Movies Similar to When the Pomegranate Flowers Bloom

The Seoul Guardians(2026)

On December 3, 2024, in Seoul, the President of South Korea Yoon Sukyeol declares the martial law. Troops move toward the National Assembly to seize control. Meanwhile, citizens rush to the National Assembly to block the troops, while lawmakers break through police's barricades at the main gate, climb over the walls to attend the session that lifts the martial law.

The Hinzpeter Story(2018)

In May of 1980, the city is locked down and phone lines are dead because of protests and struggles in demand of democracy. Just when Gwangju was being ignored by the media, Jurgen Hinzpeter, a reporter from Germany, sneaks in despite the danger!

Let's be Together(2024)

Gwangju Video: The Missing(2020)

There are people whose lives have been shaken by the 'Gwangju Video'. On May of 1980, the course of their lives changed in front of a huge wave of truth in Gwangju. The people who made and spread the 'Gwangju Video' are also the people who had their bodies on the waves. The hidden stories of these people, the 40th anniversary of the Gwangju Uprising, and the pursuit to trace the missing 4 hours of mass shooting will be revealed for the first time.

존경하고 사랑하는 국민여러분(2022)

Good Light, Good Air(2021)

The title Good Light, Good Air is oddly paradoxical. Keenly working at the point where his artistic identity and persistent attention on modern Korean history meet, director Im in this film focused on where the history of oppression and struggle intersect between Gwangju and Buenos Aires. In both cities, a great number of people who fought against the dictatorship were slaughtered and disappeared. The people of both societies still live with that trauma. When the testimonies of the victims of the two cities cross over, the film gives us chills as the eerie history of the two is very similar. Through Good Light, Good Air, director Im asks us how we will remember the past from where we stand right now.

Kim-Gun(2019)

KIM-GUN searches for the whereabouts of a young man whose identity has sparked a national controversy over the 1980 May 18 Gwangju Uprising. Starting with the vague memories of those who had crossed paths with him during that time, the film tracks down those who participated in the Uprising as “Citizen Soldiers.” It also traces KIM’s final steps, based on photographic clues found in the firearms he carried and the “Surveillance Truck No. 10” in which he rode. By identifying KIM-GUN, we believe that we can find valuable leads to resolving the ongoing controversy over May 18. Why did a nameless young man join the Uprising? Why did he take up arms? Where has he gone afterwards? It is the answers to these questions that the film seeks.

The Confessions of May in the Wilderness(2020)

The movie is a compilation of the movie "Wilderness" in which a member of the airborne unit who killed a girl during the Gwangju Democratization Movement burned himself to death with remorse and "Mr. Kant's Presentation", the story of a man who wanders around as a result of torture after participating as a civilian army.

Kim Dae Jung Must Not Die(2024)

Kim Dae Jung, who stands next to people in the middle of caotic history! A young businessman Kim Dae Jung recognized the victims of ideology. He decided to be a politician to make his country where people's politic and democracy are rooted. The price of being leave from a guaranteed future and take the first step on a bumby road was kidnapping, death threats, imprisonment, and a death sentence that shook him to the core, but even in his final moments, when he was sentenced to death, Kim never wavered. "Democracy will be recovered. I believe in it." The life of President Kim Dae-jung, a death row inmate who survived from the throes of death, four parliamentary elections, and three unsuccessful presidential campaigns, is etched into the modern history of South Korea.

President(2019)

This documentary celebrates the life of former President Kim Dae-joong, who fought for democracy in South Korea and peace in the Korean Peninsula. It marks the 10th anniversary of his passing and covers his challenging journey, from his childhood on an island to his imprisonment, exile, near-death experiences, and ultimately becoming the president.

No Name Stars(2011)

This year is the 30th anniversary of the Gwangju Democratization Movement. Though the country commemorates the event as the official historical records, it does not include any 'real' accounts of the people who experienced it firsthand. The students who were part of the movement; the female vendors who made rice balls for the students; the female high school students cooked at the government building; now, past their middle age, they live as ordinary citizens in Gwangju city. How is the event remembered by these people?

Withstanding and Existing(2023)

Cinema Gwangju is the first theater in the Honam-region and the only theater that opened in 1935. The cinema has screened films in its original place up to these days. A musician Gonne Choi invites the seven musicians to share "Gwangju-ness" from her own perspective and they visit the cinema to speak and sing about their own "Withstanding and Existing". This documentary also contains the story of the painter Park Tae-gyu, who continuously has been working on hand-painting movie posters from the 1990s until today.

Gwangcheon-dong, Mr.Kim(2024)

Gwangju is known as a key city of democracy in Korea. Kim Hwan-gyung, a young media artist, begins to live in a typical slum, Gwangcheon-dong. The residents share stories about the lives of the early urban poor, the first Gwangju democracy movement, and concerns about rapid redevelopment. Gwangcheon-dong is scheduled to be demolished and disappear entirely by 2024.

The Yearbook: Waiting for the Teacher(2026)

On May 27, 1980—the last day of the Gwangju Uprising—students at Sinheung High School in Jeonju defied martial law. Their teacher disciplined them to protect them, but this act of love left forty years of misunderstanding. Now in his nineties, the teacher reunites with his former students to finally offer each other the reconciliation they had long set aside.

A Petal(1996)

The story of a girl who experienced the Gwangju massacre at the age of 15, and its effect on her life in later years.

Scout(2007)

1980, Kwang-ju is fired up about a genius pitcher, a senior in high school. Ho-chang takes confident strides across the field making his way by cutting through the sand dust. He’s a university scouter on a mission. His task is to scout the genius pitcher, SUN Dong-yeul, a master of baseball who may be scouted to a rival university. But he is no where to be seen. But Ho-chang is determined to not let down his reputation as a successful scouter, and his scouting mission of 10 days begin! An original story of a scouter on a 10 day mission full of undisclosed history will now unfold!

Le Grand Chef(2007)

A disgraced chef tries to restore his name by competing in a culinary contest to win the knife of Korea's last royal chef.

Le Grand Chef 2: Kimchi Battle(2010)

"Le Grand Chef 2" begins with the Korean president visiting the Japanese Prime Minister and becoming involved in a heated debate over the origins of kimchi. The Japanese Prime Minister makes the bold claim that kimchi is an original Japanese dish which sets off the Korean president. Upon the Korean's president return home he sets upon a globalization plan for kimchi, which includes a nationwide "Kimchi Contest". Then, a lady named Jang-eun (Kim Jung-Eun) and her step-brother Sung-Chan (Jin Goo) compete in the Kimchi dish contest, with both siblings using their mother's kimchi recipe.

May 18(2007)

The citizens of Gwangju lead a relatively peaceful life, until one day the military takes over the city, accusing the residents of conspiracy and claiming that they are communist sympathisers preparing a revolution against the current government. Seeing as the soldiers beat defenceless people, mainly students, to death, the citizens are in for retaliation and form a militia.

The March for the Lost(2018)

This is the story of a father who died mysteriously in May of 1980, a mother who lives in the shadows with a bullet in her head and not being able to forget May 18th and their daughter, and the nation's greatest comedian, Hee-soo.