Once Upon a Time

Set after the unification of the Three Kingdoms the film opens with a description of some of the lawlessness due to the threat of the Tang Dynasty which was involved in the violent unification During this time a messianic prophecy arose in the countryside of an infant warrior that would be born that could overthrow the conquering Tang heralded by a flying horse Into this situation we meet a peasant A Sadal who we first discover stealing a Buddha statue from temple and stealing food from an old man dying of hunger We then meet his wife Sae Onyeo and the happily married pair soon conceive and bear a child However reports of a flying horse abound and the Tang start a campaign to find the infant warrior with potential consequences for the new parents in addition to the rest of their village