30 Years at No. 1 Globally: Koreans Rank Parasite at No. 6, Inception at No. 2—What’s the Top Film?

What is the most loved film among Korean audiences?

According to an analysis by Korea's largest movie rating platform, WatchaPedia, based on 700 million star rating data points from last year, The Shawshank Redemption was selected as the most loved film by Koreans. Scoring 4.418 out of 5, The Shawshank Redemption is also a masterpiece that has held the top spot on IMDb, the world’s largest movie site, for 30 years.

Second place went to Christopher Nolan's Inception, which scored 4.373 points. Nolan's films dominated the rankings, with The Dark Knight (4th place, 4.368 points) and Interstellar (4.271 points) also securing spots in the top 10, bringing the total to three of his works in the list. Meanwhile, Oppenheimer scored 4.1 points, falling short of surpassing the records set by his previous films.

Among domestic films, Bong Joon-ho's Parasite was the only one to make it into the top 10, scoring 4.29 points and ranking 6th overall. In the rankings exclusive to Korean films, Extreme Job (4.19 points), New World (4.17 points), Tazza: The High Rollers (4.16 points), and Decision to Leave (4.14 points) followed.

This survey focused on films rated by more than 50,000 users. Among those with fewer than 50,000 ratings, notable high-scoring films included the Lebanese movie Capernaum (4.3), the Taiwanese film Yi Yi: A One and a Two (4.1), and Pixar’s short film La Luna (4.1).

In contrast, the bottom 10 rankings were entirely occupied by Korean films. The lowest-rated film was The Last Godfather, which scored 1.64. Following it were Sector 7, D-War, He Was Cool, and Jenny, Juno. Notably, director Shim Hyung-rae received the dubious distinction of having two of his films, The Last Godfather and D-War, ranked in the bottom 10.

Meanwhile, WatchaPedia, which began its service in 2012, now holds the largest collection of movie rating data in South Korea. Recently, its cumulative star ratings surpassed 728 million.