The citizens of Gwangju lead a relatively peaceful life, until one day the military takes over the city, accusing the residents of conspiracy and claiming that they are communist sympathisers preparing a revolution against the current government. Seeing as the soldiers beat defenceless people, mainly students, to death, the citizens are in for retaliation and form a militia.

The story takes place in occupied Korea at the start of the 20th century, where a young student in medicine discovers the murdered body of the son of a government official. Being scared of being accused, he decides to hire Hong Jin-ho (a detective) to help him find the murderer before the police accuse him of the murder.

A recording engineer falls for a radio announcer after they work together to capture sounds of the natural world.

Jong-dae and Yong-ki make a living by picking up paper and empty bottles. Both then join different gangster clan and becomes involved in a struggle of political interests over development in Gangnam, Seoul.

Based on actual events that took place at Gwangju Inhwa School for the hearing-impaired, where young deaf students were the victims of repeated sexual assaults by faculty members over a period of five years in the early 2000s.

A struggling musician takes a job teaching music to middle school children in a rural mining town.

A North Korean diplomat defects to the South during the Cold War, but the South Koreans have their suspicions as to whether he is an actual defector or a double agent.

The events that precede and follow, for each of those present in turn, when a young woman is asked for verification of her identity one time too many, in this case when presenting a check at a convenience store. Despite the repetition of the central scene the personal stories and consequences are interestingly varied and unpredictable. The problem for the central character is that her country allows her no usable identity following her change of sex. This was true for the lead actress, South Korea's most famed woman of transsexual history, Ha Ri-su, but that is about as far as the plot bears any resemblance to her actual life. Since the film was released the actress became, by a landmark court case, the first in her country to to be allowed proper recognition and papers. There are of course many other countries which still impose the same difficulties on similar young women.

Over many years of division, North and South Korea have become like a hall of mirrors where it is difficult to tell the real from the false. Inspired by real people who have traveled between North and South amid this division, this film depicts a relationship between the two that is so deeply skewed that it is impossible to tell what anyone is working to achieve.

Only one week left until South Korea will go under sovereign default. Han Shi-hyun is a leader of the monetary policy team at the Bank of Korea. and is assigned to a crisis team.