Lena, aged twenty, wants to know all she can about life and reality. She collects information on everyone and everything, storing her findings in an enormous archive. She experiments with relationships, political activism, and meditation. Meanwhile, the actors, director and crew are shown in a humorous parallel plot about the making of the film and their reactions to the story and each other. Nudity, explicit sex, and controversial politics kept this film from being shown in the US while its seizure by Customs was appealed.

Director Na Hong-jin (The Chaser) teams up again with award-winning actors Kim Yun-seok and Ha Jung-woo for his ambitious sophomore feature, which brings the grim action all the way from Yanbian, the Korean-populated region in Northeast China bordering North Korea, to Seoul and Busan. The Yellow Sea packs a hard punch with its thrilling car chases and gritty violence, but it s above all the powerful performances of the two leading actors that make the film a compelling and exhilarating watch. Ha won Best Actor at the 5th Asian Film Awards for his turn as a desperate man on the run in a foreign land.

On the Chinese side of the China-Russia-North Korea border, in the Yanbian, Korean Autonomous Prefecture, Ku-Nam (Ha Jung-woo) toils his days away as a taxi driver. When he’s not working he’s often found in the gambling halls. Ku-Nam is now in serious debt. His wife left to work in South Korea and promised to send money back. He has yet to hear from her and he is tormented by nightmares of her having an extra-marital affair. Making matters worse, Ku-Nam is fired from his job and debt-collectors take most of his severance pay. Dog seller and underworld crime boss Myung-Ga (Kim Yun-Seok) offers him a deal. If Ku-Nam goes to South Korea and successfully carries out a hit he will get paid 57,000 ($10,000 USD). Ku-Nam accepts the deal and leaves for Korea on a rickety fishing boat with $500 dollars for his expenses.

The story of a cab driver in Yanji City, a region between North Korea, China and Russia. His wife goes to Korea to earn money, but he doesn t hear from her since in 6 months. He plays mah-jong to make some extra cash, but this only makes hif life worse; but then he meets a hitman who proposes to turn his life around by repaying his debt and reuniting with his wife, just for one hit.