Once Upon a Time

Yu Hyun-mok
1978-10-19

0
95 min

Set after the unification of the Three Kingdoms, the film opens with a description of some of the lawlessness due to the threat of the Tang Dynasty, which was involved in the violent unification. During this time, a messianic prophecy arose in the countryside of an infant warrior that would be born that could overthrow the conquering Tang, heralded by a flying horse. Into this situation we meet a peasant, A Sadal, who we first discover stealing a Buddha statue from temple and stealing food from an old man dying of hunger. We then meet his wife, Sae Onyeo, and the happily married pair soon conceive and bear a child. However, reports of a flying horse abound and the Tang start a campaign to find the infant warrior, with potential consequences for the new parents in addition to the rest of their village.