K-DRAMA SPECIAL: OCCUPATION DRAMAS AND MOVIES
A scene from Pachinko on Apple TV
By Sharon Stern
We are returning to last year’s post about K-Dramas and K-Movies that cover the Japanese occupation and liberation. This list has been updated to include the latest streaming information and new movies and dramas that have become available since last year.
If you haven’t taken advantage of free trials on streaming platforms, this is an excellent month to do so, given that there are so many good dramas and movies that help us understand this period of history. Or try a free (usually with ads) streaming service (just a website, no login needed) like Tubi, The Roku Channel or Plex TV.
The period of Japanese occupation was extremely difficult for Korea and Koreans, as you well know. These dramas and movies deal with some traumatic subjects. The movies listed deal with difficult subjects more directly and intensely than the dramas do, but the dramas have some very powerful scenes as well. If you have trigger issues, watch the trailers or look for more information on Wikipedia or elsewhere before going all in. This history is very important for us to know and not forget.
Occupation Era K-Dramas
Pachinko (2022 & 2024)
Apple TV - Starring: Kim Min-ha, Youn Yuh-jung, Soji Arai, Lee Min-ho, Jin Ha, Jung Eun-chae
Genre: Historical drama
If you haven't read the novel Pachinko by Lee Min-jin, it is very good and you should read it. This drama is based on the book and follows four decades of a family whose main protagonist has to endure deep discrimination under Japanese rule. The story is complicated, showing people’s need for adaptiveness for survival to circumstance and place.
Nice interview with Park So Hee (Soji Arai) here - the article is in Korean, but the video is in English
Mr. Sunshine - 미스터 션샤인 (2018)
Netflix – Starring Lee Byung-hun, Kim Tae-ri, Yoo Yeon-seok, Kim Min-jung, Byun Yo-han
Genre: Historical melodrama, rom-dram
This series is excellent and should be on your must-watch list. It tells the story of a slave boy who watches his mother killed in front of him and escapes to the United States at the time of the Shinmiyago or Korean Expedition by the US. He ends up returning to Korea as a US army captain on a diplomatic mission and falls in love with the daughter of a noble family who is a resistance fighter. A secondary story follows a samurai member of the Yakuza and a wealthy hotel owner who is also a clandestine resistance fighter. The series takes place early in the occupation. The story is compelling, the cinematography is beautiful and the OST is something you will want to listen to over and over again.
The Vertex (also known as The Peak) – 절정 – (2011)
Kocowa – Starring: Kim Dong-wan, Seo Hyun-jin
Genre: Historical, romance, slice-of-life, drama
This short series is just two episodes long and was not available on a streaming platform until recently. It tells the story of poet Yi Yuk-sa, whose poetry we cover in August’s book club, and his tragic, short life, working with the Korean resistance and writing poetry.
Chicago Typewriter - 시카고 타자기 (2017)
The Roku Channel, Tubi – free, Netflix – Starring Yoo Ah-in, Im Soo-jung, and Go Kyung-pyo
Genre: Fantasy, rom-dram
This drama is about three resistance fighters from the 1930s, reincarnated as a writer, a ghostwriter and a fan, all haunted by their past lives that were also intertwined. They seek to redeem the mistakes of their past. This is not the strongest drama in our list. It weaves in the past, but it is primarily about the relationship between these three people and not as strongly about the time period in the past.
Bridal Mask - 각시탈 (2012)
Kocowa – Starring: Joo Won, Jin Se-yeon, Park Ki-woong, Han Chae-ah
Genre: Historical drama, action, romance
The series is based on true events and takes place in the 1930s and features a pro-Japanese Korean policeman, treated as a traitor by his countrymen, working with the Japanese police to find a resistance fighter named Bridal Mask. He eventually changes sides and works to defeat the Japanese.
Different Dreams - 이몽 (2019)
Kocowa, Viki – Starring: This series stars Lee Yo-won, Yoo Ji-tae, Lim Ju-hwan and Nam Gyu-ri.
Genre: Historical melodrama
The setting is split between Seoul and Shanghai during the Japanese occupation, after March 1, 1919 and after the Korean Provisional Government is established in Shanghai. Lee Yo-won’s character is a doctor who was raised by a Japanese family who becomes a spy for the Korean government. She ends up meeting Kim Bon Wong (Yoo Ji-tae), the leader of the Korean Provisional Government. They have different dreams for how Korea can become independent, but they work together.
Occupation Era Movies
Dongju: The Portrait of a Poet – 동주 (2016)
Prime – Starring: Kang Ha-neul, Park Jeong-min
Genre: Historical drama
Filmed in black and white, this subtle film tells the story of the life of Yun Dong-ju, one of the premiere resistance poets of the occupation period. His conflict to express the anguish of the occupation through words while he watches his cousin and best friend fight with actions plays out painfully through the movie.
Assassination – 암살 (2015)
Free on Tubi, Rentable on Apple TV, Prime – Starring: Jun Ji-hyun, Lee Jung-jae, Ha Jung-woo, Oh Dal-su, Cho Jin-woong
Genre: Spy, action, thriller
The film is set in Seoul and Shanghai in the 1930s during the Japanese occupation, featuring resistance fighters plotting to assassinate a high-ranking Japanese officer. The story is complex and shows the split pieces of the resistance that existed in many places. It also shows the cat and mouse tactics of infiltration and betrayal by both resistance fighters and those loyal to Japan.
Mal-Mo-E: The Secret Mission - 말모이 (2019)
Kocowa, Viki [subscription], The Roku Channel, Tubi [free], rentable on Prime) Starring: Yoo Hae-jin, Yoon Kye-sang with a large and famous ensemble cast
Genre: Historical drama
Based on a true story, this dramedy shows a group of Koreans secretly producing a hangul dictionary to try to preserve the Korean language (and all of its regionalisms) that had been banned by the occupying Japanese. The secret dictionary creates are an historical fact, though the characters in this film are fiction. This is a good film that addresses the challenges of preserving regionalisms in language when language has been banned from being used. There are light moments, but it is still a difficult story.
Harbin – 하얼빈 (2024)
Disney, rentable on Viki, AppleTV, Prime, PlexTV – Starring: Hyun Bin, Park Jeong-min, Jo Woo-jin, Jeon Yeon-been, Park Hoon, Yoo Jae-myung, Lily Franky, Lee Dong-wook
Genre: Historical, biographical drama
Early in the occupation, before either world war, Ahn Jung-geun was a resistance fighter opposing occupation. The film tells the true story of Ahn who ends up assassinating Prince Ito Hirobumi of Japan, the first Prime Minister of Japan and the first Resident General of Korea under occupation. Hargin is the name of the train station where the assassination takes place.
Man of Will - 대장 김창수 (2017)
Free on The Roku Channel, PlexTV, Tubi – Starring: Cho Jin-woong, Song Seung-heon
Genre: Historical, biographical drama
The film is based on a novel showing two years in the life of the independence activist Kim Ku (also known as Kim Chang-soo). Kim murders a man believed to have murdered the last Korean empress, Empress Myeongseong in 1895. Even though this film does not take place during occupation, it takes place in the years and incidents directly leading into occupation. After Kim is imprisoned, he sees how the poverty-stricken prisoners, many of whom have been falsely imprisoned, but who don’t know how to fight back. He begins educating them and teaching them how to read and write. He ends up escaping from prison and becoming an activist.
Anarchist from Colony - 박열 (2017)
Kocowa, free on Tubi - Starring: Lee Je-hoon, Choi Hee-seo
Genre: Historical drama
This biographically true story is about an anarchist and revolutionary named Pak Yol who organizes the anarchist group Heukdohoe (known by other names such as Futei-sha) to assassinate Japan’s Crown Prince during Japanese occupation. The trailer makes it look like a comedy, which it is not. It does have comical moments, though. This film covers the Kanto Massacre, which happened after the Kanto Earthquake, where 6,000 mostly Koreans and some Chinese were massacred by police and vigilantes with approval by at least some of the Japanese government. After the massacre and until today, most Japanese deny that the massacre occurred.
The Battle: Roar to Victory - 봉오동 전투 (2019)
Kocowa, Viki, free on Tubi - Starring: Yoo Hae-jin, Ryu Jun-yeol, Jo Woo-jin
Genre: Historical drama
This period war drama film revolves around the little-known Battle of Fengwudong between Korean independence militias and Japanese forces in Manchuria in 1920 and following the March 1, 1919 demonstrations and aftermath, during the Japanese occupation of Korea. Several major battles and massacres of Korean resistance groups took place in this area at this time.
The Last Princess - 덕혜옹주 (2016)
Free on Tubi and The Roku Channel - Starring: Son Ye-jin, Park Hae-il
Genre: Historical drama
This film follows the last princess of Joseon, forced to move to Japan in 1925 at age 13, she desperately misses Korea. She is forced to marry a Japanese aristocrat in 1931 and develops mental illness from the trauma. Her entire life she wants to return to Korea and can only do so at the very end of her life in 1962. Son Ye-jin gives a very moving portrayal of Princess Deokye.
The Silenced - 경성학교: 사라진 소녀들 (2015)
Free on Tubi and The Roku Channel - Starring: Park Bo-young, Uhm Ji-won, Park So-dam
Genre: Mystery, thriller
This film takes place in a girls’ sanatorium where the girls who were sent there to get healthy, are getting sick and dying because the Japanese are using them to test a supposed performance-enhancing drug. This particular story is fictional and deeply dramatized, but it is well documented that the Japanese did physical experiments with drugs and other substances on many, many Koreans.
Snowy Road - 눈길 (2015)
Free on PlexTV - Starring: Kin Hyang-gi, Kim Sae-ron, Kim Young-ok
Genre: Historical drama
This is a difficult film to watch, but is really a must see. It tells the story of two teenage girls who are friends, one smart and who thinks she is signing up to go to work and the other who is dragged away from her home. They both end up in the same train to Manchuria to be used as sex slaves (“Comfort Women”) during occupation. Tragically, one of the main actors, Kim Sae-ron, ended her life this year.
Love, Lies - 해어화 (2016)
Free on PlexTV, Tubi, and The Roku Channel, available on Prime - Starring: Han Hyo-joo, Chun Woo-hee, Yoo Yeon-seok
Genre: Historical drama
This film features two gisaeng in training (state prostitutes) at one of the last institutions that existed for this in 1943 – late in the occupation. Wanting to be singers, they concentrate on traditional music when the first iteration of pop music (trot) is becoming popular in Korea. A love betrayal breaks apart their friendship. The film was praised for its detailed depiction of wartime Seoul.
Herstory - 허스토리 (2018)
Free on PlexTV, Tubi, rentable on Prime, available on Viki - Starring: Kim Hee-ae, Kim Hae-sook, Ye Soo-young, Moon Sook
Genre: Drama
This is a film about a true trial that took place in the 1990s by a group of women from Busan against the Japanese government because they were forced to be sex slaves (“Comfort Women”) during the occupation. It isn’t set during the occupation, but tells the true stories of women that experienced this abuse during the occupation. The title is word used in feminist circles, but in actuality, these women were not seeking something extraordinary – they simply wanted acknowledgement that what was done to them was wrong. Many people in modern Korea did not want them talking publicly about the subject that is still looked at as shameful. The actresses are all older super stars. Footage of real survivors is also shown.
