This landmark Korean film finds our hero, Mak-dong discharged from the military and returning home to find his village transformed into a city. Confused, alone and alienated he finds drifts into the shady world of organized crime which offers some stability and familiarity in its codes of honor and respect. However morality comes crashing down through the complicated love triangle which develops with his gangland boss and his boss' mistress, all the while as the criminal empire itself starts to come apart at the seams.