South Korea Synopsis
공작
“In the lasting days of the Cold War.”
South Korea, 1993. An agent of the National Intelligence Service is sent to Beijing to infiltrate a group of North Korean officials with the ultimate goal of obtaining information about their nuclear program.
Titles With Overlapping Themes
Films and series that share thematic tags with The Spy Gone North. Number on each card indicates how many keywords overlap.
Other Titles From Sanai Pictures
Drama + History in South Korea
41 South Korea titles in our catalog blend the Drama and History genres. Below: the top-rated of them (excluding The Spy Gone North itself).
The 2017–2019 South Korea Window
The Spy Gone North holds position #104 of 271 South Korea films in the 2017–2019 window, below highlighted by audience rating.
#1Intention
★ 9.1 · 2018
#2Youn's Kitchen
★ 8.9 · 2017
#32018 GFRIEND FIRST CONCERT Season of GFRIEND
★ 8.9 · 2018
#4BLACKPINK: Arena Tour 2018 'Special Final in Kyocera Dome Osaka'
★ 8.7 · 2019
#5My Last Love
★ 8.6 · 2017
#6Hyori's Bed and Breakfast
★ 8.6 · 2017
#7Parasite
★ 8.5 · 2019
#8Are You Human?
★ 8.5 · 2018
The 2010s South Korea Landscape
2018 was the decade’s peak output year for South Korea — 93 titles released, including The Spy Gone North. Bars below show how the 2010s stacked up year by year (719 total).
Position in Catalog
Released alongside 92 other South Korea films in 2018.
The 972nd South Korea title from South Korea we index (earliest catalogued entry: 1955).
Our South Korea catalog contains 1,397 titles in total (931 films).
Audience Engagement
160 audience reviews — more than 89% of South Korea films in our index.
Review volume (89th percentile) outruns trending popularity (65th) — a durable title with sustained audience attention.
Thematic Fingerprint
Tags on The Spy Gone North, grouped by how common each theme is across the full Asian catalog. Rare tags are more distinctive signals.
- nuclear threat · 3
- political campaign · 2
- 1990s · 14
- beijing · 13
- national intelligence service (nis) · 12
- undercover agent · 11
- political corruption · 7
- 2000s · 7
- china · 127
- based on true story · 98
- spy · 46
- inter-korean relations · 32
Reception Benchmarks
Ranked #398 of 1,397 South Korea films indexed here (72nd percentile by TMDB audience score).
Rating is +0.5 points above the South Korea average of 6.9/10.
Among South Korea Drama productions specifically: #288 of 868 (top 33%).
Production Details
| Primary Country | South Korea |
|---|---|
| Original Language | Korean |
| Spoken Languages | Mandarin, Korean, English, Japanese |
| Production Companies | Sanai Pictures, Moonlight Film, CJ Entertainment |
| Runtime | 2h 18m |
| Release Date | August 8, 2018 |
| IMDb | tt8290698 |
| Official Site | www.cj-entertainment.com |