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A gloriously framed rumination on life and the passing of time, an American version of Kim Ki-duk’s gentle parable would almost certainly be directed by Terrence Malick. A Buddhist monk grows up in a floating temple on a remote lake. Each phase of life is backdropped by a different season – we get two goes at spring, because who doesn’t love spring? – but despite its contemplative nature, Kim’s masterpiece still finds a way to confront its tougher, seemier side too. It was filmed at Jusanji Pond in Juwangsan National Park, where trees emerge from the surface of the man-made lake and serenity is guaranteed. The temple itself, alas, was built for the film.

Kwon Oh-seung’s debut could be Korea’s finest serial killer thriller since The Chaser and I Saw The Devil. This urban and energetic stalker drama is no rehash, though – it’s a clever spin on a classic formula. The would-be victim of Midnight is deaf, which means her navigation of the neon-soaked surroundings depends on an entirely different set of skills to her able-bodied pursuer (portrayed menacingly by Squid Game actor Wi Ha-jun).

Its Somali characters are paper thin – if that – but this ever-more amped-up action-thriller delivers in nearly every other area as it recounts the true-ish story of North and South Korean diplomats teaming up to escape Mogadishu as it falls into violent revolution in 1991. Director Ryoo Seung-wan lays bare just how hard it for these kinda-compatriots to span that ideological chasm, even with gangs of AK-47-wielding guerillas on their tails, but he really pins his ears back with a climactic car chase packed with ludicrous camera moves.