A Bizarre Love Triangle 2002

In the year 2030, a man arrives on the moon for a wedding, and an older guest offers to tell him the story of the groom’s father, Doo-Chan. What follows is a tapestry of past and present, where ambition, desire, and family loyalties collide across time, reshaping a life that only gradually reveals its most intimate truths.

In 2002, set in Seoul, Keum-Sook, a determined Taekwondo instructor, attends a comedy club to watch a performance by Doo-Chan. After the show, Doo-Chan argues with his wife, Eun-hee, about money, a conflict that reveals rifts in a seemingly ordinary marriage. Keum-Sook’s curiosity deepens as she learns Eun-hee is taking Taekwondo lessons, and a fateful moment occurs when Doo-Chan, peering through a window, discovers the two women sleeping together. The sight shatters him and propels him to stumble and fall three stories from the ledge where he stood, a dramatic turn that anchors the film’s shifting timelines.

The story then dives into the past, tracing Keum-Sook’s growing infatuation with Eun-hee during their high school years. Keum-Sook’s devotion is fierce: she funds dreams and even borrows money from a blind friend to help Eun-hee pursue a breast augmentation, though that money is later stolen. Their bond strengthens after high school, and Keum-Sook goes on to open a taekwondo studio, built on grit and a shared sense of belonging. On Eun-hee’s birthday, Keum-Sook gifts a ring nestled in a glass of wine, but Eun-hee hints that their closeness hasn’t yet become physical. They escape to a nearby town to celebrate, and in their hotel room, Keum-Sook cries while Eun-hee sleeps, only to be awakened when Eun-hee kisses her. One night at a bar, two men chase after the women; Eun-hee’s willingness to engage with them for money clashes with Keum-Sook’s more cautious stance, and a tense confrontation ends with Keum-Sook striking one man with a bottle. The police are called, and Keum-Sook is arrested. In a tense moment, Eun-hee tries to talk a police officer out of it, but Keum-Sook manages a dramatic escape from the squad car with a flying kick, a vivid symbol of her defiance. She spends 21 months in jail, and is eventually picked up by her blind friend, who helps her rebuild her life.

Meanwhile, Eun-hee has a child, and the quest to secure medical help becomes urgent: the baby needs a bone marrow transplant to survive. Doo-Chan is recruited to raise money on television, a move that promises public redemption and further complicates the trio’s dynamics. Keum-Sook turns to her blind friend once more for support, but the friend is not a millionaire and sets a chilling condition: money in exchange for eyes. The friend’s line is blunt and cruel, even as it’s framed as a joke, a moment that underscores the moral ambiguity at the heart of the story. Doo-Chan offers to fund the transplant on TV to bolster his public image, while Keum-Sook’s resources are drained in a bid to secure the necessary funds. In a desperate bid, she breaks into her friend’s house to steal the money, and when the police arrive, she makes a last, dramatic escape with a flying kick. She is jailed again for two years, and this time her blind friend again helps bring her back into a life she can barely recognize. After her release, her friend arranges a fresh taekwondo studio, a tangible sign of moving forward, and the two women revisit the past by returning to the comedy show that started it all, where their relationship deepens into a romantic affair.

The film then circles back to after Doo-Chan’s fall and the complicated loyalties it creates. He succeeds in getting Eun-hee to admit that she loves Keum-Sook, and he proposes a stark deal: a divorce and half his money, but only if he can sleep with Keum-Sook while Eun-hee watches so she can grasp how he feels. Eun-hee wavers, and Keum-Sook’s reaction is one of resolve mixed with pain: she punches a window and cuts her hand, but ultimately agrees, a decision that reverberates through the trio’s lives. Months pass, and Keum-Sook discovers she is pregnant, a turn that the group must reckon with without an abortion. After a heated argument, they decide to move in together and raise the child, a radical reconfiguration of family that tests every boundary they’ve built. At first, the arrangement holds, with Keum-Sook and Eun-hee sharing closeness while Doo-Chan remains part of the household in complex ways; later, Doo-Chan’s career suffers when he is blacklisted from TV due to living with a lesbian couple, and the dynamics shift again, with Eun-hee and Doo-Chan rekindling their own bond.

As the years unfold, the trio’s relationship endures in the shadow of societal judgments, personal compromises, and the stubborn endurance of love. In the end, their future unfolds on the Moon, where the wedding they once imagined becomes a gay celebration, a testament to generations of chosen family. The polycule’s baby grows up, finds a partner, and enters a life of their own, while Keum-Sook, Eun-hee, and the now-elder Doo-Chan join hands to witness their child’s marriage, a quiet, sustaining hope that holders a family together across time and space.