When his motorboat breaks down, a poor North Korean fisherman unintentionally drifts into South Korean waters, where he is promptly arrested and interrogated as a potential enemy agent. Once he proves his identity, he is offered asylum, which he proudly refuses, recognizing that economic development is no guarantee of happiness. Upon his return home, a similarly torturous interrogation awaits him. To his deep distress, he realizes that he is mired in the ideological double bind of a country divided. “Through a fisherman who suffers going to South Korea and back to North Korea in a broken-down boat, we see how we are sacrificed by the divided Korean Peninsula. And how the division creates great sadness.” (Kim Ki-duk)