Detective Nam-soon goes undercover with her partner Detective Ahn to investigate the counterfeit money. She discovers that one loyal henchman, Sad Eyes, a beautiful swordsman with a pale, blank face, is related to the truth. Nam-soon and Sad Eyes confront each other in a series of duels and become confused between love and obligation to duty.

A formalist director Lee’s talents and determination were in full bloom in this film. The whole film is filled with galloping energy. His aesthetics of excess ignores any story and dynamic of rhythm but soars to the emotional decibel level with no limit. A film is equal to space and time. It is an art that engraves space through time. Lee thinks upside down. He meditates time through space. Both explicitly and directly, the film claims that a film is a “moving picture.” It is a pure cinema which leaves nothing but the collision of lines and planes, and harmony. [KIM Youngjin]