Sam-po is a gambler living without concern for how his wife will manage their houselhold without his earning money. In order to get food and provisions, his wife An-hyeob, sleeps with various merchants in the village. One of the few men she does not sleep with, a lustful servant named Sam-dol, decides to reveal her activities to her husband for revenge.
In a time of political and social unrest in 19th century Korea, uncouth, self-taught painter Jang Seung-up explores his natural talent amidst the repressive world around him.
In Japanese-occupied South Korea, a young man, newly-released from prison, is accepted into a gang for his fighting skills and quickly rises to the top. Based on the life of South Korean mobster and politician Kim Du-han.
A young woman is tricked into prostitution, thinking she is going to sell beverages at a village store. She soon learns about the dark world of Korea's red-light districts, where their pimps and society exploit her.
A courtesan's daughter's fidelity to her husband, the governor's son, is tested when he and his family leave for Seoul and the new governor attempts to possess her.
A former pansori performer travels across South Korea in search of the student he studied with.
A young boy mourns the death of his father, and begins a quest to find his mother. He encounters many people on the way who quote Buddhist precepts: an eccentric monk, a girl who grows up into a young woman, a prison inmate, a foul-mouthed doctor and the young son of a hard drinking astronomer. Each of them tell the boy to seek someone to help him find the truth and his mother.
R returns from studying in France and reunites with J, whom he used to live with in Paris.
Based on the great river story, The Taebaek Mountains chronicles the lasting generational conflict between proprietors and peasants in South Korea.
Ja-young is a flutist. When her father has a child out of wedlock, her mother regards sex as a sin out of anger towards him. Ja-young grows up under her mother's exceedingly oppressive notions.
A sprawling story of one man's tumultuous life within the context of the South Korean political situation during the second half of the 20th century.
A monk rapes a beautiful young woman who visits his monastery. He quits the monastery, marries the woman, and they have kids. But she despises him all the while and devotes herself to tormenting him.
Failing to enter the university of his choice, a young man is forced to enter a local college, but a series of disappointments causes him to give up his studies and begin a life of aimless travel.
Upon being released from prison, Kim Du-han begins rebuilding his street gang in the face of Hayashi's Yakuzas and increasing Japanese influence.
Lee Jong-se is a third-rate comedian who believes himself to be a creative genius. He desires nothing more than to be a movie director.
Er Woo Dong translates to "entertainer," a rough approximation of the duties of 14th-century Korean courtesan Er Yoon Chang. After a lifetime "in service," Er Yoon Chang retires to a faraway village. Meanwhile, her powerful father, ashamed of his daughter's lifestyle, dispatches an assassin to do her in. Er Yoon Chang is protected by her faithful deaf-mute bodyguard, but only up to a point.
While awaiting the publication of his fairytale about his dementia-stricken octogenarian mother, an acclaimed South Korean novelist receives news that she has passed away, so he leaves the city and returns to her village to take part in the funeral.
Following the final events of General's Son 2, Kim Du-han is forced to go on the lam but eventually returns to Jongro where he attempts to rebuild his gang with the brothers that are still alive and loyal and defeat Hayashi's Yakuzas once and for all.
