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Movies like The Yellow Sea

Key Features:
Assassination, On the run, Organized crime, Betrayal, Desperation, Criminal underworld, Hitman, Corruption, Violence-high, Neo-noir, Thriller, Mystery, Chinese cinema
Tone:
serious, gritty, suspense-driven
Target Audience:
Action fans, Thriller enthusiasts, Crime drama aficionados
Emotional Arc:
Desperation → Tension

The Yellow Sea

2010-12-22
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A Korean man in China takes an assassination job in South Korea to make money and find his missing wife. But when the job is botched, he is forced to go on the run from the police and the gangsters who paid him.

Genres
Drama, Thriller, Crime
Cast
Ha Jung-woo, Kim Yun-seok, Cho Seong-ha, Lee Cheol-min, Kwak Do-won, Im Ye-won, Tak Sung-eun, Lee El, Jeong Man-sik, Jeong Min-sung
Crew
Na Hong-jin, Na Hong-jin
Rating
7.343(536 votes)
The Yellow SeaThe Yellow Sea
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Assassination
7.307

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.



A Bittersweet Life
7.4

Kim Sun-woo is an enforcer and manager for a hotel owned by a cold, calculative crime boss, Kang who assigns Sun-woo to a simple errand while he is away on a business trip; to shadow his young mistress, Hee-soo, for fear that she may be cheating on him with a younger man with the mandate that he must kill them both if he discovers their affair.



The Suspect
6.9

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.



Golden Slumber
6.8

A delivery man has to flee for his life when he is framed for the assassination of a political candidate and the evidence against him begins to accumulate.



The Net
The Net(2016)
7.3

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



The Target
6.992

At the same time as murder suspect Yeo-hoon is brought unconscious to the emergency room following a shooting incident, an assailant breaks into the house of Tae-jun, the emergency room's doctor in charge, and kidnaps his wife. The kidnapper calls the doctor and tells him to bring Yeo-hoon to him. To retrieve his wife, Tae-jun has no option but to save the patient and sneak him away before the police can notice.



The City of Violence

Tae-su, a detective fighting organized crime, returns to his hometown for his high school friend Wang-jae's funeral. There, he meets his old friends Pil-ho, Dong-hwan and Seok-hwan and they reminisce. Suspecting something fishy about Wang-jae's death, Tae-su and Seok-hwan start investigating it, each in his own way. Their investigations lead to a land development project that Pil-ho is directing.



The Outlaws
7.684

In Chinatown, law and order is turned upside down when a trio of feral Chinese gangsters arrive, start terrorizing civilians, and usurping territory. The beleaguered local gangsters team up with the police, lead by the badass loose cannon Ma Seok-do, to bring them down. Based on a true story.



The Killer
7.6

Mob assassin Jeffrey is no ordinary hired gun; the best in his business, he views his chosen profession as a calling rather than simply a job. So, when beautiful nightclub chanteuse Jennie is blinded in the crossfire of his most recent hit, Jeffrey chooses to retire after one last job to pay for his unintended victim's sight-restoring operation. But when Jeffrey is double-crossed, he reluctantly joins forces with a rogue policeman to make things right.



A Company Man
6.822

A contract killer becomes disenchanted with his line of work and spares the lives of his two latest would-be-victims. But the assassination company he works for has no intentions of letting him quit.



Contract Killer
7.014

Financially troubled, a newbie hitman reluctantly takes the job of finding the plotted killer of a Japanese tycoon.



Sea Fog
Sea Fog(2014)
6.845

A fishing-boat crew takes on a dangerous commission to smuggle a group of illegal immigrants from China to Korea.



The Childe
7.13

Han, a Filipino-Korean boxer hits the final punch against his opponent at an illegal game and returns home with a few dollars to pay for his mother's surgery.



The Chaser
7.8

Joong-ho is a dirty detective turned pimp, who's in financial trouble as several of his girls have recently disappeared without clearing their debts. While trying to track them down, he finds a clue that the vanished girls were all called up by the same client, whom one of his girls is meeting with right now.



Decision to Leave
7.3

From a mountain peak in South Korea, a man plummets to his death. Did he jump, or was he pushed? When detective Hae-joon arrives on the scene, he begins to suspect the dead man’s wife Seo-rae. But as he digs deeper into the investigation, he finds himself trapped in a web of deception and desire.



Hunt
Hunt(2022)
6.727

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.



New World
New World(2013)
7.413

An undercover cop has his loyalties tested when the boss of the corporate gang he's spent years infiltrating dies.



V.I.P.
V.I.P.(2017)
7.8

A son to a high-ranked official in North Korea commits a series of murders going across the countries around the world. The movie depicts the following events as South Korea, North Korea and Interpol start chasing down after him.



The Killer
7.7

While his girlfriend is away on a trip, retired assassin Bang Ui-kang is tasked with looking after her friend's 17-year-old daughter. After a street attack, Bang Ui-kang becomes embroiled in a murder investigation and dangerous trafficking gang.



Nameless Gangster
6.872

A corrupt customs official joins forces with a vicious gangster to form the most powerful crime partnership in Busan.



Joint Security Area

Two North Korean soldiers are killed in the border area between North and South Korea, prompting an investigation by a neutral body. The sergeant is the shooter, but the lead investigator, a Swiss-Korean woman, receives differing accounts from the two sides.



Silmido
Silmido(2003)
7.1

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.



The Gangster, the Cop, the Devil

After barely surviving a brutal attack by a sadistic serial killer, crime boss Jang Dong-su is left humiliated. Determined to catch the killer known as K, he forms an uneasy alliance with Jung Tae-seok, a relentless and incorruptible detective who often disrupts his illegal business. However, while Jang Dong-su wants K dead, Jung Tae-suk is determined to bring him to justice. With a deal in place—whoever finds K first will decide his fate—the hunt begins, blurring the lines between crime and law.



Night in Paradise
6.9

An assassin named Tae-goo is offered a chance to switch sides with his rival Bukseong gang, headed by Chairman Doh. Tae-goo rejects the offer that results in the murder of his sister and niece. In revenge, Tae-goo brutally kills Chairman Doh and his men and flees to Jeju Island where he meets Jae-yeon, a terminally ill woman. Though, the henchman of the Bukseong gang, Executive Ma is mercilessly hunting Tae-goo to take revenge.



Hindsight
Hindsight(2011)
6.478

A young assassin is sent to kill a retired mob boss. But things get complicated when she begins to like him.



The Man Standing Next
7.085

When the investigation of 'Koreagate' takes place, Park Yong-gak, a former KCIA director who knows everything about the government's operations, heads to the United States in exile.



Mantis
Mantis(2025)
6.21

Mantis, an ace assassin, returns to the contract killer industry after a hiatus, encountering his trainee friend Jae-yi and a retired legendary killer Dok-go, who now runs the organization.



Hit-and-Run Squad
7.158

Min-jae, a rookie police officer with a natural born talent for driving, is assigned to the perfect team: the Hit-and-Run Squad. But at the same time, for police detective Si-yeon, it is a place she is unjustly demoted to for doing her job. The two team up to arrest the rich and powerful speed maniac Jae-chul who is suspected of committing crimes for his obsession for speed.



The Mission
7.459

Triad boss Lung, who has just escaped being killed in an assassination attempt hires the killers Curtis, James, Mike, Roy and Shin for his protection.



Inside Men
6.919

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.



The Man from Nowhere

An ex-special agent is involved in a convoluted drug ring drama. He has to save a drug smuggler's innocent daughter from being the victim of her parents' fight.



Hard Hit
Hard Hit(2021)
7.5

On his way to work, a bank manager receives an anonymous call claiming there's a bomb under his car seat, and if anyone exits the car, it will explode unless he can pay a ransom.



The Replacement Killers

Hired assassin John Lee is asked by Chinatown crime boss Terence Wei to murder the young son of policeman Stan Zedkov. Lee has the boy in his sights, but his conscience gets the better of him, and he spares the child's life. Afraid that Wei will take revenge on his family in China, Lee seeks out expert forger Meg Coburn to obtain the passport he needs to get out of the country, but a band of replacement killers is soon on his trail.



Shiri
Shiri(1999)
6.4

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.



A Hard Day
7.1

After trying to cover up a car accident that left a man dead, a crooked homicide detective is stalked by a mysterious man claiming to have witnessed the event.



A Dirty Carnival

A small-time thug who collects debts for the local triad is torn between his criminal aspirations and his devotion to family.



A Better Tomorrow
6.065

An idealistic policeman must bring down his estranged older brother, now a powerful gangster in a South Korean port city.



Veteran
Veteran(2015)
6.915

When an old collaborator gets severely injured, a veteran policeman tries to figure out the way to bring to justice the ultimately suspected aggressor, a spoiled young executive, heir to a mega corporation, who believes he is above the law.



For the Emperor
5.75

A former professional baseball player becomes entangled in loan-sharking and mob connections after a fixing scandal ejects him from his sport. When his girlfriend vanishes he is forced to confront his mentor and enter a deadly battle.



Real
Real(2017)
5.328

Jang Tae-Young is a popular trouble shooter in the criminal world. He is cold and ambitious. He dreams of building a casino hotel one day. A reporter then goes to Jang Tae-Young.



The King
The King(2017)
7.341

A young Korean man surpasses his difficult childhood by becoming a powerful prosecutor, but soon learns that real power comes at a price.



A Man of Reason
6.659

After spending a decade in prison, a hitman learns that he has a daughter and just wants a chance at a normal life. But his former mob boss wants him back at any cost, sending merciless assassins after him.



Steel Rain
7.084

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 Divine Move
6.722

A professional GO player gathers a team to help him carry out his revenge against the man who killed his brother.



The Beast
The Beast(2019)
6.678

Two rival detectives with different methods try to solve the murder of a missing girl after discovering her mutilated body in the tidelands of Incheon.



Green Fish
6.89

Returning home and finding his town drastically changed, a former soldier falls in with gangsters.



No Tears for the Dead

A hitman accidentally kills a little girl. Filled with regret, he wants to quit. But then to tie up loose ends, he is forced to go on another job, to kill the girl's mother.



Luck-Key
Luck-Key(2016)
7.1

A reverse comedy that tells the story of a perfectionist assassin who falls and hits his head in a sauna, giving him amnesia. When a down-and-out actor switches locker keys with him, they switch lives until the hit-man, who soon becomes an action hero on TV, starts to remember things.



Accident
Accident(2009)
6.7

A self-styled accident choreographer, the Brain is a professional hitman who kills his victims by trapping them in well crafted accidents that look like unfortunate mishaps. When the team's next assignment goes disastrously wrong, Brain begins to suspect that someone else has planned an ‘accident’ on them.



Beasts Clawing at Straws

A struggling restaurant owner, caring for his sick mom, finds a bag of cash in a sauna locker, while a customs officer gets into trouble when his girlfriend runs off with money he borrowed from a loan shark.



Deliver Us from Evil

A retired contract killer goes on a bloody rampage when a young girl finds herself at the mercy of gangland human traffickers and only one man can come to her rescue, with an arsenal of weapons and years of experience in the art of killing.



Cold War II
6.2

A suspected criminal mastermind escapes from police custody, throwing the city into turmoil. With the police department now divided, rival police chiefs are forced to take their fight to the streets of Hong Kong with deadly consequences.



Fulltime Killer
6.8

Professional assassin O has resided in an isolated world of killing and loneliness. But his life begins to change once he meets the innocent Chin; hired to clean O's apartment. However, soon the flamboyent and reckless Tok enters Chin's life with a mission to unveil O's identity and usurp his place as the number one sharp-shooting assassin in the game.



I, the Executioner
6.946

The veteran detective Seo Do-cheol and his team at Major Crimes, relentless in their pursuit of criminals, join forces with rookie cop Park Sun-woo to track down a serial killer who has plunged the nation into turmoil.



Tell Me Something
6.2

Detective Cho, a cop on the edge, is mourning his mother's recent death while under investigation for graft; on top of that he is suddenly put in charge of a seemingly-impenetrable mystery.



The Villainess
6.9

Honed from childhood into a merciless killing machine by a criminal organization, assassin Sook-hee is recruited with the promise of freedom after ten years of service. However, secrets from her past destroy everything she’s worked for and now she embarks on a roaring rampage of revenge.



One Nite in Mongkok
6.782

A gangster's son is accidentally killed during a drunken dispute with a rival gang, and Officer Milo's task force is assigned to the case. He soon learns that a hitman has been hired to take out the rival gang leader. While Milo and his crew desperately try to find and stop the hired gun, fearing all-out war in the streets, Lai Fu, a smart but inexperienced killer from a small town in the mainland, arrives in Hong Kong to do his job.



Unstoppable
7.407

Dong-chul and Ji-soo are a happily married couple. One day, Dong-chul comes home to find his house in disarray and his wife missing.



Kill Boksoon
6.849

At work, she's a renowned assassin. At home, she's a single mom to a teenage daughter. Killing? That's easy. It's parenting that's the hard part.



The Good, the Bad, the Weird

The story of three Korean outlaws in 1930s Manchuria and their dealings with the Japanese army and Chinese and Russian bandits. The Good (a bounty hunter), the Bad (a hitman), and the Weird (a thief) battle the army and the bandits in a race to use a treasure map to uncover the riches of legend.



Helios
Helios(2015)
5.2

Wanted criminal "Helios" and his assistant stole a quantity of uranium and plan to produce weapons of mass destruction. They are planning to trade with a terrorist organization in Hong Kong. Chief Inspector Lee Yinming and Inspector Fan Kaming lead the Counter Terrorism Response Unit of the Hong Kong Police Force. Along with a Chinese senior official, a physics professor, and two South Korean weapon experts, they hope to defuse a crisis sufficient to destroy the world.



Nowhere to Hide
6.7

Detective Woo is on the trail of the mysterious gangster Sungmin, a master of disguise who always manages to elude his pursuers. Eventually, the cop tracks down and confronts the master-criminal in the suburbs of a coal-mining town.



Dog Bite Dog
6.6

A young Cambodian man who has been trained to fight for money in his country is hired to kill someone in Hong Kong. He performs the hit and then flees from Hong Kong police, who are wrestling with internal problems of a model cop and his son, who is also on the force and who was told by his dad not to become a police officer.



Public Enemy
7.2

A notorious dirty cop makes an honest attempt to catch a serial killer who even murdered his own parents.



The Berlin File
6.7

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.



Steel Rain 2: Summit
7.048

A futuristic film about a crisis near the brink of war after three leaders are kidnapped by a North Korean nuclear submarine in a coup d’état during a summit between the two Koreas and the United States.



Secret Reunion
6.373

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.



Missing You
7.25

A girl who lost her father to a serial killer, a detective and a killer are intertwined in a chaotic relationship and are met with an unprecedented series of events.



Operation Mekong

The Chinese government launches a daring operation to arrest a violent drug cartel following the discovery of thirteen Chinese crew members' bodies on two ships sailing through the Mekong River.



Voice of a Murderer

After Gyeong-bae's son is kidnapped, he receives a call from the kidnapper asking for 100 million won. The detectives are teamed up for the case, yet the culprit gets away at every opportunity.



Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance

A deaf man and his girlfriend resort to desperate measures in order to fund a kidney transplant for his sister. Things go horribly wrong, and the situation spirals rapidly into a cycle of violence and revenge.



Project Wolf Hunting
6.404

While under heavily armed guard, the dangerous convicts aboard a cargo ship unite in a coordinated escape attempt that soon escalates into a bloody, all-out riot. But as the fugitives continue their brutal campaign of terror, they soon discover that not even the most vicious among them is safe from the horror they unknowingly unleashed from the darkness below deck.



Assassins
Assassins(1995)
6.5

Assassin Robert Rath arrives at a funeral to kill a prominent mobster, only to witness a rival hired gun complete the job for him -- with grisly results. Horrified by the murder of innocent bystanders, Rath decides to take one last job and then return to civilian life. But finding his way out of the world of contract killing grows ever more dangerous as Rath falls for his female target and becomes a marked man himself.



The Wild Goose Lake
6.65

A gangster ends up making a mistake that causes every gun on both sides of the law to point at him. While on the run, he comes across a mysterious woman who might get him out of trouble or make things worse.



The Fatal Encounter

Late 18th-century Joseon dynasty. The King is beleaguered and surrounded by traitors of the ruling elite. They plan to assassinate and replace him with a puppet. But the King has some aces up his sleeve that may help him defeat them all.



The Roundup
7.295

The 'Beast Cop' Ma Seok-do heads to a foreign country to extradite a suspect, but soon after his arrival, he discovers additional murder cases and hears about a vicious killer who has been committing crimes against tourists for several years.



Quick
Quick(2011)
5.909

A biker is forced to deliver a ticking time bomb by a mysterious caller who has put an explosive helmet on his ex-girlfriend.



The Client
6.9

Kang Seong-hee, a famous lawyer, takes up a case wherein he has to defend a man who is the main suspect in his wife's death. However, a formidable public attorney tries to test his mettle in court.



The Merciless
7.2

Jae-ho, who aims to become the number one in a crime organization, gets to build up trust with Hyun-su, an ambitious newbie in the prison. While they try to take over the organization after the prison release, their ulterior motives starts to emerge.



The Truth Beneath
6.947

For 15 days, a politician and his wife navigate a scandal after their daughter goes missing on the eve of the national elections.



Missing
Missing(2016)
6.9

A working single mother comes home one day to find that her daughter and the nanny have disappeared -- and this is just the beginning of her nightmare.



Golden Slumber
7.078

When easy-going Aoyagi meets an old friend for a fishing trip, he ends up drugged, framed for the Prime Minister's assassination, and on the run from corrupt cops. It's only the beginning of what quickly becomes the worst, weirdest day of his life. But he'll get by with a little help from his friends, who include a famous pop diva, a rockabilly deliveryman, a crippled old gangster, and the world's most cheerful serial killer.



Duelist
Duelist(2005)
6.414

Detective Nam-soon goes undercover with her partner Detective Ahn to investigate the counterfeit money. She discovers that one loyal henchman, Sad Eyes, a beautiful swordsman with a pale, blank face, is related to the truth. Nam-soon and Sad Eyes confront each other in a series of duels and become confused between love and obligation to duty.



Jo Pil-ho: The Dawning Rage

On the run from a dogged internal affairs agent, a corrupt cop reluctantly teams up with a defiant teen to unravel a conspiracy before it's too late.



The Boss
The Boss(1973)
6.8

A hitman finds himself embroiled in the middle of a Mafia war between the Sicilians and the Calabrians.



The Isle
The Isle(2000)
6.9

Mute Hee-Jin is working as a clerk in a fishing resort in the Korean wilderness; selling baits, food and occasionally her body to the fishing tourists. One day she falls in love with Hyun-Shik, who is on the run from the police, and rescues him with a fish hook when he tries to commit suicide.



Blind
Blind(2011)
7.4

A blind witness and a runaway help the police find the suspect in a hit and run until the culprit realizes that they are close on his trail. The killer tracks her down and Soo-ah realizes that in order to save Gi-sub she would have to risk her life.



Hide and Seek
6.545

Sung-soo has everything a man could want: a beautiful wife and children, a comfortable home and luxury car, and plenty of money in the bank. When he learns that his estranged brother, Sung-chul, has gone missing, haunting memories of their troubled past urge him to visit his brother’s apartment in search of answers.



The Unjust
6.6

An honest cop has to compromise with his principles when he is told to find a scapegoat for a high-profile serial killer case in exchange for a big promotion.



The Cursed: Dead Man's Prey

Following a brutal murder case, the police are baffled to find out that the assailant, whose body was found on the scene with the victim, had already been dead for three months. Meanwhile, journalist Jin-hee sets up a live interview with an anonymous caller claiming he is the true killer behind the mysterious murder. When the man announces three more murders will occur in the hands of the undead, Jin-hee must face the sinister forces beyond understanding.



China Moon
6.1

Detective Kyle Bodine falls for Rachel Munro who is trapped in a violent marriage. After she shoots her husband, Kyle relucantly agrees to help hide the body, but his partner is showing an unusual flair for finding clues.



Fabricated City
7.7

In real life, Kwon Yoo is unemployed, but in the virtual game world he is the best leader. Kwon Yoo is then framed for a murder. With the help of hacker Yeo-wool, he tries to uncover the truth behind the murder case.



Train to Busan
7.7

When a zombie virus pushes Korea into a state of emergency, those trapped on an express train to Busan must fight for their own survival.



Cold Eyes
Cold Eyes(2013)
7.5

Ha Yoon-ju becomes the newest member of a unit within the Korean Police Forces Special Crime Department that specializes in surveillance activities on high-profile criminals. She teams up with Hwang Sang-jun, the veteran leader of the unit, and tries to track down James who is the cold-hearted leader of an armed criminal organization.



Bad Guy
Bad Guy(2002)
6.514

A pimp enforcer takes revenge on a woman who rejected his advances by tricking her into prostitution, but complications arise.



The Swindlers
6.71

A group of swindlers unite to hunt down an infamous con man who was known dead, amid their hidden motives and deception.



The Man from Hong Kong

Australian authorities arrest a man believed to be connected to the Sydney criminal underworld and send for Inspector Fang Sing Leng from Hong Kong to question him. After the alleged criminal is assassinated, Inspector Leng and the Sydney police try to hunt down those responsible and hope to solve their case along the way.



The Hit
The Hit(1984)
6.4

Ten years after ratting on his old mobster friends in exchange for personal immunity, two hit men drive a hardened criminal to Paris for his execution. However, while on the way, whatever can go wrong, does go wrong.



The Swordsman
7.5

After being blinded in a coup against the king, Joseon's greatest swordsman goes into hiding, far removed from his city's anguish. But when traffickers kidnap his daughter, he has no choice but to unsheathe his sword once more.

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