As of June 2017, Highly Ranked Korean Films on America’s Three Important Rating Sites
It appears there may be a difference in tastes between critics and audiences of difference countries.
LEE Chang-dong’s
Poetry (2010) is the highest rated Korean movie by American critics while moviegoers in Korea have picked
PARK Chan-wook’s
Old Boy (2003) as their favorite.
IMDB rates movies out of ten, and only by users’ votes, so it is more audience- friendly than other websites. The more viewers that rate the film, the more people can trust the rating. Meanwhile, Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic use somewhat different systems, although both unveil their scores based on evaluations of critics and journalists. Rotten Tomatoes measures the percentage of a wide selection of critics on whether they give a positive (Fresh) or negative (Rotten) review for a film. On the other hand, Metacritic relies on the average points of critics, although from a relatively limited pool of media.
Therefore, a variation exists depending on the rating site.
NA Hong-jin’s horror thriller
THE WAILING (2016) has an almost perfect score on Rotten Tomatoes but only holds an 81 on Metacritic, while zombie thriller
TRAIN TO BUSAN (2016) sits at 95% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 72 on Metacritic. Arthouse films tend to occupy higher rankings on Metacritic though a lot of
Hong Sangsoo’s films, including
Right Now, Wrong Then (2015) which has an 81 on Metacritic, receive higher grades on other sites.
KIM Jee-woon’s periodic action film
The Age of Shadows (2016), which was released in the U.S. in September 2016, has a 7.2 on IMDB and a 72 on Metacritic. The movie currently maintains a 100% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes as of June 2017 but has not been able to receive a ‘Certified Fresh’ rating because not enough critics have reviewed it.