Best movies like The Spies
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A unique, carefully handpicked, selection of the best movies like The Spies Starring Kim Myung-min, Yum Jung-ah, Jung Gyu-woon, Yoo Hae-jin, and more. If you liked The Spies then you may also like: Yesterday, R-Point, Repatriation, As One, Assassination 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.
Kim, a North Korean spy, lives in South Korea for 22 years and is contacted unexpectedly by his superior. His team plans to complete an earlier mission and steal the target's large stockpile of cash.
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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.
Assassination
In Japanese-occupied Korea, three freedom fighters are assigned a mission to assassinate a genocidal military leader and his top collaborator. But the plan goes completely awry amidst double-crossings, counter-assassinations, and a shocking revelation about one of the assassins' past.
The Berlin File
When an illicit arms deal goes bad, North Korean spy Pyo Jong-seong finds himself targeted not just by the South Koreans but also his own bosses.
Confidential Assignment
When a crime organization from North Korea crosses borders and enters South Korean soil, a South Korean detective must cooperate with a North Korean detective to investigate their whereabouts.
Shiri
North Korea's 8th Special Forces hijack a shipment of CTX, a potent new liquid explosive, and threatens South Korea as part of a plot to re-unify the two countries. Ryu and Lee, special agents of O.P., South Korea's secret intelligence service, attempt to track down the terrorists and find the CTX. Meanwhile Hee, the 8th's ultra-bad female sniper, resurfaces to wreak havoc and haunt Ryu.
Silmido
On 31 January 1968, 31 North Korean commandos infiltrated South Korea in a failed mission to assassinate President Park Chung-hee. In revenge, the South Korean military assembled a team of 31 criminals on the island of Silmido to kill Kim Il-sung for a suicide mission to redeem their honor, but was cancelled, leaving them frustrated. It is loosely based on a military uprising in the 1970s.
Spy Girl
The plot of this film has a young beautiful spy from North Korea going south to capture another rogue spy. She goes undercover at Burger King and soon she's battling with her co-workers for the affections of the local boys, dealing with a culture clash between North and South, and a very cute young man who's posted pictures of her on a website of local "angels" possibly blowing her cover.
The Spy: Undercover Operation
Chul-soo is one of Korea’s best intelligence agents: he can accomplish any given mission. One day, a mysterious explosion takes place in Seoul. Chul-soo flies to Thailand on a mission to rescue a person who holds clues to the incident. Meanwhile, Young-hee goes on a business trip to Thailand and gets entangled with Chul-soo’s mission. Will he accomplish his mission and save his wife at the same time?
The Suspect
Betrayed and on the run, a former North Korean agent tries to seek revenge on the man who killed his wife, find his missing daughter, and uncover the secrets hidden inside the eyeglasses of a dead man.
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.
Provocateur
In 1994 South Korea, a female North Korean spy integrates herself as a housekeeper for U.S. military officer to steal classified documents, but soon worries about her cover when she falls for the teenage son of the officer.
Commitment
The son of a North Korean spy decides to follow in his father's footsteps to protect his little sister. After his father's botched espionage mission, North Korean Myung-hoon and his young sister Hye-in are sent to a labor prison camp. In order to save his sister's life, Myung-hoon volunteers to become a spy and infiltrates the South as a teenage defector. While attending high school in the South, he meets another girl named Hye-in, and rescues her when she comes under attack.
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.
Secretly, Greatly
Three elite North Korean sleeper agents live under cover for so long that they believe their cover stories are their real identities. They are shocked when they are ordered to kill one another or face death at the hands of an elite hit team.
Pipeline
Korea has over 1,200km of pipeline that acts as the country’s artery. There are several individuals who make the headlines by tapping into this network in order to siphon oil. Drill-bit is a drilling prodigy who is offered by Gun-woo, the head of an oil refining company, a large sum of money for completing the impossible heist to drill into the pipeline between Honam and Seoul-Busan highway within a month. To get the job done in time, he puts together a team of misfits: civil engineer ‘Mr. Na’, excavation expert ‘Big Shovel’, and welding expert ‘Welder. And just as the cops get a wind of this oil heist, Drill-bit’s mine collapses, his team gets cornered from all sides. As the operation gets delayed from setbacks, Gun-woo threatens their lives. Drill-bit’s group promises to get the job done in 2 days but Gun-woo plans to blow up both the oil tank and Drill-bit’s group after the oil has been siphoned…
71: Into the Fire
In August 1950, waiting for UN troops to arrive, the South Korean army assembled to protect Nakdong River. Only 71 student-soldiers are left behind to guard the city of Pohang. Now they are on a mission to defend the country from North Korean troops.
Take Point
On the day of the U.S. presidential election in 2024, a team of elite mercenaries embark on a secret CIA mission to abduct North Korea's politician in an underground bunker below the Korean Demilitarized Zone. However, they get caught in the crossfire which causes tensions to escalate to the brink of World War III.
The Long Way Home
Nam-bok, a middle-aged South Korean farmer is conscripted and assigned a mission to deliver a classified military document that may decide the fate of the war. After losing it while under attack from the enemy, he then faces a teenage North Korean soldier named Yeong-gwang who happens to acquire the secret document on his way to the North.
Poongsan
Poongsan has the unenviable - and death-defying - job of delivering messages across the North and South Korean border to separated families. When South Korean government agents ask him to smuggle in In-ok, the lover of a high-ranking North Korean defector, into the South, the damsel and rescuer fall in love instead.
Athena: Goddess of War
Sometime in the near future, the Korean peninsula attempts to reunify. The South Korean government, which needs enormous funds for the unification to succeed, develops a landmark new technology called the TWR. The TWR is a high speed nuclear reactor and other countries want the technology. To prevent terror in the aftermath of the TWR breakthrough, the government establishes a new organization named NTS (National Anti-Terror Service). Jung-Woo (Jung Woo-Sung) is transferred to the NTS group from the NIS. He's excited about the transfer and hopes to live the life of a real agent, but then discovers his main responsibility is to watch North Korean defectors.
North Shaolin South Taekwon
Superstar Casanova Wong stars as a young fighter who after becoming a master at North Shaolin travels to South Shaolin to learn more of the deadly Shaolin martial arts to prepare him for the might of the Northern Mantis Master--Han Ying--who is planning to destroy Shaolin.
Boogie Nights
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.
Unfinished
Berlin in 1986 was a time when everyone was wary. A man becomes everyone's target because of one mistake. Economist Young-min is convinced by a Northern spy to move North under the pretext of safety for his family and himself. However, he realizes this is a mistake and escapes to West Germany where he is parted from his family. To make things worse, he is under surveillance by various countries that want to use him for different purposes.
One Summer Night
In the winter of 2013, Yong-jun and Jae-sung, a member of the Korean People’s Army, are caught having sex by a superior. After that, Yong-jun decides to defect from North Korea to the South leaving Jae-sung behind. Yong-jun risks his life to step on the land of freedom and meets Tae-kyu. Two years after, Jae-sung comes over to the South, and Yong-jun must decide between Jae-sung and Tae-kyu. This causes misunderstandings and puts them in pain.
Crossing
Yong-soo is an ex-soccer player who lives in a small coal-mine village in North Korea with his wife and young son, Joon. Although living in extreme poverty like many other families in North Korea, the family is happy just to be with each other. Then one day, Yong-soo's pregnant wife becomes critically ill. Let alone medicine, Yong-soo can't even find food for her in North Korea. So he decides to secretly cross the border to China hoping to find the medicine for his wife.
Red Family
Based on a screenplay by the prolific Kim Ki-duk. Two families live next door to each other in identical suburban white houses with green lawns. One family is from South Korea, the other is a fake family assembled from North Korean spies. The North Koreans must strictly obey every order from their regime, who holds their real families hostage. The problem is that the families affect each other and after a while, the political rift in the North Korean house becomes apparent. Naturally, there also occurs cross-border romantic entanglements between old and young alike.
Dance Town
A North Korean refugee, Jung-Nim, is trying to find a new life in South Korea, with people suspecting that she is a spy.
Love Impossible
An archaeological site in China was selected to send two teams, North and South Koreans, and students to collaborate and continue reconciliation of the two countries. But the team leader of the South decided to dredge the leader of the North group.
Yesterday
In 1990, number of children suddenly disappear. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Defense selects an elite group of scientists for a top-secret mission. Then, 30 years later ... The year is 2020 on a reunified Korean Peninsula. A string of murders is committed against retired scientists. The Special Investigations (SI) unit staffed by a crack team from the former North and South Koreas and outfitted with the latest technology is brought in to investigate. The killer, however, far from being deterred, taunts them with a signature pendant at every murder scene. In an act of devilish boldness he even kidnaps the son of the investigation team's leader, Seok