A kid waiting for his father opens what he thinks is a birthday present. It isn't. The film takes that single moment and doesn't look away from what it costs, what it destroys, how a child's innocence doesn't survive contact with war no matter how far away the fighting is. This is a short film that understands the real shrapnel, the one that lands in a village far from any front line. It moves because it refuses to soften the blow or pretend there's redemption waiting at the end. Korean cinema at its most brutal and necessary.

In 1951, with the Korean War underway, a little boy named Manuk spends his days playing in the streets of his village and daydreaming about the front, where his father serves as a soldier. One day he comes home and finds a parcel waiting on the doorstep. Assuming it must be a birthday present, he opens it, and what he finds inside will alter the course of his life. The film is a wartime drama with elements of action.