the band contest?

A mild-mannered stamp maker searches for the man who slept with his wife. Disguised as a customer, he approaches the man.

Inspired by a murder-mystery-turned-legend surrounding a massacre near "Sam's Lake," the film follows Sam, a young woman who, every summer, returns home to the secluded lakeside cottage she grew up in, to reconnect with her traditions and memories of the past deep within an isolated forest.

Kang-soo is a third-rate street thug in Busan; he's an alcoholic and gambling addict who's always on the run from loan sharks. But when his rebellious teenage son Jong-chul is diagnosed with kidney cancer, he tries to be a real parent for the first time and seeks out Jong-chul's biological father, Tae-suk, a pimp. Tae-suk, however, refuses to help.

Kot-ji is born by an affair between a hostess and president Kim of a trading company. Living with her mother, she is unusually smart but envies friends with both parents as she plays alone with dolls or watching TV. One day, on her way home, Kot-ji runs into a woman who offers to take her to her father and follows her. All has been planned by Jin-ah conspiring to make money out of her situation. Dong-jin who is secretly in love with Kot-ji's mother threatens Kim about Kot-ji and get money from him but things do not work out the way he thought. Dong-jin stabs Kim unintentionally and in panic takes Kot-ji into woods. While he quarrels with Jin-ah, Kot-ji makes her way to escape feeling danger. Kot-ji's pure heart moves Dong-jin and he returns her to her mother.

A film director who no longer makes films, Seongjun arrives in Seoul to meet a close friend. When the friend doesn’t show up, Seongjun wanders the city aimlessly for three days, grabbing drinks and meeting women, with each day playing out like a version of the last.

A fantasy film in which the world is coming to an end due to North Korea's sudden announcement of a nuclear explosion, and an ordinary office worker meets five women while planning to live his last day without regret, and finds his life as he is caught up in an unexpected extreme situation.

As a B grade erotic theater group is about to close down, affected by the economic recession, they decide to perform a proper theater play for their last show as they have always been dreaming of. Their choice of play is the classic theater play, 'Hamlet'. However, once the theater play has started running, their performance goes to an unexpected direction due to the mistakes and adlib they never thought were going to happen on the stage. Will their curtain call occur happily as they hoped in the beginning?

Ji Hyun is a freshman at a university in Seoul. He comes from a small rural town and is used to living in the quiet countryside. He struggles to form meaningful relationships, and moving to the busy South Korean capital has left him feeling disorientated and confused. The older Jae Won, meanwhile, is now returning to Seoul – and the same university – after completing his mandatory military service. The duo starts to develop a mutual curiosity about one another. But things begin to escalate when Ji Hyun joins the same surfing club that Jae Won attends. Their bond begins to deepen as Ji Hyun discovers a love of surfing and the sea. When the surfing club embarks on a journey, the duo finds themselves together alone – and share kisses. Later, though, Jae Won begins to act as if nothing happened between them. Is this just a fleeting attraction...or the love of a lifetime?

In Seoul, a suicidal student meets a young woman who decides to join him in his fatal gesture. Tongsu, an unsuccessful filmmaker, spots a beautiful young woman, who happens to be the lead actress in the film he has just seen. Their stories will cross paths thanks to their love for cinema.

Haunted by past wounds from her parents, Seo-young suffers from tinnitus and vertigo which started when she had moved to her new office in the sky a few months ago. Seo-young and Jin-su, the manager of the development team, are secretly dating, but becomes vulnerable to an unexpected provocation. Saddened by the death of his only sister, Gwan-woo navigates around a 70-story high-rise on ropes. While cleaning windows on ropes at Landmark Tower one day, Gwan-woo becomes intrigued in Seo-young who watches him in awe from the other side.

Do-yeon, a 6th grade elementary school student, meets her cousin Sang-jun at her grandmother's funeral. On the last day of the funeral Do-yeon and Sang-jun go into an empty classroom near the funeral. There they have their first sexual experience. Lee Rae, a single women in her 50's, lives with her father who suffers from Alzheimer's. She raises ducks, but recently got rid of them because of Avian Influenza. Her father's physical and mental health has also worsened. He even asks Lee Rae to touch him inappropriately. 17 year old Su-Jin was smuggled into the country by professional brokers. She was adopted into a family that lives in a countryside farm. On her first day at the farm she was raped by her stepfather. They also share the same bedroom. Su-Jin is continuously accosted by her stepfather. Su-jin sole source of comfort is the grandson, who sympathizes with Su-jJn and her plight. He is a victim of physical abuse from the stepfather. Su-Jin then becomes pregnant.

A Catholic priest takes a young girl under his wing but is devastated when she is suddenly raped and killed. Even more affected by the incident is her much older sister who, in the absence of their parents, had been acting as the girl’s maternal guardian. The priest wants to console the woman though he is nowhere closer to getting over his own grief. A bizarre journey between the two ensues which includes a pilgrimage to Peru.

On the night that 17-year-old Dong-jun's only friend, Kang-hyeon, fell from a high place, Dong-jun made a choice that determined the direction of his entire life. Dong-jun's regrets and remorse following that choice made him experience life in three different universes. These are the various lives of the 42-year-old Dong-juns who live different lives in Seoul, Daegu and Busan 20 tears later.

In a vast desert area somewhere at the border between Mongolia and China, Hungai lives together with his wife and child. Dutifully, Hungai plants little trees in the desert. After his wife embarks on a long trip to a hospital in the capital Ulaanbaatar to have their sick son examined, Hungai starts to drink out of loneliness. One day, a North Korean fugitive and her son ask for shelter in his home.

Rabih, a young blind man, lives in a small village in Lebanon. He sings in a choir and edits Braille documents for an income. His life unravels when he tries to apply for a passport and discovers that his identification card, which he has carried his entire life, is fake. Now he must travel across Lebanon in search of his identity.

An accidental meeting between a French woman who goes to South America to adopt a baby and an Argentinian woman who with her small son leaves their hopeless village in search for a better life changes both of their lives forever.

A pair of teen friends – known as "Chicken & Curry" because they are virtually inseparable – fail their high school finals and try to cover it by claiming that Curry is in the midst of an identity crisis that can only be solved by a visit to his ancestral homeland, India. While the ruse works wonderfully on their parents, this impromptu journey of self-discovery takes an unexpected detour when Curry locates his biological sister and remains captivated by the country he first despised, and Chicken falls for an older doctor working for Médecins Sans Frontières.

The story of a young couple, Pierre and Geraldine, and their desire for a child, which leads them on a journey of initiation to Cambodia. On their difficult and transformative adventure, they must contend with obstructive authorities and the jealousies and mistrust of a small community of would-be adoptive parents.

Part I : A middle-aged woman gets off a bus at Muju Terminal. She passes through the town and walks into a forest. She starts to search for the vestiges of her life from beyond the grave. Part II : A young woman, Minjae, returns to her hometown of Muju and starts to work at the county office. Her mother is displeased that her daughter has returned to the hometown. One day, Minjae’s friend from college, Kyungyoon, who hadn’t been in touch for a while, comes to see her.

Four stepbrothers are having a hard time getting along as a family. 15 years after their parents’ second wedding, the four unexpectedly head home and reunite by an urgent call from their youngest stepsister, born between the remarried parents. Although their rivalry escalates, the four brothers come to a momentary truce to put their hearts together and find their missing parents.

In a countryside town called Mulgeun lives a bohemian man named BAE Joong-dal. His goals in life are to get his younger brother BAE Joong-bum, now in his fifties, married and to thrive with his new start-up ostrich farm. Living nest door is a pain-in-the-neck named CHO Jin-bong who breaks apart the fence to the ostrich farm, resulting in a scuffle. Suddenly a beautiful and graceful woman - which is hard to find in Mulgeun - unexpectedly shows up in town. Her appearance starts to stir up troubles among the residents. Joong-bum, meanwhile, never appreciates his brother’s efforts to set him up on dates. One day after running away from a panned date, he returns home drunk late at night and confesses something shocking to his brother...

Ho-jae has the building, the house, the fancy car that his parents left to him to manage as they live abroad for business. Ho-Jae was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. Ho-jae who pretends to be a dutiful son in front of his parents. He enjoys casual sex with women. For Ho-jae who had been living a life all his friends were envious of, there is a sudden wrench in the works. Did he play his con too well? His mother asks his aunt to introduce him to some nice girls. A sexy aunt and a devious nephew... their dangerous cohabitation starts!