Ranked: the 10 best Korean film adaptations of Japanese manga, movies and fiction, from Broken to Oldboy

Ryoo Seung-bum (Moving) plays the teacher who must continually outwit the tenacious detective, portrayed by Cho Jin-woong (Believer), assigned to the case.

Although the film is a handsome and very watchable adaptation, retaining its brilliant twists, it doesn’t quite capture the book’s ruthless efficiency.

9. 200 Pounds Beauty (2006)

Adapted from the manga Kanna’s Big Success!, the romantic comedy 200 Pounds Beauty was one of the surprise successes of 2006. It delighted viewers with its colourful staging and a concept that would be difficult to bring to the screen today.

Kim Ah-joong made her mark as Jenny, an overweight ghost singer who contemplates suicide – only to undergo extensive plastic surgery and embark on a K-pop career.

The film was also a calling card for director Kim Yong-hwa, who went on to make the Along with the Gods films, among other hits.

8. Luck-Key (2016)

The sleeper hit Luck-Key is a hugely entertaining body-swap action comedy based on the film Key of Life.

Lee Joon, formerly of the K-pop outfit MBLAQ, plays Jae-sung, a struggling actor who deliberately switches identities with Hyung-wook, a rich-looking man who has just lost his memory in a sauna after slipping on a bar of soap.

What he doesn’t realise is that this man, played by Yoo Hae-jin (Confidential Assignment), is a ruthless contract killer. The amnesiac killer begins to lead a simple life until his skills ironically turn him into the successful actor that Jae-sung always wanted to be.

7. Be With You (2018)

Adapted from the 2004 Japanese film of the same, the charming melodrama Be With You stars Son Ye-jin (Crash Landing on You) as a terminally ill woman who makes an impossible promise to her husband, played by So Ji-sub (Doctor Lawyer): to return to him a year after her death.

Fanciful though it is, she somehow keeps her promise, returning to her husband and son during the rainy season a year after dying. However, she does so without any of her memories. Not only that, she must also leave when the rainy season ends.

6. Broken (2014)

Author Keigo Higashino makes the list again, through Broken, an adaptation of his novel The Hovering Blade.

This gruelling revenge drama features Jung Jae-young (who also features twice on this list) as an ordinary father whose quiet life is shattered following the rape and murder of his daughter.

Frustrated by the slow progress of the official police investigation, the man takes matters into his own hands and decides to hunt down the perpetrators himself.

Grim and hypnotic, Broken follows the man’s soul-destroying search and the detective trying to stop him, played by Lee Sung-min (Reborn Rich).

5. Little Forest (2018)

One of the representative works of the “healing film” genre, Little Forest stars a scintillating Kim Tae-ri (Twenty-Five, Twenty-One) as a young woman who retreats to her country home to escape the stresses of life in the big city.

Based on the Daisuke Igarashi manga of the same name, which was previously shot as a two-part film, Little Forest is a mood-lifting and calming adaptation directed by Yim Soon-rye.

Living in the humble cottage her mother left her, Kim’s protagonist tends to the garden, eating only home-made food, and rebuilds her confidence as well as her childhood relationships.

4. Josée (2020)

Adapted from the short story Josee, the Tiger and the Fish, which was earlier brought to life as a popular Japanese film of the same name, Josée stars Nam Joo-hyuk (Twenty-Five, Twenty-One) as a kind university student who comes to the aid of a young woman in a wheelchair, played by Han Ji-min (Our Blues).

Despite her stand-offish attitude, the man takes an interest in the woman and begins to learn about the unique world she has made for herself in the humble home where she lives with her grandmother.

Art-house director Kim Jong-kwang brings a lyrical touch to the story, which is gorgeously filmed and designed, and wonderfully performed.

3. Going by the Book (2007)

A remake of the 1991 film Bang!, Going by the Book is the uproarious tale of a strait-laced police officer who takes his role as the robber in a bank robbery simulation very, very seriously.

A saturnine Jung Jae-young has rarely been funnier as the fake bank robber who outwits his arrogant colleagues at every turn during a police simulation in the countryside, which begins to gain national attention and bring shame to the police force.

The film is directed by Ra Hee-chan and written and produced by master comedian Jang Jin, who embellishes the terrific concept with his dry wit.

2. Helpless (2012)

Miyabe Miyuki’s novel All She Was Worth is expertly adapted by Byun Young-joo as the Korean thriller Helpless. The late Lee Sun-kyun (Parasite) plays a man whose fiancée (The Handmaiden’s Kim Min-hee) suddenly disappears during a rest stop on a highway.

The frantic man does everything he can to track her down, but the more he looks, the more he realises he had no idea what kind of person he was about to marry.

In this wonderfully twisty psychological mystery, a missing person’s case morphs into a deranged and unpredictable criminal case.

1. Oldboy (2003)

As if there was ever going to be any doubt, the top spot on our list goes to Park Chan-wook’s classic revenge drama Oldboy, which was derived from a manga of the same name.

In an iconic performance, Choi Min-sik plays Oh Dae-su, a salary worker kidnapped on the street during a rainy night and imprisoned for reasons unknown. After 15 years of slowly going mad he is released, and given five days to figure out who put him there and why.