Hwacheon Trading

A story that follows the lives and interactions of two Buddhist monks living in South Korea.

The story is set in the 1970s during the period of military dictatorship. Schools were frequently closed and society seemed to face bleak prospects on all fronts. Nonetheless, Byung-tae, a college student, enjoys pursuing romance in blind group dates. It's during one of these ventures that he meets Young-ja, a French literature student.

During the Japanese occupation of South Korea, a Japanese bureaucrat is ordered to persuade an influential Korean patriarch into obeying the law of changing his Korean surname to a Japanese one.

Seok-ho is unable to overcome his fear that he will not graduate from college for only a limited number of the class will get their diplomas. Seok-ho tries to kill himself and ends up in a mental institution. Then he persuades his fellow patient, Hong-ik, to escape with him. After dealing with several incidents, they become miners. They meet a simple young woman. In order to construct an ideal land, they head for a deserted island in the South Sea. However, just before they're about to leave for the island, Seok-ho realizes that the island is a fantasy of an insane man so he runs off with the woman. Left behind, Hong-ik is disheartened but he gets together with the elderly innkeeper couple whose own son died of a mental illness. They head for the deserted island on a boat.

A young South Korean woman moves to an isolated mountain village, where all of the villagers are related except for a mysterious vagabond, to take up her first teaching post.

Chun-ho and his wife Sun-hie wander Korea in search of a way to make a living under Japanese colonial occupation. They settle in a mining village where Sun-hie is forced to put up with her husband's gambling and beatings. Eventually he forces her to go to a loanshark so he can get enough money to run away with a prostitute.

A middle-aged woman in Busan searches for the son she lost in Gilsodom during the Korean War.

Byung-tae joins the army after being dumped by Young-ja. With two months until discharge, Young-ja comes to visit him. She sends him a letter saying she'll never forget him and that she was marrying Ju-hyuk, a doctor.

Li-hwa graduates college and becomes a reporter. On a rainy day, she remembers an old boyfriend, Suk-gi. She goes to Eroika to look for him. Instead, Li-hwa meets Suk-gi's friend, Su-hwan, and she falls in love with him. On the other hand, while on a story, Li-hwa meets Kwang-jun who is a night teacher. She is drawn to his sincere humanity. As time passes, Kwang-jun comes to know Li-hwa's feelings. Together, they help children and offer guidance to prostitutes. Kwang-jun and Li-hwa have true love for each other but they part when Kwang-jun's non-permitted building is demolished. Hyun-wu ended up as a mental patient from the shock he received from his mother's scandalous behavior. He meets Li-hwa and receives her devoted care. Finally, Hyun-wu recovers completely and the two confirm their love. And the next day, Hyun-wu returns to society as a healthy man.

A ruthless Warlord from Manchuria builds a martial arts labyrinth that contains 18 martial art amazons, many try to enter but none leave, until Dragon Lee, seeking to avenge his father.

A doctor and his son both fall in love with a blind, deaf mute who is one of the father's patients.

A man and a woman fall for one another, but she is haunted by her troubled history with men.

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.

Beginning with the suicide of a film director, this work represents the Korean New Wave Cinema movement that focused on criticizing the Korean society in the 1980s through satire and humor. The journey taken by the characters, who lead low lives at the margins of the society, award them with a sense of liberation, however brief.

Yo-han is the son of a Christian minister. Following his father's career, he joins the seminary without much enthusiasm, then drops out. After doing his military service as a KATUSA, he teaches at the U.S. educational center. When he is given a job teaching in America, he hastily marries in preparation for the move. He is suddenly struck blind, then begins contemplating suicide. Instead he has a religious vision and dedicates himself to the ministry, and opens a church for the blind.

Based on a serial novel by Cho Hae-il, "Winter Woman" deals with the sexual awakening of Yi-hwa, the daughter of a prosperous Christian preacher who has been raised to be morally and sexually conservative. The book and film earned the condemnation of conservative critics, however the author's leftist subtext went unchallenged overshadowed by the sexual themes. The film was the best selling Korean film of the 1970s and made a star of its female lead, Chang Mi-hee.

A gang leader targets the daughter of an enemy who's been promised to a local fighter. After losing his leg to a poison arrow, the fighter learns to fight again using a metal leg.

Byung-tae and Young-ja are married. His mother wants them to move out and they are faced with the harsh realities of making a living. Byung-tae perseveres and finally gets a job at a conglomerate. But Young-ja, ashamed of her husband's position, lies at her school reunion that Byung-tae has just been promoted to an executive director. On her birthday, he returns home late and they fight. Later, she finds out that he must entertain clients by drinking endlessly and she feels sorry for him. Byung-tae despairs of his life of drinking late hours almost every night. But seeing people jogging in the early morning hours inspires him to push on.