S1.E1 ∙ 1916: Joining Up

Within Death's lair, a young girl wanders through the darkness, chased by mysterious shadows. In this mystical journey between dreams and fatality, she will have to dance for her salvation.

A surreal tale about a woman trying to find an exit from the "underground" while working on a book. But it turns out that this book has already been written by a mythological Japanese writer.

Korean Ghost Stories was a popular TV series telling tales of the eerie and the uncanny. It took its inspiration from a legend that originated on Cheju island, whose inhabitants claim that fishermen who vanished around Socora Rock were now in Ieodo, an empire ruled by women who didn't allow any man to leave. The legend, it seems, was popular in the 1970s. Celebrated writer Yi Ch'ongchun published a novel based on it in 1974, which was adapted for cinema three years later by grandmaster Kim Kiyong. However, teleplay auteur Choi Sangsik's version of the Ieodo Island legend has nothing to do with Yi's book; his is a melancholic tale about the joys and sorrows of common people vis-a-vis a strange utopian matriarchy. We chose Korean Ghost Stories - ieodo to screen alongside Modern Korea: The Age of Beasts on the suggestion of its producer-director, Jeong Jaeeun, who quotes extensively and lovingly from it.

Two estranged sisters, Lily and River, set out to find a beach they remember from their childhood, where they can spread the ashes of their dead sister, fulfilling her final request. With the beach almost at hand, they are kidnapped by a delusional ballet teacher Elizaveta, forcing them to train in a desperate attempt to accomplish her own withered dream. As the show draws closer, the sisters are driven to their physical and mental limits. Their only hope for survival is to put their past behind them and work together.