Movies Similar to The Journals of Musan

Crossing(2008)

Yong-soo is an ex-soccer player who lives in a small coal-mine village in North Korea with his wife and young son, Joon. Although living in extreme poverty like many other families in North Korea, the family is happy just to be with each other. Then one day, Yong-soo's pregnant wife becomes critically ill. Let alone medicine, Yong-soo can't even find food for her in North Korea. So he decides to secretly cross the border to China hoping to find the medicine for his wife.

In Our Prime(2022)

Ji-woo, an outcast at a prestigious private school, meets Hak-sung, the school janitor who is actually a mathematical genius who defected from North Korea.

One Summer Night(2016)

Caught in forbidden love, Yong Joon defects from North Korea, leaving Jae Sung behind. Years later, a reunion forces him to choose between past and present.

A Tour Guide(2023)

Making use of her Chinese that she had picked up while living in China, Han-young obtains her tour guide-interpreter's license and starts working as a guide in Korea. She gets used to her new surroundings and gains good results at work. However, she is forced to face challenges and changes as she loses touch with her brother In-hyuk, and the number of Chinese tourists decreases due to political tension between Korean and China.

Stateless Things(2012)

Stateless Things crosscuts between the lives of two young men, one an illegal immigrant from North Korea stuck in dead-end jobs, the other the kept boy of a married businessman stifling in a swanky apartment.

Dooman River(2010)

Chang-ho, 12, becomes friends with a North-Korean immigrant about the same age who just crossed the Dooman river, border between North-Korea and China. His mute sister and his wise grandfather accompany him through a series of misfortunes.

Sunshine(2015)

Sul-ji, exiled from North Korea 2 years ago, is cheerful lady who is working at flower shop. Using her experience that drew propaganda paintings in North Korea, she draws wall-painting for part-timer. Desperate Broadcast producer Shin-woong, discovers her and trying to make hit documentary about her, but she hesitates minding her families still in North. Eventually she decides to go in under the condition that she hides her identity.

Beautiful Days(2018)

At the request of his dying father, Zhenchen, a Chinese student, goes to Seoul in search of his mother, whom he has not seen for fourteen years. He soon discovers that she is working as a hostess in a bar…

Poongsan(2011)

Poongsan has the unenviable - and death-defying - job of delivering messages across the North and South Korean border to separated families. When South Korean government agents ask him to smuggle in In-ok, the lover of a high-ranking North Korean defector, into the South, the damsel and rescuer fall in love instead.

Dance Town(2011)

A North Korean refugee, Jung-Nim, is trying to find a new life in South Korea, with people suspecting that she is a spy.

My Name Is Loh Kiwan(2024)

After defecting from North Korea, Loh Kiwan struggles to obtain refugee status in Belgium, where he encounters a dejected woman who has lost all hope.

Fighter(2021)

After a few months of social adjustment training, the North Korean refugee Jina moves to a small studio in Seoul and starts her new life. To bring her father to South Korea, she needs money but no matter how hard she works, the discrimination doesn’t let her save enough money.

48m(2013)

Ap-lok river flows between North Korea and China. A point along the river runs about 48 meters. There, North Koreans risk their lives by trying to cross the river. Real stories of those people who attempt to cross the river are told.

Escape(2024)

After completing his required decade of military service and being honored as a hero, a North Korean sergeant makes a sudden shocking attempt to defect to the South, risking life and limb for the chance to finally determine his own destiny.

Over the Border(2006)

After learning that his grandfather is alive and living in Seoul, a North Korean musician must leave his fiancee behind and accompany his family to South Korea.

Apostle(2014)

In a small North Korean village near the border of China, there are believers who get together in an underground church, away from the eyes of the persecuting government. When the missionary from China, their only support route, is cut off, things begin to get very tense. Chulho, who had been arrested along with his wife, returns. After losing his wife in the interrogations, Chulho had been released and unseen for 2 years before coming back to his home, claiming that he had been commanded by God to lead the believers across the border and into South Korea. The brothers wonder if Chulho is trustworthy, and whether it is the right thing to do to leave their homeland.

Crazy Love(2019)

Jung-ho, the former South Korean undercover hid in North for 20 years. When he finally flees back to South, his dead wife starts to appear and haunts his memory. Tracing back his faint memory he looks for his old colleagues who are supposed to return to South but they’re all missing or dead. 20 years ago Jung-ho got a mission to help North Korean officer and his family to exile to South. However the operation failed and this made him have an irrevocable decision. The secret past that Jung-ho never wants to reveal is about to come out 20 years later in the South.

The Net(2016)

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

Dreamer(2020)

The North Korean defector, who has just settled in the South, is confused by his brother who was separated from the defection process. Ji-hyeok, a Chinese restaurant deliveryman who is having a hard time finding a job due to his criminal record, wants to leave Korea as soon as possible. To raise money for his defector brother, Ji-hyeok, who is involved in a dangerous drug-transport errand, suggests intercepting billions of won of methamphetamine.

Until We Meet(1999)