One day in December, a man takes out from the closet, the remains of his wife who died three years ago. He goes on a trip to spread the remains and reaches a town called Mulchi on the east coast. Because he cannot go to his wife’s hometown in North Korea, he tries to spread the remains on the seashore but a security guard drives him out. The man meets a sick old man from North Korea and a nurse at an inn. The nurse says that a fortuneteller told her that she would marry a man with three coffins and the man thinks it might be him. This film is based on the story of the same title by Lee Je-ha and was the recipient of the Caligari Award for Innovative Filmmaking at the Berlin International Film Festival. This film reminds the audience of the history in individual lives through poetic metaphor and has been remembered for its view of history, which was taboo in 1980s’ Korea.
 
Born in 1945, Lee Jang-ho started working at Shin Film before he made his debut as a film director with Heavenly Homecoming to Stars in 1974. His best known films include Good Windy Day (1980), Declaration of Idiot (1983), The Man with Three Coffins (1987), Between the Knees (1984) and Eoh Wu-dong (1985). Lee is considered to be a film director who played a significant role in narrowing the gap between reality and Korean film in the 1980s.