Two brothers—Chul-ho, an accountant with a toothache and a pregnant wife, and Yong-ho, an unemployed ex-soldier wounded in battle—navigate life in post-war Korea.
King Sukjong exalts a greedy concubine to the status of Bin, which is next to that of the Queen. The new Bin, who is now called Jang Hui-bin, drives out the Queen through a coup and takes her place. But thanks to loyal court officials, the King finds out what has been going on. He demotes Jang to Bin again and reinstates his Queen. Jang, now vindictive, conspires with her mother to kill the queen and reclaim her place. But the conspiracy is brought to light, and Jang is executed.
During the Chinese-Japanese War (1937-1945) a nightclub dancer is given a dangerous mission by her dying brother. According to her brother's will, she goes on a journey with encoded papers of the Independence Army operations. She soon becomes a most wanted criminal by the Japanese Army and must cross the continent on her own.
Out of fourteen ministers taken away by the communist troop, only two come back alive. The mystery behind their survival is at the issue here. Told through one of the survivor's testimony, depicts images of men troubled between the war and the religion. Although laden with anti-Communist notions from the 60's military regime.
Gwang-pil (Lee Ryong), Dal-su (Choi Bong) and Sang-mun (Choi Myeong-su) are gangster boys who pick pockets. Ae-ran (Do Geum-bong), who works at a bakery, and Gwang-pil have known each other from childhood and are lovers. The three gangster boys rob a US army warehouse, but only Gwang-pil is caught and placed in a juvenile reformatory. Hearing that Ae-ran works as a barmaid, Gwang-pil escapes from the reformatory to see her. While Gwang-pil meets her, he is caught by a cop who has been chasing him.
The son of a freedom fighter, Sang-hun is a member of an anti-Japanese resistance group called "Seongjinhoe," composed of students who share a dedication to the cause of liberation. Their spiritual guide is a teacher named Song Un-in. One day, Yeong-ae, whose brother is a detective in the Japanese police force charged with monitoring independence movements, joins their group. Following a series of sporadic incidents, the students gather one night to resolve on an uprising, but are discovered by the police. Young-ae is wrongfully accused of betraying their plans, but she risks her life in order to allow the group members to escape. The morning after, the students of Gwangju rise up against the Japanese government.
