7 must-watch movies by legendary director Lee Chang Dong: Burning, Oasis, Green Fish and more

Lee Chang Dong is one of the most revered directors from South Korea. Here is a list of must-watch Lee Chang Dong movies that you can not miss out on.

By Tanya Saxena

Updated on May 20, 2024 | 07:08 PM IST | 181.7K

Burning, Oasis, Green Fish; Images: CGV Arthouse, CJ Entertainment

Lee Chang Dong is one of the most gifted directors in the present times who has a knack for delving deeper into the themes of psychological trauma. To understand his psyche and style, every admirer needs to watch these Lee Chang Dong movies. His deeper intriguing style of character experimentation and study set him apart from the rest.

Lee Chang Dong’s directorial style is one which is found once in a blue moon and his mastery has been accoladed with many awards through the years. He himself describes his directorial style as one filled with despair. Riveting in the swallows of tragedy, his characters are shown suffering.

Lee Chang Dong sets his movies in the depths of naturalism while bringing the important social and political climate of South Korea to the forefront.

7 outstanding Lee Chang Dong movies to watch

1. Burning

Burning has been acclaimed by various accolades and was even named one of the best films of the 21st century. This Korean film tells a driving tale filled with psychological suspense and drama. The movie was based on a short story by Haruki Murakami named Barn Burning.

Burning follows the suspenseful story of a young man, Lee Jong Su. He wants to become a novelist but to get by he does a number of odd jobs. One day, he meets his childhood friend, Shin Hae Mi, with whom he gets involved.

The story gets more interesting with an unknown person who looks rich but does not tell what he actually does but has a strange hobby of burning greenhouses. It gets worse when the girl suddenly goes missing and so does her cat.

Cast: Yoo Ah In, Steven Yeun, Jeon Jong Seo
Runtime: 148 minutes
Release Date: May 17, 2018
Where to watch: Prime Video
Genre: Psychological Thriller

2. Oasis

Oasis is a thought-provoking story of love from Korean cinema that will make you think hard about how one perceives other individuals and the way it can change someone’s life.

Oasis follows the story of the romance between a man who is mildly mentally unstable and an ex-convict and a woman who suffers from cerebral palsy.

The story takes the audience through the difficult romance and love shared by these two people who are somewhere challenged mentally and physically. It moves the viewers to ask if love is equal for everyone then why not humans can be the same?

Cast: Sol Kyung Gu, Moon So Ri
Runtime: 132 minutes
Release Date: August 15, 2002
Genre: Psychological drama romance

3. Green Fish

Green Fish is one of the best Lee Chang Dong movies and can not be missed. The movie being a noir crime film is laddened with action and the word of crime.

The movie works as a critique of South Korean society through the eyes of a man who is unexpectedly ensnared in a web of crime which ultimately becomes his undoing.

Mak Dong is a man who has been discharged from the military with a poignant dream of seeing his family happy and together which leads him to do things that lead him to an ugly world.

Cast: Han Suk Kyu, Shim Hye Jin, Moon Sung Keun
Runtime: 111 minutes
Release Date: February 7, 1997
Genre: Neo-noir crime

4. Peppermint Candy

Peppermint Candy is the second in the record of Lee Chang Dong movies. The movie presents life in its hardest truths in the form of a middle-aged man’s story.

The film begins with the opening scene where we see Kim Yong Ho walking onto a train track and staying there seemingly committing suicide. His last words leave one thinking ‘I want to go back again’. Peppermint Candy then goes back in time in a reverse chronological manner telling what brought him to this moment in the present.

Cast: Sol Kyung Gu, Moon So Ri, Kim Yeo Jin
Runtime: 130 minutes
Release Date: October 14, 1999
Genre: Drama

5. Secret Sunshine

Secret Sunshine tells a moving story of grief and dealing with it as a woman who has been widowed grapples with it. The movie follows the story of Lee Shin Ae who after losing her husband moves to his hometown to start life anew with her child.

Throughout the movie, we see her struggling with grief, faith, and reeling into madness.

Cast: Jeon Do Yeon, Song Kang Ho
Runtime: 142 minutes
Release Date: May 17, 2007
Genre: Drama

6. Poetry

Poetry is a movie that like some of the best Lee Chang Dong movies was also written by him. The story follows a woman who is in her 60s and is facing the early stages of Alzheimer's disease which is only worsened by the reckless and shameful acts of her grandson. She finds solace in the art of poetry and tries to say what she forgets or fails to say out loud in her poem.

Cast: Yoon Jeong Hee, Lee David
Runtime: 139 minutes
Release Date: May 13, 2010
Genre: Drama

7. Heartbeat

The latest addition to the list of poignant movies directed by Lee Chang Dong is Heartbeat. Heartbeat is a short movie that tells the story through the perspective of an eight-year-old boy who runs from his school by lying to his teacher that he is going to the bathroom.

He suffers from anxiety and is scared that his depressed mother back home might try to kill herself while his father has been thrown out of work without notice.