4 Korean Christmas Movies To Watch This Season

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If you're learning Korean and want to dive deeper into the culture (while getting into the holiday spirit), Korean Christmas movies are the perfect way to go. Not only will you pick up some useful everyday Korean slang and phrases, but you'll also get to see how this Western holiday has been beautifully adapted into Korean culture.

In this post, we've handpicked 4 must-watch Korean Christmas films that'll have you reaching for your hot chocolate and tissue box โ€“ because let's face it, Korean dramas know how to tug at our heartstrings!

Korean Christmas Words And Expressions

Before diving into our movie picks, let's get familiar with some common Korean Christmas expressions you'll likely hear in these films. During the holiday season, Koreans often use specific phrases to spread Christmas cheer, and spotting these in the movies will definitely make your viewing experience more rewarding!

Korean Script Romanization English Meaning
๋ฉ”๋ฆฌ ํฌ๋ฆฌ์Šค๋งˆ์Šค Meri Keuriseumaseu Merry Christmas
ํ–‰๋ณตํ•œ ์„ฑํƒ„์ ˆ ๋˜์„ธ์š” Haengbokhan Seongtanjeol Doeseyo Have a Happy Christmas
์„ ๋ฌผ Seonmul Gift/Present
์‚ฐํƒ€ ํ• ์•„๋ฒ„์ง€ Santa Hal-abeoji Santa Claus (lit. "Santa Grandfather")
ํฌ๋ฆฌ์Šค๋งˆ์Šค ํŠธ๋ฆฌ Keuriseumaseu Teuree Christmas Tree
์บ๋กค Kaerol Christmas Carol
์„ฑํƒ„์ ˆ Seongtanjeol Christmas (more formal)
์ฆ๊ฑฐ์šด ์—ฐ๋ง ๋ณด๋‚ด์„ธ์š” Jeulgeoun Yeonmal Bonaeseyo Have a happy end of the year
๋ˆˆ์ด ์™€์š” Nuni Wayo It's snowing
ํฌ๋ฆฌ์Šค๋งˆ์Šค ์ด๋ธŒ Keuriseumaseu Ibeu Christmas Eve

You'll notice that while some expressions are direct translations from English (like ๋ฉ”๋ฆฌ ํฌ๋ฆฌ์Šค๋งˆ์Šค), others have a uniquely Korean twist. For instance, Santa Claus becomes "Santa Grandfather" (์‚ฐํƒ€ ํ• ์•„๋ฒ„์ง€), showing how Korean culture naturally incorporates respect for elders even in Western holiday traditions.
If you want to learn it more in detail check this article:

Christmas In Korea: How To Say Merry Christmas In Korean?
In this article, youโ€™ll learn how to say Merry Christmas in Korean, Korean Christmas vocabulary, and how Koreans celebrate Christmas differently!

Korean Christmas Movies

Christmas in August

This touching Korean classic (ํŒ”์›”์˜ ํฌ๋ฆฌ์Šค๋งˆ์Šค) isn't your typical holiday romance โ€“ it's a gentle story that captures what makes Christmas truly special: cherishing moments with loved ones. The Korean film follows Jung-won, a kind-hearted photo studio owner who finds himself in an unexpected situation: he's falling in love while keeping the secret that he only has months to live.

When a bright, friendly parking officer starts visiting his shop regularly to develop photos, their simple everyday chats turn into something beautiful, making each moment feel as special as Christmas morning. It's a heartwarming reminder that sometimes life's most precious gifts don't come wrapped in shiny paper, but in the simple moments we share with someone special.

Keep an ear out for these tender expressions in this heartwarming film:

Korean ScriptRomanizationEnglish Meaning
์‚ฌ์ง„ ์ฐ์–ด๋“œ๋ฆด๊นŒ์š”?Sajin jjigeodeurilkkayo?Shall I take your photo?
๋งˆ์Œ์— ๋“ค์–ด์š”Maeume deureoyoI like it (lit: It enters my heart)
์˜ค๋ž˜ ๊ธฐ๋‹ค๋ ธ์–ด์š”Orae gidaryeosseoyoI've waited a long time
๊ฑด๊ฐ•ํ•˜์„ธ์š”GeonganghaseyoStay healthy
๋‹ค์‹œ ๋งŒ๋‚˜์š”Dasi mannayoLet's meet again

Haepi ero Keurisemaseu

Happy Ero Christmas (ํ•ดํ”ผ ์—๋กœ ํฌ๋ฆฌ์Šค๋งˆ์Šค) serves up holiday chaos with a side of quirky romance! This playful comedy follows a lovesick police officer who's struck by cupid's arrow when he spots a charming bowling alley worker. But winning her heart isn't going to be as easy as writing a ticket โ€“ he's got some serious competition from the neighborhood's smooth-talking gang boss, who's made it his Christmas mission to sweep the same girl off her feet!

What follows is a hilarious holiday showdown complete with wacky schemes, awkward flirting attempts, and plenty of laugh-out-loud moments as our determined cop races against the Christmas clock to win true love.

These fun expressions pop up throughout this romantic comedy:

Korean ScriptRomanizationEnglish Meaning
๋ฐ์ดํŠธ ํ• ๋ž˜์š”?Deiteu hallaeyo?Want to go on a date?
๊ท€์—ฝ๋‹คGwiyeopdaCute!
๋‚˜๋ž‘ ๋ณผ๋ง ์น ๋ž˜?Narang bolling chillae?Want to bowl with me?
๊ฒฝ์ฐฐ์ด์—์š”GyeongchalieyoI'm a police officer
์‹ธ์›€ ์ข€ ๊ทธ๋งŒํ•ด์š”Ssaum jom geumanhaeyoPlease stop fighting

The Tower

The Tower (ํƒ€์›Œ) turns Christmas Eve into a night of survival when a luxurious high-rise celebration goes horribly wrong. What starts as a glittering holiday party at the prestigious Tower Sky complex quickly transforms into a nightmare when flames engulf the building, trapping partygoers and employees inside.

Based on real-life disasters and brought to heart-pounding life by director Kim Joo Hoon, this isn't your typical cozy Christmas movie โ€“ it's an edge-of-your-seat thriller that shows how ordinary people become heroes when disaster strikes during the most wonderful time of the year.

These urgent expressions are commonly heard throughout this thriller:

Korean ScriptRomanizationEnglish Meaning
๋ถˆ์ด์•ผ!Buriya!Fire!
๋„์™€์ฃผ์„ธ์š”!Dowajuseyo!Help!
์—ฌ๊ธฐ์„œ ๋‚˜๊ฐ€์•ผ ํ•ด์š”Yeogiseo nagaya haeyoWe need to get out of here
์‚ด๋ ค์ฃผ์„ธ์š”SallyeojuseyoSave me!
๋ชจ๋‘ ๋Œ€ํ”ผํ•˜์„ธ์š”Modu daepihaseyoEveryone evacuate!

Woojooโ€™s Christmas

Woojoo's Christmas brings this magical "what if" to life in the most charming way possible. After losing her mother, 38-year-old Woojoo starts fresh by turning an old antique shop into a cozy cafe - but this isn't just any ordinary business venture. In a Christmas miracle that could only happen in Korean shows, she suddenly finds herself sharing coffee and conversations with her 19 and 26-year-old selves!

This crazy good story blends the magic of the holiday season with a touching journey of self-discovery, showing us that sometimes the best Christmas gift is getting a chance to understand yourself better - at every age and stage of life.

Listen for these reflective phrases as the three Woojoos interact:

Korean ScriptRomanizationEnglish Meaning
๋ฏฟ์„ ์ˆ˜ ์—†์–ดMideul su eopseoI can't believe it
๊ทธ๋•Œ๋กœ ๋Œ์•„๊ฐ€๊ณ  ์‹ถ์–ดGeuttaero doragago sipeoI want to go back to that time
ํ›„ํšŒํ•˜์ง€ ๋งˆHuhoehaji maDon't have regrets
์—„๋งˆ๊ฐ€ ๋ณด๊ณ  ์‹ถ์–ดEommaga bogo sipeoI miss mom
์ปคํ”ผ ํ•œ์ž” ํ• ๋ž˜์š”?Keopi hanjan hallaeyo?Would you like a cup of coffee?

Learning Korean Through These Christmas Movies

Want to make the most of your movie-watching experience while learning Korean? These films offer more than just entertainment โ€“ they're educational for language learners! Christmas movies are especially great for picking up everyday Korean because they often feature both casual conversations and emotional moments, giving you exposure to various speaking styles and expressions.

Here's where Lingopie comes in handy โ€“ instead of struggling with regular subtitles, you can watch these movies with interactive language learning features that make understanding so much easier.

Simply click on any word you don't know to see its meaning and save useful phrases to review later. Plus, the dual subtitles feature lets you see both Korean and English text, helping you connect the dots between what you hear and what it means.

Some pro tips for maximizing your learning:

  • Pay attention to how characters change their speaking style based on age and social status (especially in "Woojoo's Christmas")
  • Listen for seasonal expressions and everyday phrases that come up repeatedly
  • Practice mimicking the characters' intonation during emotional scenes
  • Use the pause and replay features on Lingopie to break down complex sentences
  • Try predicting what characters will say next based on the context

Remember, the best way to learn a language is when you're enjoying yourself โ€“ and what better way than curling up with some heartwarming (or heart-pounding!) Korean Christmas films? Start your Korean learning journey today with Lingopie and turn your movie-watching time into an effective language-learning session!

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