Despite their different family backgrounds, four friends grew up together in the wearisome years of the 70s. But as time goes by, each of them takes a different life path.
Acting
Yu Oh-seong's Joon-seok is devastatingly pathetic and terrifying.
Direction
Kwak's decades-spanning structure never loses intimate focus.
Writing
That ending? Still debated in Korean cinema circles.
Director
Kwak Kyung-taek
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Director Kwak Kyung-taek based this on his actual childhood friends in Busan; Joon-seok's family circumstances mirror his own father's.
This became the highest-grossing Korean film ever at release, sparking a wave of nostalgic gangster dramas and making 'Busan men' a cultural archetype.
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