Best movies like The Man Standing Next

Loyalty. Betrayal. Execution.

A unique, carefully handpicked, selection of the best movies like The Man Standing Next Starring Lee Byung-hun, Lee Sung-min, Kwak Do-won, Lee Hee-jun, and more. If you liked The Man Standing Next then you may also like: Nothing But the Truth, Operation Chromite, Repatriation, JFK, KT and many more popular movies featured on this list. You can further filter the list even more or get a random selection from the list of similar movies, to make your selection even easier.

In the 1970s, Korea is under the absolute control of the President Park, who controls the KCIA, the organization with an edge over any branch of government. The director of KCIA, KIM Gyu-pyeong, is the seemingly most prospective second-in-command. In the midst of reign of fear, a former KCIA director, PARK Yong-gak who knows all about the government’s obscure operations, exiles to the U.S. where the investigation of ‘Koreagate’ is underway. As the tension escalates, the stifling political maneuvering by the all second-in-command’s unfolds.

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Nothing But the Truth

When reporter Rachel Armstrong writes a story that reveals the identity of a covert CIA operative, the government demands that Rachel reveal her source. She defies the special prosecutor and is thrown in jail. Meanwhile, her attorney, Albert Burnside argues her case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Operation Chromite

A squad of soldiers fight in the Korean War's crucial Battle of Incheon.

Repatriation

In the spring of 1992 documentary filmmaker Dong-won Kim met Cho Chang-son and Kim Seak-hyoung, two North Koreans arrested by South Korean authorities years before. Convicted of spying for the North, they were incarcerated and spent thirty years as political prisoners. These men, and many others like them, underwent conversion schemes in prison that involved torture: those who renounced their communist beliefs were released from prison early. The others, known as "the unconverted," served their full terms. None could return home to the North, however, until the turn of this century, when tensions between North and South eased significantly. Director Dong-won Kim followed these men for ten years, documenting how they survived -both physically and psychologically, the dehumanizing time spent in prison, and their quest, once released, to finally go home.

suggested by: user957sls50jvq

JFK

Follows the investigation into the assassination of President John F. Kennedy led by New Orleans district attorney Jim Garrison.

KT

This movie is a political/espionage thriller, based on a real kidnapping incident of Korean politician, Kim Dae-Jun.

The Age of Shadows

Set in the late 1920s, The Age of Shadows follows the cat-and-mouse game that unfolds between a group of resistance fighters trying to bring in explosives from Shanghai to destroy key Japanese facilities in Seoul, and Japanese agents trying to stop them.

The Executioner

A British intelligence agent must track down a fellow spy suspected of being a double agent.

1.5 / 10 2006 Drama Thriller
suggested by: user89xakyorm9

Fatwa

In the midst of a personal crisis, junior senator Maggie Davidson (Holly) ascertains that she's the subject of a terrorist plot.

End Game

Alex Thomas was the man in charge of protecting the president but, when the time came to fulfill his duties, everything just went wrong. His conscience haunted by a bullet, and his devotion to his country stronger than ever, Alex teams with a seasoned reporter to navigate a treacherous web of lies, unlocking a dangerous conspiracy, and enter a deadly world in which skilled assassins and highly-trained ex-special ops lurk in every shadow.

Backstabbing for Beginners

An idealistic young employee at the U.N. investigates the grizzly murder of his predecessor – and uncovers a vast global conspiracy that may involve his own boss.

Shadow Conspiracy

Bobby Bishop is a special assistant to the President of the United States. Accidentally, he meets his friend professor Pochenko on the street. Pochenko has time to tell Bishop about some conspiracy in the White House but then immediately gets killed by an assassin. Now bad guys are after Bobby as the only man who knows about a plot. Bishop must now not only survive, but to stop the conspirators from achieving their goal. And he doesn't know whom to trust.

The Net

A poor North Korean fisherman finds himself an accidental defector, and is groomed to be a spy by an ambitious South Korean military officer.

Inside Men

A disgruntled henchman teams up with an ambitious prosecutor to bring down a leading presidential candidate and the news editor behind him who is truly pulling the strings.

7.7 / 10 2012 Drama History
suggested by: user848sn2x63qp

Masquerade

Though it places his own life in danger, a look-alike commoner secretly takes the place of a poisoned king to save his country from falling into chaos.

6.8 / 10 2007 Drama History
suggested by: user123dkmn80sj

May 18

The citizens of Gwangju lead a relatively peaceful life, until one day the military takes over the city, accusing the residents of conspiracy and claiming that they are communist sympathisers preparing a revolution against the current government. Seeing as the soldiers beat defenceless people, mainly students, to death, the citizens are in for retaliation and form a militia.

The President's Barber

A well-meaning but politically naive barber gets pulled into the inner circle of the South Korean dictator Park Chung-Hee, with rather baleful consequences for his hapless family. This sharp political satire covers roughly twenty years in South Korean political history, from the viewpoint of the barber's son.

The President's Last Bang

On October 26, 1979, President Park Chung-hee, who had ruled South Korea since 1961, was assassinated by his director of intelligence. The film depicts the events of that night.

Torn Curtain

During the Cold War, an American scientist appears to defect to East Germany as part of a cloak and dagger mission to find the formula for a resin solution, but the plan goes awry when his fiancee, unaware of his motivation, follows him across the border.

Typhoon

A vengeful refugee-turned-pirate steals nuclear materials to attack and obliterate the Koreas in a Nuclear Typhoon. A top South Korean naval officer is assigned the task to stop his plans and execute him.

Hunt

After a high-ranking North Korean official requests asylum, KCIA Foreign Unit chief Park Pyong-ho and Domestic Unit chief Kim Jung-do are tasked with uncovering a North Korean spy, known as Donglim, who is deeply embedded within their agency. When the spy begins leaking top secret intel that could jeopardize national security, the two units are each assigned to investigate each other.

The Spy Gone North

South Korea, 1993. An agent of the National Intelligence Service is sent to Beijing to infiltrate a group of North Korean officials with the ultimate goal of obtaining information about their nuclear program.

7.1 / 10 2015 Drama History
suggested by: ThunderousTiger

The Throne

Ancient Korea, July 4, 1762. The Crown Prince Hyojang, posthumously named Sado, son of King Yeongjo of Joseon, is accused of treason. Thus, the king asks him to commit suicide, but his closest vassals prevent it, so the king orders the prince to get inside a wooden rice chest, where he suffers deprivation of food and water.

Secret Reunion

Two spies share a secret bond, despite their loyalties. A North Korean assassin is sent to Seoul to kill a dissident, but instead he teams up with a South Korean agent in search for revenge.

Midnight Man

British soldiers force a recently captured IRA terrorist to cooperate with them and then assign him to go undercover with a gang of terrorists and prevent them from killing the U.S. President. But the spy isn't in long before he realizes that the first plot is but a ruse for a more sinister scheme that could result in trouble between China and Great Britain. - Written by Ørnås

American Roulette

Carlos Quintas, the democratically-elected president of an unnamed South American country, has been deposed by a military coup. He is in London, the head of a government in exile, rallying international support. He is also a poet of talent and reputation, in love with Kate, his assistant, who has a secret of her own and keeps Carlos at a distance. The generals have a team of professionals in London bent on kidnap and assassination. Hovering around Carlos are two Russians, who may be KGB, an American book publisher, who may be CIA, an elusive Brit, probably from her majesty's secret service, and his own few supporters. Is Carlos doomed? Whom can he trust?

Steel Rain

Amid a coup, a North Korean agent escapes south with the country's injured leader in an attempt to keep him alive and prevent a Korean war.

The Drug King

Busan, South Korea, 1970s. Lee Doo-sam is a small-time smuggler. After helping a drug gang to smuggle meth, he falls into the dark crime world. Quick-witted and full of ambition, he eventually takes over the drug underworld and starts to lead a double life: a good community leader during the day but an infamous drug lord during the night.

Iris: The Movie

Hyunjun and Sawoo, close friends and rivals from the South Korean special forces, are recruited by the secret agency NSS. They both fall for Seunghee, the beautiful but lethal profiling specialist at NSS. When they are faced against each other in a nuclear terrorist attack, they are forced to make their final decision and Seunghee's formidable secret is revealed.

On Dangerous Ground

Vusi Madlazi returns to the South African village he left as a young boy (he was organizing against apartheid, and left in fear of his life) to bury his father. He meets up with his brother Ernest, who tells him their other brother Stephen couldn't be contacted. Vusi goes to Johannesburg to find him, but at first can only find his neighbor/girlfriend, Karin, a stripper. Vusi proceeds to learn how conditions have changed since the end of apartheid, not always for the better for black men.

Coronado

An american woman, in search of her fiance', becomes involved in a revolution of a central-american country.

Shadows in the Palace

Upon receiving the body of a maid in waiting who was said to have hung herself within the palace walls, dedicated doctor Chun-ryung begins to suspect foul play. Upon launching a personal investigation, however, Chun-ryung quickly discovers a labyrinthine maze of deception constructed by those with limitless power to conceal a valuable secret.

1987: When the Day Comes

In 1987 Korea, under an oppressive military regime, a college student gets killed during a police interrogation involving torture. Government of officials are quick to cover up the death and order the body to be cremated. A prosecutor who is supposed to sign the cremation release, raises questions about a 21-year-old kid dying of a heart attack, and he begins looking into the case for truth. Despite a systematic attempt to silence everyone involved in the case, the truth gets out, causing an eruption of public outrage.

7.1 / 10 2022 Drama
suggested by: user4464f53ltf7

Kingmaker

Seo Chang-dae, an ambitious political campaign strategist who ends up having ideological differences with his present client, receives a lucrative offer that will put his loyalty under the microscope.

The Face Reader

An exceptionally talented face reader becomes entangled in a bloody power struggle between a child king and his uncle who plans to usurp the throne.

6.6 / 10 2017 Drama Thriller
suggested by: user598l0mippt5

The Mayor

For the first time in Korean history, the mayor of Seoul attempts a third term in office, with his entire campaign team ready to soil their hands.

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