Also Directed by Kim Su-hyeong
Suh Jung-hwan is the head of marketing at a cosmetics company. A year ago, masked robbers raped his wife, Oh Hye-ryung, in front of him. Hye-ryung lives in torment from the memories. Jung-hwan tries to overcome this through his great love for his wife but they're not able to reclaim a normal sex life. Jung-hwan meets a woman named Noh Sung-ah. She is hot for him but Jung-hwan works desperately to stay true to his poor wife. Jang-suk, a young man who likes Sung-ah, decides to go after Hye-ryung after losing Sung-ah. His intentions are money. Ultimately, there is infidelity at the end of Jang-suk's knife and the adulterers fall. Jang-suk also falls to the knife that he himself holds.
Jeom-rye works as a sharecropper to make a living for her good-for-nothing husband and her son Yong. But the village men are always trying to seduce her. When she rebuffs her landlord's advances, she is wrongly accused by his wife and is forced to leave. Sam-su, the servant who is smitten with her, offers to lend her husband, Deok-hi, money for her affections. Deok-hi tries to sell her off to Sam-su but Jeom-rye gets him arrested for trafficking humans. Sam-su realizes Jeom-rye's sincerity and drops the charges and Deok-hi repents his ways only too late. He dies of an illness. When her son Yong dies from indigestion after eating rice cakes, she goes off the edge.
How big is the gap between friendship and love between women? Can one separate the moral principles of caring for another from the desire to possess that person? Can coerced heterosexuality compete with closet homosexuality? Ascetic, which has gained cult notoriety for its controversial focus on lesbian love, poses these questions and issues. Middle-aged painter, Noh Mi-eh who had endured years of sadistic cruelty from her husband, finds solace in the young fashion model, Kim Young-hee, who is burdened with her own painful past of being gang raped by three men. Mi-eh’s job offer to Young-hee to pose for her painting has the younger woman living under Mi-eh’s roof. Like a mother or even a lover, Mi-eh takes care of Young-hee, doing all she can to help her younger roommate to be freed of her past demons. But when Young-hee falls in love with a man, the two women’s relationship and fate takes a drastic turn.
Kim Ik-do and his second wife, Hye-mi, are living happily on the deer farm when a new breeder is hired. Hye-mi recognizes him as the ex-boyfriend who betrayed her five years ago. She makes a move on him but he is suffering from amnesia. Through her devoted nursing, he makes a full recovery and regains his memory. He leaves Hye-mi but then returns, demanding her love. Ik-do is furious but ultimately bows to their love. However, the man's wife and young child come looking for him. Hye-mi falls into the embrace of her forgiving husband.
Bun-nyeo, a girl in a mountain village loses her virginity to Myong-jun, the village vagabond. After both of her suitors die before they can wed Bun-nyeo, she moves to the city to work in a factory. Myong-jun persuades her to return to the village, but he is arrested for murder. As the film ends, Bun-nyeo is waiting for Myong-jun's release.
After witnessing her mother's infidelity, Su-mi's psychological scar creates abnormal sexual tendencies. When she meets the hoodlum Ma Do-yub, Su-mi transforms herself into a sexy woman but runs away from the rough Do-yub. Afterwards, Su-mi marries the potter, Se-hyung. But Su-mi is unsatisfied with Se-hyung's abstinence so she lives a double life by wandering the streets at night. Ultimately, Su-mi falls into depression and ends up in a mental institution. She confesses everything to her husband and tries to regain her happy life. At this time, Do-yub reappears and torments Su-mi. She returns to her hometown. Se-hyung protects Su-mi even when Do-yub demands to hand her over. But Se-hyung gets in a car accident and ends up in the hospital. Su-mi goes to him and asks for his forgiveness.
A farmer in a community near Jirisan falls in love with and marries an itinerant performer. She plans to betray him by robbing him and leaving with her old boyfriend, another itinerant performer, when he comes to the village. Eventually she realizes she loves the farmer and stays with him.
Oh Ka-hi is a popular madam in a nightclub in Mu-gyo-dong street. She supported her widowed mother and sister by working in a factory. Ka-hi and Tae-su, an honest boy, were in love. Then Dal-su, an animal of a man, raped her. With that, Ka-hi went from working at a bar to becoming a hostess at a cabaret. Ka-hi meets Hyun-wu and gets pregnant by him. She gives birth to Suk but learns too late that Hyun-wu is a married man. Dal-su persistently hounds her. He steals her bank account and takes the money she had earned with her tears and blood. To be worse, Suk dies from gas intoxication. Ka-hi falls into despair. Duk-sam, a driver, takes care of her. Ka-hi slowly rises from her nightmarish reality. In the end, she accepts Duk-sam's marriage proposal.
