The Moon Is... the Sun's Dream

Mu-hoon, a Busan gangster, falls in love with Eun-ju, the mistress of his boss Mr Oh. Together they steal a large sum of Mr Oh's money and elope to a seaside village, where Mu-hoon proposes to Eun-ju. However, Mr Oh's men soon catch up with them. Mu-hoon escapes out of a window with the money, but Eun-ju is slashed across the face with a knife and sold into prostitution.

A year later, Mu-hoon visits Seoul to see his half-brother Ha-young, a successful photographer. He recognizes Eun-ju singing on stage at a nightclub in one of his brother's photos. They head to the club, but they spot Man-cheol, one of Mr Oh's Busan gangsters, watching the door. Ha-young goes inside alone to find Eun-ju, and she warns him that her life was spared only so she could act as bait to entrap Moon-hu.

Ha-young suggests that the two lovers meet in the dark of a local cinema, but Eun-ju is kept as a prisoner in her apartment by Man-cheol between shows and can't make the date. Mu-hoon breaks into the apartment and frees Eun-ju; Man-cheol wearily accepts without a fight, admitting that he also betrayed Mr Oh's trust and his punishment was being given the job of Eun-ju's warden. Mu-hoon tells Man-cheol to report to Mr Oh that he's willing return the money and make amends. However, when he meets with his old boss he's told that to save his and Eun-ju's lives he must assassinate the key witness in a police investigation into Mr Oh's meth business on Christmas Eve. Mu-hoon refuses; instead, he retrieves the money from its hiding place at his mother's house, and plans to run away again with Eun-ju.

Meanwhile, Mr Oh's men keep searching for Eun-ju, who hides out at Ha-young's apartment and studio. After stepping in for an ad campaign shoot she decides to become a professional model, and has plastic surgery to hide her facial scar. She and Ha-young bond over their mutual interests in fashion, music, and film, and she's offered a contract for a major televised runway show on Christmas Eve. Ha-young realizes he is falling in love with Eun-ju, but suppresses his feelings for the sake of his brother.

Mu-hoon, belatedly realizing that Eun-ju is about to blow their cover, visits Ha-young's boss to intimidate him into destroying her photos—but the ad campaign has already been launched. Mr Oh's men break into Ha-young's apartment and beat him up; when Mu-hoon rushes to the hospital, another gangster is waiting for him. Defeated, he calls Mr Oh and reluctantly accepts the assassination job. He is told that the target is none other than Man-cheol, who has secretly turned informer after being arrested for an unrelated crime.

On the day of the hit, Mu-hoon waits in the elevator of the court parking garage for Man-cheol and his police escort. He and Man-cheol knock out the two cops, then Mu-hoon pulls out his knife and reluctantly prepares to kill Man-cheol. However, an officer recovers and pulls out his gun; Man-cheol grabs it, but Mu-hoon is shot in the stomach. He stumbles out of the building and gets into Mr Oh's car, kills him, and is thrown out along with Mr Oh's body by the driver. He makes it to a phone booth and calls Ha-young for help, who leaves the fashion show without telling Eun-ju; however, she sees news of the failed assassination attempt on TV and runs out during her debut runway walk. Ha-young drives Mu-hoon to a nearby animal hospital, and Eun-ju arrives in time to see him die. She confesses to his body that she was the one who went to the police about Man-cheol, leading to his initial arrest; she blames herself for the entire chain of events.

A year later, Ha-young has quit photography, while Eun-ju is a major celebrity. She has attempted to maintain contact but he has refused because, unlike his brother, he "only ever needed her image." He visits an empty cinema to watch her in a movie, then approaches the screen to reach out towards the projection of her face. The film stops, the house lights turn on, and Ha-young turns to face the camera, distraught.

• Lee Seung-chul as Mu-hoon
• Na Hyun-hee as Eun-ju
• Song Seung-hwan as Ha-young
• Bang Eun-hee as Su-mi
• Lee Ki-yeol as Du-mok
• Kim Dong-soo as Man-cheol

Kim Ye-ryeong also made one of her first appearances on-screen, playing a coordinator.

The movie was a critical and commercial failure, and Park has "essentially disowned" both it and his second feature, Trio—including resisting attempts to make it available to watch on home media.[1]

In a 2006 interview, he said: "It's really fortunate that not many of you have seen this first film - for you and for me! I made it when I was in my twenties and I had this blind ambition to basically make a film, so that's how I got to make that film. And it was very low budget, and very sentimental, and it's just very... you know... awful."[2]

• The Moon Is... the Sun's Dream at IMDb
• The Moon Is... the Sun's Dream at the Korean Movie Database
• The Moon Is... the Sun's Dream at parkchanwook.org
• The Moon Is... the Sun's Dream at Naver (in Korean)
• The Moon Is... the Sun's Dream at Cine21 (in Korean)