The Man with Three Coffins

A strange man appears in Pagoda Park. His name is Young-sung. Another man stands in a corner, carefully takes in his every move and tapes him with a camcorder. His name is Ahn Sang-gi, a self-proclaimed film director. Young-sung spots a high school girl and begins to follow her. Her name is Jin-kyung. The three meet in a cafe and become inseparable in a matter of hours. Madame Sul-hee, owner of an exclusive club, introduces them to many high level officials. Young-sung begins to tell fortunes for the many individuals they meet including a powerful politician to a corrupt national hero and Sang-gi collects fees. In the midst of all this, Jin-kyung schemes to get pregnant with Young-sung's child, and Sang-gi is convinced that he is close to realizing his dream of becoming a film director. Little do they know that Young-sung's clairvoyance is not permanent.

X's unconditional love for fascinating writer Y starts during her high school days. X, who left her hometown after her mother's remarriage begins to work in a dress shop. Her affections for Y lead her to give herself to him. On the year baby Y' turns 5, she reunites with Y on his birthday but he does not remember her. When baby Y' dies from illness, X sends Y an account of her 12 year love and ends her life.

Hye-sung grew up poor but he has a gifted talent for baseball. Eom-ji has watched over him since they were young. Hye-sung falls in love with Eom-ji but when she transfers to another school, they don't see each other for years. Hye-sung and Eom-ji meet again at a baseball field but Um-ji is now the girlfriend of the exceptional hitter of high school, Ma Dong-tak. Hye-sung competes endlessly with Dong-tak over Eom-ji. But he ends up with a serious shoulder injury and gives up baseball. Then Manager Sohn Byung-ho gathers up dismissed baseball players and forms a team. Manager Sohn puts his team through extreme training and Hye-sung returns to the baseball world. He competes once more with Dong-tak, who is by Eom-ji's side.

A butterfly flies from the mountain to the city. Sang-Kyu, who works in a company, buys a house in the suburbs and lives with his wife and daughter, Yun-Jeong. But Yun-Jeong becomes a somnambulist because of the illusion of a butterfly flying to the house. Sang-Kyu happens to know Mi-Wu, a singer, who loves Song Cheol-Ho but wanders in her life after his death. On the other hand, Yun-Jeong regains her consciousness with the help of an English psychicist and a nun. After Sang-Kyu has a sex with Mi-Wu, he falls out of the window and loses his consciousness. As she feels affection for Sang-Kyu, Mi-Wu becomes a butterfly in the soul world and leaves him.

In 1910, Korea suffers the humiliation of being annexed by Japan. Young patriots form an independence group called Bukrogun Jeongseo. General Kim Jwa-jin as well as freedom fighters such as Lee Bum-suk, Na Jung-jo are burning with nationalistic spirit. Japan takes over Manchuria. In order to destroy the freedom fighters, Japan employs the Manchurian bandit, Jang Jak-rim, and starts plotting their destruction. Risking their lives, the freedom fighters engage in a bloody battle at Chungsan-ri under the extraordinary leadership and burning patriotism of General Kim Jwa-jin. Despite being greatly outnumbered, the freedom fighters are triumphant.

Young-Hu and Young-Wuk are half brothers and felt uncertain intimacy even though their personalities are totally different. At the first moment he saw Min-Jeong, Young-Wuk's girl friend, Young-Hu fell in love. He avoided her intentionally but the day his biological mother remarried, he happened to spend a night with her in a complicated feeling. After that Young-Hu got the blues due to sense of guilty and Young-Wuk was despair as Min-Jeong confessed him she loves Young-Hu. As he found Min-Jeong's pregnancy, Young-Hu hated shady new life and made fun of Min-Jeong and himself. Thus enraged Young-Wuk madly drove his car to the running train with Min-Jeong.

The life of a woman through the tumultuous years of Korea's modern history.

Young-ae is a prostitute who obsesses over money after losing her daughter to illness. Her co-workers are jealous of her. When a prostitute named Mrs. Kangwon dies after giving a birth, Young-ae takes the baby under her care and leaves the brothel district. Although she struggles to make ends meet and provide a home for the child, the child is taken away by the authorities because she is single. She decides that her old life is the only ground for living she has and returns to it.

A group of widows come with several frauds and scams in an effort to cheat the system which marginalizes them and to make a better life for themselves and their children.

Ja-young is experiencing difficulties navigating the two worlds of her traditional Korean customs and those of the West. Having been scarred by inappropriate contact by an adult as a young girl; she has a hard time distinguishing between right and wrong behavior with young men. Her overbearing mother has driven Ja-young to the point where she can no longer act on her own will and this leads to trouble for her. There is a theme of men fondling and caressing women's knees in the film which is the focal point of all male sexual advances towards Ja-Young. Things spiral out of control for not only Ja-Young but her family who has their fair share of issues and skeletens in the closet. We tend to see this film as addressing some of the modern issues that affect the lives of young Koreans in the 1980's.