Asian Drama

In 1991, Busan, Bae Jung Gil, who had been working as a housekeeper for Moon, the owner of a leading travel agency, suddenly disappears soon after Kim Hak Soon’s confession of her experiences as a comfort woman was revealed to the world. After following rumors here and there, Moon finally finds Bae hiding in the house of her son and discovers that she was once a comfort woman. Moon sets her business aside and strives to help the victims by running a report center. After realizing that the fundamental cure for these women is the Japanese government’s official statement of apology and compensation, Moon prepares for trial at her own expense. Finally, in 1998, after 6 long years, they face the verdict of the Shimonoseki trial.

Under the colonial rule of Japan, 400 or so Koreans who are conscripted into slave labor on 'The Battleship Island', attempt to escape for life. 1944, during the Japanese occupation of Korea, conscripted civilians head out to the Hashima island. Nicknamed 'The Battleship Island' after its resemblance to a war vessel, some are lured by false promises of high wages. LEE, a bandmaster of a jazz bigband and his only daughter, CHOI, a thug, and Mallyeon are among the workers. But upon arrival, they found that the island turns out to be an isolated hell where the workers are forced into slave labor. As the Pacific War nears its end, PARK, a Korean independence activist assigned on a mission to rescue a Korea's spiritual leader from the island. As the U.S. launches massive counterattack on Japan, the Japanese decided to blow up the island in order to bury the truth about their awful treatment of the Korean slave labors. PARK discovers the plan, and conspires with LEE and others for mass escape of all 400 Koreans.

The movie recounts the dramatic tale of the first unified Korean team that competed at the 1991 World Table Tennis Championships in China, Japan. South Korea’s table tennis star Hyun Jung Hwa and North Korea’s Li Bun Hee have each suffered humbling defeats at the hands of China’s formidable “Ping-Pong Witch” every time they reach the tournament’s final rounds. Forced by politicians to suddenly team up as the first united team Korea, Hyun and Li experience only conflict and mistrust and face the loss of their championship dreams. But game-by-game, the two begin to build teamwork and find a budding friendship. When political winds change again and just as suddenly an announcement is made to disband team Korea, the two young women must prove to their people and the world that teamwork can outshine the dark shadows of a painful history.