Very few films, even today, deal with the Kwangju Masacre of 1980 where the military, acting under presidential orders, opened fire on the student demonstrations who were protesting at the coup of the rightfully elected president by General Chung. Thousands were killed and hundreds were arrested (including the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, President Kim Dae-jung). This is a fictitious account of the events which serve as a sub-plot to a love story, but it was close enough so that it was not shown in most theaters until Chung's hand-picked successor was out of power in 1993.